Japanese Dub

Review He did a rather good Chinese Dub album a couple of years ago, so why not collect the set? How does it sound? How do you think it sounds? It sounds like Japanese music given the Wobblesome dub treatment: spacious, slow, percussive, twangy, solemn, modal, Japanese: more melodic than you might expect, less alien than you might think. Wood and gut sounds ride the bass swell and cherry blossom breaks out all over. Plus flutes. Not a cut-and-paste job but real English and Japanese musicians getting it on. Reviewed by Nick Coleman --The Independent on Sunday It starts with high, yelping vocals, a slow, solid beat from the barrel-like taiko drum, and the wail of the hichiriki flute used in Shinto religious ceremonies. Then comes the distinctive rumbling bass that is the trademark of one of Britain's maverick veterans. Jah Wobble is off on his musical adventures once again. He may have started out as the backbone of the early Public Image Ltd, but he has gone on to fuse dub with jazz-rock, English folk and (most recently) far eastern themes, with his bravely original Chinese Dub. Now he has moved on to reinterpret Japanese styles, using very much the same technique, matching traditional acoustic instruments against his bass, beats keyboards and programming, and doing so with remarkable delicacy. Best of all is his treatment of traditional pieces such as Kokiriko, in which the sturdy vocals from drummer Joji Hirota are matched against the zither-like koto or banjo-like shamisen, with Wobble's bass holding the music together. Robin Denselow --Guardian The second in a triptych of playful interpretations of Far Eastern folk music (China Dub was released two years ago, Korea Dub is due in 2011) finds the bass player and friends immersed in Kurosawa, kabuki and the samurai code. With Wobble prowling the bottom end, the album s stars are the singing percussionist Joji Hirota and Keiko Kitamura on shamisen (a banjo in other hands) yet their leader suggests the key thing h