Sound Travels this week in varied measures. With Halloween coming up Wednesday, I thought I'd bring some world vibes to the table. As Jordan Lee remarked to me this weekend at the Creatures & Creators Bash, "nothing says Halloween like dubstep." And I'd only add real dub and reggae to that ultra-short list.
I really was just waiting for Halloween to give me more of an excuse to play some of the other cuts on The Easy-All-Stars' new album Easy All-Star's Thrillah. The album came out in August and find the same crew that gave us Dub Side of The Moon and Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band is back reworking Michael Jackson's classic with typical dubbed out vibes. From there, it's fairly obvious to my reggae-oriented mind to go with Mr. Marley's classic, the zombi-fied "Mr. Brown," while Peter Tosh, ever the counterpoint to Bob with his very Halloween sounding "Vampire," complete with wolf howls and sepulchural sounds. If you know reggae, and are really down with Halloween, then Lee 'Scratch' Perry is your man. Perry was like Halloween year-round, eccentric is his middle name.
Easy All-Stars "Close To Midnight" Easy All-Stars Thrillah
Bob Marley "Mr. Brown" Soul Rebel
Peter Tosh "Vampire" Equal Rights
Lee 'Scratch' Perry "Disco Devil"
And then there was the mixtape from Sunday night, which was a whole a heap of dark vibes, old-school Jamaican dubs crossed up with electronic and dubstep vibes. Surprisingly, I managed to avoid being bleak about it; there's a bouyancy to the mix that I personally dug and had fun cooking up for the mix. While the songs themselves only occasionally get specific to halloween, the vibe is right I think. Enjoy it again.
Sound Travels Sunday - Dark & Stormy Mixtape
