dub
Charlie Bertsch / 19 Apr 2023
Defying Stereotypes
Paul St. Hilaire’s Tikiman Vol. 1
Tikiman Vol.1 is a remarkable achievement. It demands to be played over and over and sounds better each time.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 25 Jan 2023
The Dub Perspective
Rob Smith’s Jungle Archive Collection 1 and 2
How can we think about music historically without turning it into a museum piece, a beautiful butterfly impaled on a pin? Bristol legend Rob Smith’s new Jungle Archive Collection 1 and Jungle Archive Collection 2 pose this question forcefully.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 21 Jul 2022
Sonic Anti-Colonialism
Escapology, by Kode9
Kode9’s new record, Escapology: Music from Darien, is a strange document, yet all the more compelling for that strangeness.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 23 Mar 2022
Club Music at War
Sounds of Survival: From Ukrainian Underground
Sounds of Survival: From Ukrainian Underground is so consistently good that its social function almost seems extraneous. We should have been listening to this music before we felt it was our democratic duty.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 29 Sep 2021
Grenfell Dub
Fire, by The Bug
Fire, the new album by The Bug, hits hard, even harder than its rather distant predecessors, London Zoo (2008) and Pressure (2003). But it also hits soft. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 14 Jul 2021
Disorienting the Middle East
Medieval Femme, by Fatima Al Qadiri
On her spacious and subtle new album Medieval Femme, Fatima Al Qadiri returns to London’s Hyperdub label to ask forceful questions about the relationship between margin and centre.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 02 Sep 2020
From Britain to Russia
Simon Scott’s Migrations
“Red Square”, the first track on Simon Scott’s new album Migrations, unfolds at a leisurely pace. Those who favour the stripped-down aesthetic of Berlin dub may hear elaborations on the hissing minimalism of Pole or the meta-reggae of Rhythm & Sound.(...)