Admittedly, the idea of a reggae version of Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon sounds like it has its origins in some hazy, black-lit dorm room or frat house similar to the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of stoner multimedia: starting the album at the third roar of the MGM lion on The Wizard of Oz. However, rather than being a comedic novelty act like Dread Zeppelin, Dub Side of the Moon is a serious artistic endeavor by earnest, talented musicians that works surprisingly well, even garnering praise from David Gilmour. That’s not to say the band doesn’t have a playful sense of humor. The cash register montage from “Money” has been switched for a montage of a lighter being lit, someone inhaling and then coughing, and the lyric “The lunatic is on the grass” from “Brain Damage”, which obviously has a different connotation.
Easy Star All-Stars released the Dub Side of the Moon album in 2003 and it still remains on the Billboard Reggae Catalog Chart. This concert was recorded September 2005 at the State Theater in Falls Church, VA. The DVD opens with animation as a Rasta-naut awakes from hibernation and receives a transmission of the concert.
The concert opens with a slow, rumbling progression of music. Then the familiar strains of “Breathe” begin on guitar and horns as the rhythm section of drums, bass, and keyboards shuffles along with a relaxing reggae beat, which the congas and singers’ accents accentuate.
One of the signature elements of Dark Side is the engineering and its use of sound effects and audio clips. In a wise choice, Easy Star All-Stars skipped most of that as illustrated on “On The Run”. They create the chaos and madness through music and bypass the screams and plane crash. “Eclipse” closes out with a drum solo instead of a beating heart. All the bits of talking are absent.
A number of times the artistic decisions and performances really excel. Jenny Hill’s flute wonderfully recreates Gilmour’s lead into “Time”. “Any Colour You Like” has a great trombone solo by Buford O’Sullivan. Tamar-Kali’s wailing vocals on “Great Gig in the Sky” are masterful. She evokes such power and emotion using Clare Torry’s performance as a template to soar to her own heights. It is the concert’s greatest single performance.
On “Money”, the band really hits their stride. Hill does a very good job on the sax solo. The song comes to a raucous conclusion as Junior Jazz tears it up on guitar while the band jams under him. They smoothly segue into the slow, contemplative “Us & Them”, which along with the following instrumental of “Any Colour You Like” showcases the talented Jeremy Mage on keyboards.
What doesn’t work is DJ Menny More’s rapping during “Time” and “Money”. His thick Caribbean accent and the poor audio mix that finds him blended in with the instruments make him incomprehensible for the most part.
The video is presented in 16:9 Widescreen or 4:3 Letterbox and the audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital, 5.1 DTS and 2.0 Stereo. There’s not much in the way of bonus features—some fans before the show chatting and getting ready, three minutes of samples from the album, and interviews with the artists and producers.
Next up for the Easy Star All-Stars is Radiohead’s OK Computer.
Article comments
1 - HW Saxton
EB, Nice to see this CD reviewed as it is a great
and unfortunately a very overlooked piece of work.
I spoke of this disc here at BC some time back
(coupla years ago,give or take)trying to spread
the word on it and I was greeted with an equally
enthusiastic response. Oh well..................
Many reggae fans could care less about Pink Floyd
and vice/versa of course,but this disc sure works
well.Reggae riddims,Ragga and a touch of Dub plus
Brit Psych-Pop,wow! Strange bedfellows for sure.
My hope is that eventually they will do an entire
follow up to this. A "Dub Side Of The Moon" if you
will. With different DJ's and producers,the likes
of Scientist,U-Roy,Mad Professor,Mutabaruka etc &
so forth doing the entire LP in the same order but
strictly in Rub-A-Dub stylee.They touched upon the
idea in the bonus cuts on the disc and I'd like to
see them expand on the idea at length.
2 - Ray Ellis
We're sympatico on this, El and HW. I would disagree with you on one point,El-- DJ Menny More's toasting (not rapping) is what ties the entire endeavor into an international flavor, and thereby universalizes the entire work.