Trustar Vibrations: 05/01/2012

Sunday, May 06, 2012

What Dads Do When Mom Is Not At Home

Guys: It's wonderful seeing the "male mind set" torch being passed on to the next generation.

Girls: This video shows exactly why you get that feeling of apprehension and foreboding whenever you leave your children with your husband.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

An Alternate Way To Get To The Other Side Of The Moon

Easy Star All-Stars

Dub Side Of The Moon

2003

Biography by David Jeffries

New York City's Michael G. (born Michael Goldwasser) and Ticklah (born Victor Axelrod) are the two longtime friends who form the Easy Star All-Stars. Goldwasser had been playing guitar with the R&B band Special Request, but after five active years the band broke up. Around this time, the guitarist turned his attention to reggae and formed the Easy Star All-Stars with former Special Request keyboardist Ticklah. Ticklah had been gigging with Cooly's Hot Box, worked with DJ Spinna and Dr. Israel, and created remixes for les Nubians and Mary J. Blige. The first release under the Easy Star All-Stars banner came in 1997 with the team's production on Rob Symeonn's "Anything for Jah" single, and a collection of their productions, Easy Star, Vol. 1, appeared in 1998. Working with Brooklyn sound system Twin Sound, the two organized three tribute concerts to Augustus Pablo in 1999 and backed the likes of Sugar Minott, the Meditations, and Sister Carol on-stage and in the studio. In 2003, the duo released Dub Side of the Moon, their reggae/dub version of Pink Floyd's most famous album. In 2006, they turned toward Radiohead's OK Computer and reimagined it as Radiodread.

Review by Rick Anderson

It was one of those really stupid ideas that we can all be grateful someone had the guts to follow through with. Yes, it's a reggae version of the Pink Floyd classic Dark Side of the Moon, every track drastically reworked and presented in the same order as on the original album. And yes, it works far, far better than you'd have any right to expect. The artists vary from the relatively obscure (Kirsty Rock, Dollarman) to the big-time (Corey Harris, Frankie Paul, the Meditations) and the musical styles range from roots to dancehall to jungle. Every track works well, but highlights include a very fine (and uncredited) jungle mix of "On the Run" and the great singer-deejay combo track "Time," on which Corey Harris' chesty baritone singing voice is nicely counterbalanced by Ranking Joe's speed-rap. There are several bonus dub mixes tacked onto the end of the program, and while none of them is revelatory they don't detract from the proceedings, either. At the end you realize that you were wrong to even think this was a dumb idea to begin with -- dub's psychedelic mysticism is a perfectly good match for Pink Floyd's mannered weirdness. Highly recommended.

*

1 Speak to Me/Breathe (In the Air)
2 On the Run
3 Time
4 The Great Gig in the Sky
5 Money
6 Us and Them
7 Any Colour You Like
8 Brain Damage
9 Eclipse
10 Time Version
11 Great Dub in the Sky
12 Step It Pon the Rastaman Scene
13 Any Dub You Like

Get it HERE

For Those Who Seek Beyond The Legend

Bob Marley
Songs of Freedom Box Set
1992
Ripped @ a dreadful 320
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Review
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Originally released as a limited-edition box set in 1992, Songs of Freedom presents an alternate history of Bob Marley's career, tracing his progression with outtakes, rare singles, alternate mixes, live tracks, and album tracks instead of the songs that formed the bulk of his legacy, as it were. The question is, is this a reasonable track to take? For the most part, yes it is, even if it tends to be a little misleading. That problem isn't too great, since Songs of Freedom isn't targeted at the audience that would want just the basics — Legend already exists for them, and that sums up everything they need to know about Marley, the ambassador of reggae. The remainder of Marley's audience realizes this box exists just to get rarities to the diehards, and they're thrilled that it exists for that purpose. Because of its nature, Songs of Freedom isn't especially compelling to anyone that isn't a hardcore fan — although the first disc of ska and rocksteady material will be delightful to anyone that likes early reggae and isn't thrilled by Marley's rock-star posturing in the '70s — but for those very fans, it's a valuable addition to their collection, since it rounds up rarities with ease and purpose. What Songs of Freedom should not be seen as is a definitive overview of Marley's career — it's just for collectors and hardcore fans, the kind of listener who has memorized the original studio albums. For those listeners, it's hard to resist Songs of Freedom, but everybody else will be able to safely pass it by.

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Tracklist:
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CD 1