The Dub Pistols - Rum and Coke [Album]

Pias

July 1, 2009, 01:50 PM

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Any band that has a packed gig list that takes in pretty much every major festival in the UK must be worth more than a pinch of salt. The Dub Pistols will be gracing Glastonbury, Bestival, Glade, Beautiful Day, Rock Ness and Bloom. A busy summer then for those Dubsters.

Rum and Coke is the Dub Pistols 4th studio album and supposedly it’s their most “commercial album yet”. This will probably be an immense disappointment to their existing fans, but may open up more commercial possibilities for the Dub Pistols (if a heavily scheduled gig list is not enough).

Rum and Coke features a string of guest vocal appearances, no less than seven, and this keeps Rum and Coke fresh and exciting. The varied vocals give the album a much needed kick, as the music on Rum and Coke is pretty standard dub/ska/reggae fare. There is no real studio trickery, no aural assaults and certainly nothing mind-blowingly fresh. Having said all that, it remains that "Rum and Coke" is still quite a pleasant listen.

The opener “Back to Daylight” features all the elements needed for dub/reggae/ska. A nice groovy bass-line, brass/horns, funk guitar, slight percussion, some soulful singing from Ashley Slater with a few synth twiddles and tiddlybits thrown in for good measure. "Back to Daylight" is not a bad song, but it’s not a great one either though.

The listener must wait until the middle section of the album to get the real flavour of the Dub Pistols. It is on tracks three through six that we see why The Dub Pistols may be quite a fun proposal for a Saturday/Sunday afternoon at a festival. It is when the Dub Pistols bring out the rappers that we get a true reflection of what the Dub Pistols are about: Groovy, funky and spliffed out rhythms interlaced with some fine wordsmithery from the likes of TK and Rodney P.

Track Four “Revitalise” is a real dub/grime/hip hop classic that oozes class and quality, and track five “Ganja” even begins with a sample of that infamous US 911 call : “Hi, I think my wife and I have had an overdose of Marijuana….. I think we are dead”. In truth, it would have been funny if the Dub Pistols had used the whole of the 911 call, rather than just the first few seconds. They could have then made “Ganja” a real comic masterpiece, but instead it is a pretty solid tune, embellished with some solid rapping from Rodney P.

Track Seven “Peace of Mind” shows that the Dub Pistols can easily do all out Reggae/Dub, and they are ably backed up this time by Reggae wonderer Red Star Lion and rapper Rodney P. Track eight features a surprise guest in the form of Acid House pioneer Justin Robertson, and in fairness its not all that bad, if somewhat “gruff”.

To sum up, The Dub Pistols are quite a pleasant listen. They would be fun at a festival, and certainly would have a crowd watching and dancing to them too. They haven’t ventured into any new territory on Rum and Coke, but they probably never intended to. They just wanted to bring a party atmosphere to the table, and to “Dub it up a little”.

On those terms they have succeeded to do so.

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