You know you’re onto something when Carlos Santana calls your album “a work of supreme creativity.”
That’s how he referred to Nevaris‘ album Reverberations – a great album of dub, trip-hop, and world beat music put together by percussionist / keyboardist Nevaris and a great lineup of musicians including producer / bassist / legend Bill Laswell, DJ Logic on turntables, Will Bernard and Matt Dickey on guitars, Lockatron on drums, and Peter Apfelbaum on horns and additional keys.
The album had me hooked within the first twenty seconds of its opening track, “Dub Sol.” The sexy horns, panning beats, and incense smoke bass lured me into an exotic desert tent where you are sorely tempted to stay the rest of your life. “Disruption” has some of the best horn arrangements on the record from Apfelbaum, and DJ Logic gets to strut his scratching stuff as well on the track.
Laswell’s excellent dub bass returns on “Ninth Sun,” which also percolates with plenty of weird, trippy effects created by him. “Remedy” could easily fit into a mystery film set in Jamaica, while “Interference” would slide easily into a Bond film soundtrack – particularly a scene in which Bond enters an exotic casino in order to set up a trade of valuable information and ends up in a dangerous situation that’s either going to get him killed or laid.
It’s only appropriate, then, that the following track is called “Safehouse,” and we can imagine Bond making it out of the casino in one-piece and kicking back with a lovely lady in a backroom lounge at a Kingston restaurant. The track instantly puts you in a calming place with synth effects and reverberated beats that slow you down and bring you some much-needed chill.
“Frequencia” thumps and bumps in all the right places, with DJ Logic’s subtle scratching mixing well with the hand percussion and Hammond organ riffs. The closer, “Lockatronic,” gives drummer Lockatron plenty of time to show you how he locks it down and puts the whole band in his back pocket. He absolutely snaps every beat.
I love experimental, almost ambient dub albums like this. It’s solid.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Shauna at Shameless Promotion.]