LA WEEKLY
August 10-26, 2004
by Tom Cheyney

EASY STAR ALL-STARS’ DUB SIDE OF THE MOON
at the Knitting Factory, August 14

Translations and reinterpretations of the classics are inherently risky, whether it’s Beowulf or the Beatles. Stick too close to the original, and the venture veers toward pointlessness. Stray too far from the source, and the traditionalists will wallow in smug outrage. Popular music’s retellings are usually confined to cover songs and tributes, but complete albums are rarely recast. When the Easy Star All-Stars released Dub Side of the Moon last year, the potential for squabbling seemed ripe — until you pressed the “play” button. The disc revealed heretofore hidden links between Pink Floyd’s psychedelic masterwork and dub reggae’s spacious boombasticity.

The Easy Stars don’t just perform their chronic-iconic suite, they also connect it with some bong-bubbling (sub)urban folklore — the mysterious synchronicities between Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz . The multiple aesthetic streams continually shift one’s focus in brain-tickling and body-rocking ways — the live grooves rewinding and fast-forwarding with the mnemonic original sounds, the alternative soundtrack connecting to the familiar onscreen imagery being projected.

As the MGM lion mouthed its third roar, the octet launched into Nyahbinghi-style space travel on “Speak to Me” and “Breathe (In the Air).” Reverb and delay permeated Dorothy’s pores, while Ras I-Ray’s phat bass fluffed Toto’s fur. Tamar-Kali’s pure soprano wail floated through “The Great Gig in the Sky” as the storm worsened, and Dollarman’s chat over “Money” provided patois subtext to Munchkinland. After the main event rumbled to a close with a duppy-conquering “Brain Damage” and a panoramic “Eclipse,” the Easy Star crew encored with a miniset of conscious roots and dancehall as Oz still rolled. While the Cowardly Lion got primped, the sound-and-vision linkages randomized, the connections apparent only to those in deep sinsemilla therapy.
—Tom Cheyney, LA Weekly