Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Jah Wobble: London
Jah Wobble has been one of the most
interesting and innovative musical explorers of the past few decades
but, as I discovered in '96 at the time of this interview – he does
it mostly without leaving home.
Travel is for the middle-classes he
said and a working-class geezer like himself, well . . .
Anyway he'd done the touring thing, so
. . .
Fascinating man whose music often has
some spiritual component alongside the travelogue aspect.
So given all that it is amusing to find
this album and its global-outlook of a title – and yet in the liner
notes he says most of these pieces came about through dreams of
distant places he had never visited.
That said, he manages to effectively
evoke the exoticism of this world and only the apocalyptic tone of
Last Days (in which he speaks of impending doom) seems out of place
on this mostly instrumental album.
The place-titles of some of the 21
tracks seem nominal (Granada is more of squirreling post-Ornette
trumpet piece) but certainly China (with traditional instruments) is
highly location-specific.
Behind it all lurks the presence of dub
and that is a fine, unifying thread.
This isn't always engaging and it does
feel over-generous at 70 minutes – but whether it be Putney, the
M60, the Outback (nope, never been there either) or Cadiz, Jah Wobble
manages to clock up the frequent flier miles for you with anyone
having to leave home.
Interesting – if not essential – as
always.
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