Modern Wild Dub

Notes

Includes liner notes by Mark Stewart. Subtitled Dread Meets Disco Punk Rocker Downtown, Modern Wild Dub is a follow-up to 2003's similarly configured Wild Dub: Dread Meets Punk Rocker Downtown, which featured dub versions of punk rock classics from the 1970s and 1980s, some of them originally recorded in a reggae style and others not. This one, as you might expect, draws on original material with more of a disco flavor, though to call much of it "disco" would be something of a stretch. Neither Mark Stewart nor James Chance, for example, was basking much in the reflection of the glitter ball during the disco era, but both are represented here with fine avant-dance deconstructions courtesy of Radio 4 and Twitch, respectively. Washington, DC's legendary Ruts are here in an extended dub mix by Kid Loco, and there's a fun version of Tom Tom Club's "Wordy Rappinghood" by the Slits-like Chicks on Speed. On the downside, Big Two Hundred's "UK Decay" is a tedious exposition of a single chord and a single repeated bass lick, and !!! wastes over nine minutes on the disposable "Me & Giuliani Down by the School Yard." Overall, this is worth a listen, but not really up to the standard of the first Wild Dub collection. ~ Rick Anderson