RELIX
March/April 2003

by John Adamian

The subset of music fans who are both fanatics about Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and devotees of dub music is a limited group. But if at first the classic 1973 album and the spacious and spacey sub-genre of reggae seem at odds--the one somewhat grandiose and depressing, the other fun-loving and light--upon closer listening Dark Side of the Moon proves to share much with dub. Both are thick with sound effects and reverberating echoes. And that common aesthetic is what the Easy Star All-Stars' new tribute album, Dub Side of the Moon, sets out to explore. The dub tribute takes the task seriously, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the release of the original and working to recreate what they call "The Wizard of Oz synchronicity" that has kept many Floyd fans up late at night with the DVD player and stereo.

This may be sacrilege to some, but by transforming Dark Side of the Moon into a dub album, the All-Stars inject a little playfulness into the bombast of the original. The rendition of "Time," with Ranking Joe putting in his best U Roy style yips and yowls, as a laid-back resignation to temporal power. The All-Stars make dub-style alterations to the original, adding in bubbling bong sounds and a "Sweet Leaf"-esque coughing in place of the "kaching" of cash registers a the beginning of "Money." And in this context, the lyrics from "Eclipse" ("the lunatic is on the grass") take on a new level of ganja-connotation. Despite the laughs, this disk is likely to please serious fans of both dub and Pink Floyd, a circumscribed but sizeable pool.
RELIX