DUB FROM JAMDOWN: DARKER THAN BLUE CONDUCTED BY THE SENIOR ALLSTARS (LP/CD) | VINYL RECORD (LP)

LP version; includes CD. Limited to 500 copies. We were inspired by that brilliant release Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown (2001) (on Blood & Fire from Manchester in cooperation with PK in London) and felt compelled to perform this beautiful gem in a dub version... In spring 2014, when The Senior Allstars were asked by the Hamburg-based dub label Echo Beach to record their interpretation of an existing release, everyone involved assumed that the results would be good. What absolutely no one expected was that the album would be so incredibly bursting with fresh ideas. Dub from Jamdown is based on the compilation Darker Than Blue: Soul from Jamdown, a collection of reggaefied versions of classic soul tracks, featuring the Jamaican vernacular and pop style, that was enthusiastically lauded by both the press and reggae fans. There was no question - it was a product of the zeitgeist; old soul hymns treated to a reggae makeover that instilled a new veracity in the originals. Unfortunately, the series was never continued. More than ten years later, in 2014, the mind behind the Echo Beach label, Nicolai Beverungen, had a vision of taking the next - the third - step along this path. From the beginning it was clear to me that I wanted an instrumental band to do the job, and the venerable Senior Allstars, the leading lights in their class, were my top pick, says Beverungen. The band moved into the studio in summer 2014 for a few days. The results are more than breathtaking; the songs drip from the speaker membranes like honey, bringing in the sun, warmth, and happiness, very much in keeping with the original songs - although the lyrics may have been written with other things in mind. The dub remake presented by The Senior Allstars breaks all previous dimensions and conventions set by the history and spirit of this legendary album. The quartet creates an original, collective, improvised, and organic live dub that is in the tradition of the original songs and with new versions that fully deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the originals. CD includes five extra tracks.