Sunday, 24 March 2019

David Harrow 'Dub Journeys Vol 1: Oicho' Review





Artist: David Harrow



Title: Dub Journeys Vol 1 

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


Links:








1 comment:

Unknown said...


Can I buy this on CD?