Ital Breakfast

Dub Syndicate has always been a fascinating group to watch. Built around the nucleus of drummer "Style" Scott and bassist "Flabba" Holt and always produced by U.K. dubmeister Adrian Sherwood, it basically serves as a more experimental doppelganger for the Roots Radics, a more traditional Jamaican studio band that is also led by Scott and Holt. By the late '90s Dub Syndicate was beginning to settle down a bit; although Sherwood's production style is still distinctive, it's less wildly experimental that in was in the '80s and early '90s, with the result that Dub Syndicate albums have, by this point, lost a bit of their edge. But on the plus side, they tend to be more consistent as well. Ital Breakfast finds the group in meat-and-potatoes mode, delivering 11 tracks of solid modern roots reggae with a minimum of vocals and just the right touch of craziness. "The Corporation" (credited in part to Mark Stewart) turns the title of a paranoid political classic on its head, accusing multinational corporations of a conspiracy that none dare name; "Gun Too Hot" features an equally political message, albeit a slightly more subtle one. There's a nice cameo appearance by the legendary deejay I Roy (who frankly sounds a little bit tired here) on the title track, and Lee "Scratch" Perry makes a surprise appearance on "The Captain's Trance Mission." For those who look at the notoriously avant-garde On-U Sound catalog with trepidation, this album by the label's flagship band would make an excellent introduction.