DubXanne: Police In Dub < Music | PopMatters - F-Cat Productions
DubXanne: Police In Dub < Music | PopMatters - F-Cat Productions
DubXanne: Police In Dub < Music | PopMatters - F-Cat Productions
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<strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong>: <strong>Police</strong> <strong>In</strong> <strong>Dub</strong> < <strong>Music</strong> | <strong>PopMatters</strong><br />
28.07.08 13:07<br />
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<strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong><br />
<strong>Police</strong> in <strong>Dub</strong><br />
(Echo Beach)<br />
US release date: 10 June 2008<br />
UK release date: 23 June 2008<br />
Germany release date: 30 May 2008<br />
by John Bergstrom<br />
Share Print Write to the editor Feeds<br />
The concept behind <strong>Police</strong> in <strong>Dub</strong> is nothing new.<br />
If anything, it’s amazing that it’s taken this long<br />
for something like it to happen. It seems that<br />
songs from most any band with a dedicated<br />
fanbase and deep enough catalog are now<br />
available in a variety of styles and flavors. You can<br />
get Nine <strong>In</strong>ch Nails rendered as lullabies, Pink<br />
Floyd remade into trance techno, and the Rolling<br />
Stones in bossa nova. Next to these, a dub tribute<br />
to the <strong>Police</strong> seems downright inevitable.<br />
AMAZON<br />
If they weren’t exactly the first, the <strong>Police</strong> were<br />
certainly the most popular band to make reggae rhythms an integral part<br />
of their sound. The accentuated downbeats and elastic, economical<br />
basslines, not to mention Sting’s high-pitched patois, added a new and at<br />
the time fairly novel twist to their charismatic post-punk pop tunes. <strong>Police</strong><br />
guitarist Andy Summers has since insisted that the <strong>Police</strong> weren’t a “white<br />
reggae band”. Of course, when you call your second album “White<br />
Reggae” (Reggatta de Blanc), certain people are going to take you at your<br />
word. <strong>In</strong> any case, take the reggae out of “Can’t Stand Losing You” or<br />
“Message in a Bottle” and they’re still great pop songs, only a lot less fun.<br />
But if the <strong>Police</strong> incorporated reggae, one thing they didn’t do much were<br />
dub versions. Staples of traditional reggae of the time, dubs were largely<br />
instrumental, tripped-out variants, usually substituting reverb effects,<br />
horns, or melodica for the vocal track. The potential for dub in the<br />
<strong>Police</strong>’s music was certainly not lost on members of Cologne, Germany,<br />
reggae outfit Okada. Starting in 2006, they analyzed the <strong>Police</strong> songbook,<br />
recruited a few vocalists, went to work, and <strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong> was born.<br />
If <strong>Police</strong> in <strong>Dub</strong> is often less-than-convincing, and at times risibly<br />
misguided, it’s hard to say how much of that is simply down to the fact a<br />
German reggae band is behind it all. More often than not, projects like<br />
this are watered-down or tie-dyed to the point of sounding nearly generic.<br />
Ironically, it’s the strictly instrumental tracks on <strong>Police</strong> in <strong>Dub</strong> that most<br />
suffer that fate. Sure, most everything has been splashed with reverb and<br />
panning effects and snare drum bursts. But beneath the coating,<br />
<strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong> lacks flavor. Lame, New Age-leftover synthesizers and<br />
embarrassing synthesized voices dominate “Walking on the Moon”,<br />
making the original sound like King Tubby by comparison. Having horns<br />
play the chorus melody of “Can’t Stand Losing You” was a good idea, but<br />
making those horns tepid, synthesized ones was not. And don’t even ask<br />
about “Bring on the Night”, which has quite literally been turned into<br />
background music. About the only instrumental that really works is “Once<br />
Upon a Daydream”, which has been turned into a sort of midtempo triphop<br />
track.<br />
At least the guest singers on the half-dozen vocal tracks lend some<br />
credibility. <strong>In</strong> the dub “version” tradition, all add their own lyrics.<br />
Foremost is ex-Beat and General Public member Ranking Roger, whose<br />
enthusiastic toasting is just what “This Bed’s Too Big Without You”<br />
needed. Big Youth, an actual veteran Jamaican DJ, weaves in and out of<br />
“So Lonely”, making it sound like the most authentic dub track here.<br />
Sometimes, though, the stabs at credibility backfire. Lauded dub poet<br />
Benjamin Zephaniah is perhaps a too-obvious fit for “Spirits in the<br />
Material World”. When he says, “Get metaphysical / For we are spiritual”<br />
over those synths, it’s almost too much to bear. Self-proclaimed<br />
“dubtress” Jazz’min Tutum’s sexy voice can’t save “Wrapped Around Your<br />
Finger” from becoming lounge music.<br />
To <strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong>’s credit, <strong>Police</strong> in <strong>Dub</strong> is expertly-recorded and engineered.<br />
The drums pop right out of the speakers, and the low end is right where<br />
it should be. No, the real problem with the album is the same that<br />
plagues countless tribute records. It lacks a vision. <strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong> seem to<br />
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<strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong>: <strong>Police</strong> <strong>In</strong> <strong>Dub</strong> < <strong>Music</strong> | <strong>PopMatters</strong><br />
28.07.08 13:07<br />
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have wanted to dub up the <strong>Police</strong>’s songs while retaining the originals’<br />
central pop appeal. The arrangements adhere more or less to the<br />
originals’, and the guitar parts are played almost verbatim. Consequently,<br />
what could have been an intriguing set of dub excursions plays more like<br />
a straight covers album, with added synths and echo effects. <strong>Police</strong> in<br />
<strong>Dub</strong>‘s intentions are in the right place, and somewhere there’s a brilliant<br />
<strong>Police</strong>-in-dub album to be made, but this isn’t it.<br />
"Message in a Bottle (Message in a <strong>Dub</strong>) feat. Earl<br />
16"http://www.thepolice.tvmusik.de/<strong>Dub</strong>xanne-<br />
The<strong>Police</strong><strong>In</strong><strong>Dub</strong>album/<strong>Police</strong><strong>In</strong><strong>Dub</strong>,MessageinaBottlefeatEarl16.mp3<br />
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<strong><strong>Dub</strong>Xanne</strong> - <strong>Police</strong> in <strong>Dub</strong> Album Preview<br />
RATING:<br />
— 25 July 2008<br />
Tagged as: dubxanne<br />
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