Audio Illusions Of Dub

In the digital age, Mad Professor, aka Neal Fraser, has taken dub music to a place rarely imagined — even by his main influence Lee Perry. He has infused it with so much meaning and sonic magic that it has literally infiltrated every area of popular music to one degree or another. His own records, from the Dub Me Crazy recordings to the Black Liberation Dub series of albums, always pushed the music further into the future, using digital technology to its fullest. Perhaps that's why Audio Illusion of Dub comes as such a surprise: it sounds downright retro, as if it came from the late '70s, from the same period of time that Adrian Sherwood, Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell, and Mad Professor himself began making dub plates and LPs. While it's clear that the effects are digital, Mad Professor goes out of his way to make this set sound as if it came from the timeless, early days of Perry's hand-spliced, tape-stretched experiments. He's made the music steamy, mysterious, and slightly ominous sounding in all of its darkness and opacity. Check the stretched horns in "Rasta Kaos," and the way the guitars enter for a moment to echo a familiar theme before simply disappearing. Listen to the rhythm tracks on "Dry Wood Dub," where the bass is a one-line, riff played on the same accent note as the bass drum, with a female backing chorus flitting in for a moment and then echoing off into the distance. Nowhere is there a more telltale track here than "Kingston, 1972, with its horn section trying to play a melody all the way through before being stilted by a crushing, reverbed snare, skittering guitar, and a bass that threatens to come through the speakers. This one is special; one of the better recordings Mad Professor has cooked up in the 21st century, and reminds listeners not only where, but when the music came from in the first place.