Gig Review: Dub Pistols, San Fran, Wellington, 22 February 2019

The Dub Pistols gig at San Fran last Friday night was a slightly odd affair. On one hand, the band totally nailed it. On the other hand, surprisingly few punters were there to see it. 

While it was perhaps a touch disconcerting to see one of the UK’s leading dub/ska exponents of the past two decades - and a frequent festival headliner - play its first ever Wellington gig to a half empty venue, the up side was that it felt a little bit more like a private party. And the band, which was passing through the capital on route to yet another Splore appearance, sure as hell weren’t going to let a relatively small turnout get in the way of a good party.

So those of us who did turn up - an eclectic mix of cockney geezer types and curious locals (stereotyping alert, but an awful lot of hands went in the air when there was a shout out for fellow Londoners) - were treated to what amounted to a virtual “greatest hits” set from the band’s handful of albums and a few covers. 

From where I stood, with my head-bobbing sway never quite morphing into a fully committed boogie (to the relief of all those around me, surely), the setlist highlights were the few tunes I was most familiar with, including intoxicating takes on better known tracks like ‘Boom’, ‘Sticky Situation’, and an especially raucous cover of Stranglers’ standard ‘Peaches’. 

Vocal duo Barry Ashworth and Seanie Tee owned the stage every step of the way, with each man clearly feeding off the vibe of the other. The band itself was on form and always tight, and the inevitable presence of a room-filling brass man ensured there was a full and funky sound throughout. 

It may have been that the $60-odd ticket price was considered too steep for a gig some might have regarded as little more than a Splore warm-up set, or it could have been that Cate Le Bon at Meow turned out to be Wellington’s premier Friday night drawcard, but given the terrific show put on by the Dub Pistols on the night, the smallish crowd at San Fran was especially hard to fathom. One thing seems certain: all those present got their money’s worth and more.

Albums of 2012 … Afterthoughts …

I’ve had a few thoughts on some of the other albums I listened to through 2012, some of which I’ve reviewed here, and some others that didn’t stick around long enough to earn a review.

The albums that didn’t make it into the final ten fell into two categories: firstly, those albums downloaded and binned after a few listens, and secondly, those albums downloaded/purchased that I actually liked, kept, but didn’t like enough to include in the ten.

It’s the first category that provides a surprise or two. Looking back, I was pretty quick off the mark to download and bin a couple of acclaimed new release albums that would ultimately prove prominent on year-end lists elsewhere. Albums I had downloaded on the strength of positive reviews, but nonetheless albums I just couldn’t gel with.

For example, the Frank Ocean album wasn’t in my ten, ubiquitous though it was on any number of other blog year-end lists. Nor the none-too-bad Hot Chip release. Neither did indie darlings Grizzly Bear feature. New albums by all of the above were downloaded, listened to (more than once), and discarded.

 

Ocean: an orange shade of purple

Much loved though they all were elsewhere, those albums got the recycle bin treatment because I knew I wouldn’t be listening to them on any regular basis going forward. But not before I’d extracted the few tracks on each that I’d connected with (for playlist purposes).

A friend of mine – even as a fan of the Frank Ocean album – summed it up best for me when he said (paraphrasing here): “it’s almost as though critics were shocked to discover a half decent R&B album in 2012 and (over) reacted accordingly” … but for me Channel Orange remained over-hyped, and Ocean came across as something of a poor man’s Prince.

I also (downloaded and) binned new work from past favourites like The Cult, Dandy Warhols, and Smashing Pumpkins. All were mediocre – at best – when measured against deeds of yesteryear. And Muse, past masters when it comes to these year-end lists, well, what they gave us – odd album cut excepted – was the ridiculous posing as the sublime. It too was binned.

So what made it into the second category, albums that made it all the way to the end of the year, only to miss out? Albums I liked, kept, and will listen to again. The better than decent also-rans:

Coming closest of all but just missing the final ten was Leftfield’s Tourism (reviewed here), and it probably rates as my live album of the year. I gave this a thorough workout through the early part of 2012.

Orbital’s Wonky, something of a comeback album that, for the most part, lived up to the best of that pioneering outfit’s past work, also came very close to making the cut.

 

The Raveonettes: great Danes

The Raveonettes featured in last year’s ten, and 2012’s Observator was a similarly strong release that suffered only from feeling a little too familiar, mainly on account of sounding a lot too much like 2011’s Raven In The Grave. All the same, it still rates as another great album from the prolific Danish duo.

And Paul Weller’s Sonik Kicks didn’t quite win me over enough either, despite it being another solid release from a man who shows no sign of slowing down.

The Haunted Man, the latest from Bat For Lashes is also a very listenable body of work, and the feeling persists that I need to give this one a few more spins. I really came quite late to this one and perhaps haven’t absorbed it fully. On any other day The Haunted Man would more than likely have made the ten …

Had the second half of Bobby Womack’s The Bravest Man In The Universe been anywhere near as strong as the first half it too would have been a certainty for the ten, but as noted in my original review (here) it just sort of limps to an unfulfilling conclusion.

 

Bobby Womack: soul man

The Dub Pistols’ Worshipping The Dollar (reviewed here) is another that came close and it found itself on semi-permanent pod rotation for a month or two mid-year.

Upon further reflection, I was very tough on The xx’s Coexist, which has appealed to me a lot more since I wrote my original review (here), but I’m quite sure the band will console itself with the reality that far more highly regarded critics (than myself) deemed it a worthy effort, and it doubtlessly features on the majority of those year-end album lists found elsewhere.

Ditto, Cat Power’s Sun, another album that kept revealing more and more of its subtle charms well after my initial review (here) was uploaded. I look forward to her gig in Wellington (tonight already!).

My ‘New Zealand’ album of the year has to be local-boy-done-good Myele Manzanza’s solo debut effort (reviewed here).

I also had a fair bit of time for Ladyhawke’s 2012 album, Anxiety, another highly polished synthpop gem from Masterton’s Pip Brown.

 

Ladyhawke: pomp and polish

But those two are merely the tip of the iceberg during what was a great year for “local product”. My only issue is that I didn’t get around to listening to enough of it.

Reissue of the year if only for the fact that I didn’t fully get into it first time around and it therefore still felt remarkably fresh: Paul Simon’s masterpiece, Graceland, which came with all the additional bells and whistles offered by repackaging.  

So that’s “the albums of 2012”. If not the best, then certainly my “most listened to”. It was a year where more streaming/download options than ever before – not to mention a procession of different listening devices, each one better than the last – resulted in instant access to a wider range of music than I could ever have previously imagined. Right now it’s hard not to feel a little bit like a lucky old cat licking a super-sized dollop of fresh cream.

Here’s a clip from one of the albums I binned in haste, and probably shouldn’t have. Hot Chip’s gem ‘These Chains’, one of my single tracks of the year … lifted from (the 2012 album) In Our Heads:

 

 

 

 

Album Review: Dub Pistols – Worshipping The Dollar (2012)

Over the course of the past 15 years or so, the eclectic London-based collective the Dub Pistols have firmly established themselves as a leading live act throughout the UK and beyond. Their sixth and latest album, Worshipping The Dollar, was released earlier this year.

Effectively the brainchild of club identity Bill Ashworth, the group’s wider family has in the past included Terry Hall of The Specials fame, while the current line-up includes reggae kings Red Star Lion and Dan Bowskill, UK hip hop star Rodney P, Ms Dynamite’s brother Akala, plus regular dub MCs TK and Darrison … among others.

 Worshipping The Dollar is the first album of fresh material since 2009’s Rum & Coke, and its release coincides with a heavy schedule of touring and festival gigs throughout the current Northern hemisphere summer. And just like the group’s live performances – the Dub Pistols were voted the UK’s Best Live Act at DJ Magazine’s 2011 Best of British Awards – the studio album doesn’t disappoint. Just as you would expect from a group equally renowned for its soundtrack work.

I’m not sure if dub hop is an actual musical genre or merely a figment of my fevered imagination, but if it is a genre then the Dub Pistols would surely be considered one of its leading purveyors; this is dub music with a hip hop vibe to it; the various vocalists either toasting inna reggae stylee or rapping in a more conventional sense.

But the beat is mostly about the bass, and despite some heavy subject matter lyrically, this is all about the groove and getting those hips swaying. This is dance music with a slight conscience – most of it focuses on the darkside (politics, poverty), while other parts are rather more throwaway … but it always feels relevant and never fails to get its skank on.

Worshipping The Dollar blends reggae, ska, hip hop, and electronica, the sum of those parts being a fully formed whole, a skip-free listen in one sitting, and more generally the album is a thoroughly enjoyable bass-centric journey into state of the art dub, 2012 style.

Highlights: ‘Alive’ (feat. Red Star Lion), ‘Rub A Dub’ (feat. Darrison, Sir Real, and Dan Bowskill), ‘Countermeasure’, and ‘Give A Little Dub’ (feat. Bunna).

Have a listen …