Artist: David Harrow
Title:
Dub Journeys Vol 1
OICHO
OICHO
Label:
Dubmission Records
Released:
5th April
Back in the 80’s
keyboardist David Harrow performed alongside Psychic TV and went on
to pen Anne Clarke’s hit’s ‘Sleeper in Metropolis’ and ‘Our
Darkness’, this led to working and co-producing with Jah Wobble,
The Barmy Army, African Headcharge, Dub Syndicate, Gary Clail, Lee
‘Scratch’ Perry, Bim Sherman and Salmonella Dub. Being part of
Pulse 8 who released the Nation Records classic ‘Radio Morocco’
as well working with Andy Weatherall as Blood Sugar and under the
aliases James Hardway, Magnetic and Technova.
This album digs deep
into the archives of productions released under his OICHO monikor
over the past ten years. Some tracks have been completely
re-recorded, others slightly re-worked but all re-mastered to
showcase the ten tracks selected.
The album commences
with ‘Stepping On’ where the horn section takes centre stage over
the percussion and dubbed out electronic fx, building pace and
dropping down again. It’s got everything you’d want out of a dub
reggae piece and is a nice introduction to the album. Which as a
whole is a good collection of well produced instrumental dub reggae,
where you can appreciate the pedigree of his previous work colleagues
that shines through. For example fans of African Headcharge will
appreciate the obvious percussive elements employed within ‘Battle
System’ and ‘Arrow Rooted’.
To summarise this
album is placing the spotlight on a producer whose been in the
shadows on a fair amount of my music collection. There’s a bit of
an old skool vibe to this collection of stereo-typical dub reggae and
if that appeals to you musically it’s definitely worth a listen.
Reviewed by Woodzee
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