From Irene McC Sent Thu, May 27th 1999, 15:52
From Irene McC Sent Thu, May 27th 1999, 15:52
In an exchange deal, I now find myself the owner of three similar but different albums: Transglobal Undergound : Rejoice Rejoice (98) Jah Wobble presents The Inspiration of WIlliam Blake (96) Global Sweatbox remix album (93) The TGU interested me purely from the point that Q Mag dismissed it with a 2-star (out of 5) review and the comments that it was misnamed and ought to have been called "Despair Despair" - very funny, Mr Journalist, but hardly totally fair. Although the opening vocals are hardly confidence inspiring : "The Egyptian Pharaos fell from the sky, fell from the sky and played the Blues". Oh YES?! Apart from an almost constant stream of similar babble, the actual sounds are not too dreadful (only 5 tracks in and it's been going on in the background). No great departure from what they were doing on Psychic Karaoke and I'd call it something clumsy like dubby influenced world/ethnic/tribal/Arab/Eastern with a heartbeat of dance rhythms. Although no sign of the lovely Natasha Atlas* - too busy pursuing a solo career? Anybody else got any views on this one? * oh no - sorry - she's credited with "short wave radio" on 2 tracks [is that a nod to Karl-Heinz Stockhausen?] and vox on one (as yet unheard). The Jah Wobble similarly draws on spoken verse woven in and around rather lovely sounding melodic and ethereally evocative pieces. Nice one this, though I don't know how often I'll play it. The Global Sweatbox remix comp. is on Nation Records, same label as Transglobal and features rather storming remixes by Andrew Weatherall, Youth, Well Hung Parliament, Adrian Sherwood & Jah Wobble, amongst others. Dates back to 93, that lusciously productive and fertile era. All of these need more time - which I never seem to find - to sink in, but I'd welcome any further comments, insights and reviews. I * />>/ you can also mail me at <xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx>