Aye, There's the Dub

Return Home (Independent)

Club Dub

By David Lilly

Dub music has traveled far since its Jamaican birth in the late '60s and tends to "spliff" the music audience into two sectors. Some find it repetitious and boring, while others envelop themselves in it, submitting to the pulse and vibes. Are you reggae for this?

Club Dub is a Lexington, Ky., band that plays a sonic stew of reggae/dub, jazz, funk and rock. Return Home is the band's second full-length CD and comes highly recommended. That is, if you like echo and the various and curious sounds that live in it, then you're in for a good time here.

The first three songs are mostly straight reggae. "The Voice" is a swamp trek, including various percussive insect noises that might have you swatting nonexistent mosquitoes. "New Root Version" is more like a stroll through an inner-city marketplace of sound effects. Bird horns flutter around, psychedelic voices swirl here and there and saxophone vehicles vie for position in musical traffic.

At just under 10 minutes, "Dub 7" contains about as many sound effects as the average sci-fi show does visual effects. Without going into the numerous aural details, "Dub 7" is a trip definitely worth going on, especially for those of you on the latter side of the spliff. "Deliverance" is the exit song. An excursion into the twilight zone of percussion, including distant but clear and audible chanting, it's a departure from the rest of the music here and one of highlights.

The few songs I've commented on are worth the price of admission. However, I encourage you to check out samples of Club Dub's work at www.clubdub.com and get more information about the band, including details regarding the members. E-mail them: contactclubdub@aol.com