Live In the Earth: Sandoz In Dub, Chapter 2

Richard H. Kirk, who currently records under the name Sandoz, was a founding member of the legendary Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire in the early '70s. Originally a punk band and then an experimental electronic outfit, Cabaret Voltaire was hugely influential on both sides of the Atlantic. As a solo artist, though, Kirk has shown a marked affinity for the dubwise reggae of King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Scientist, and his second album under the Sandoz name finds him paying tribute to those forebears with a program of solid, if not exactly groundbreaking, electronic dub. The album opens on an underwhelming note with the rather pedestrian "Africa (Jahsay)," but quickly picks up speed with the horn-laden "Monopolize and Destroy," and with "Strike Fire," which is built on a sort of modified rockers beat complete with flying cymbals. "Civilisation Means Manners (Means Discipline)" is a fine Afrocentric treat, and "Sit in Judgment" offers the album highlight with its fiery horn offbeats. "Spiritual Communication" comes across as a bit cold and sterile, and "I and I Meditation" is just an alternate mix (and not a particularly exciting one) of "Africa (Jahsay)." But "Thousand Year Dread" finishes things off with a bang, with a more complex and faintly nyahbinghi-influenced percussion sound. Not bad at all.