Those who know their spaghetti westerns and love a bit of dubbery will welcome this new installment from the Swiss band Spencer/Hill (aka bassist Marcel Stalder, guitarist Markus Meier, keyboard player Philipp Greter and drummer Julian Dillier).
Opening with Ennio Morricone's harmonica theme (from For a Few Dollars More, I think?) and then a deep dub version of the Clash's London Calling, this outing reconfigures Martha and The Muffin's Echo Beach (with Martha present), Falco's Jeanny, Smoke on the Water (with local singer William White), Metallica's Enter Sandman and other formerly familar songs, then adds tastes of reggae singer Ken Boothe (on When I Fall in Love) and their neighbour in Zurich Lee Scratch Perry (Blackboard Jungle) for added disconcerting effect.
Towards the end William Burroughs appears on his own The Saints Go Marching Through All The Popular Tunes.
This is amusing but hardly life-changing dub, but some of it, like their reconstruction of Deep Purple and Metallica, are kinda cool in that "smoke 'em if you got 'em" way. And of of course Perry and Bill Burroughs are always worth hearing, mad though they are, even if Perry sounds underutilised and Bill's story is lost somewhere in the sonic circus.
So, aside from the fun to be had hearing classics re-constructed, the best here is the deep dub or when Boothe turns up.
Added: 27 Jun 10
Video
Post a commentShare this article
Use ShareThis to post this article on Facebook, Digg, Twitter and more or send it to a friend by email
Buy it
> Riding Strange Horses
(roll over button for pricing/availability)
Related pages
This page has been tagged for these topics, click a topic to see other pages tagged for it:
bob marley |
burning spear |
dub asylum |
ennio morricone |
international observer |
lee scratch perry |
the congos |
<< Reggae index < JUDY MOWATT INTERVIEWED (1990): The black queen arises | BOB MARLEY; RASTAMAN VIBRATION RECONSIDERED (2003): The legacy is music and the message >
Post Comment
We welcome comments on this article, provided they have something to contribute. Please note that all links will be created using the nofollow attribute. This is a spam free zone. HTML is stripped from comments, but BBCode is allowed.