Review
Publication date : Tuesday, March 07th 2006 - 6 538 views
The Hidden Side of Dub
Whether through lack of recognition or of promotion, the Easy Star All Stars did not draw a big crowd for their first visit to Europe. A sign of overly modest advance sales, their Paris concert was held in a half-full Elysée Montmartre. The bill mostly appealed to curious fans of the album, but also to Floyd fans, drawn by the challenge: to recreate live, and in dub, the atmosphere of an album that is a benchmark for studio work.
We know the New York label Easy Star for this crazy gamble born of the imagination of its co-founder Lem Oppenheimer. The concert by its musicians, as might be expected, could not be content with unrolling the Dub Side (one hour on the clock). So it is naturally with in-house compositions that the band begins its set. On stage, the four members of the Easy Star All Stars, accompanied by a mini horn section (a sax and a trombone), are quickly joined by a deejay and a female backing singer who take turns on the mike. The sound, well mixed, runs impeccably. The band has been delivering a good performance for half an hour when the drummer, finishing a tune, goes off into nyabinghi: the prelude to the Dark Side...
 "Welcome to the dub side of the moon," drops bassist Victor Rice as the first bars of Breathe ring out. The lunar cycle begins. On the album, Gilmour's guitar solos are replaced by the toasting of Ranking Joe (Time), or of Gary "Nesta" Pine and Dollarman (Money). In their absence, Victor Rice and Michael Goldwasser (guitar) take care of the original verses and choruses, the instruments reclaim their place, and take on a particular importance in the live transcription. The horns, notably, climb octave after octave and spit out long solos shaken by violent jazzy surges. The sumptuous The Great Gig in the Sky is pierced by long female vocal flights: from low to high, the singer holds incredible notes before an admiring audience. The transition into Money, played as on the album with the sound of a water pipe in place of the cash register, is formidable. The deejay enters with a crash on the riddim, the trombone replaces the original guitar solo, Rice holds his bass like a rifle and delivers hammer blows. The most rock track on the album is undeniably the peak of intensity of the concert.
 For behind it, the descent begins. Brutal at first, with the monotonous Us and them, after a long organ intro. More dub afterwards, with Any colour you like, lifted off the ground by successive solos from Ticklah on keyboards (also co-producer of the album with Michael Goldwasser) and from the trombone, which then takes the mike on Brain Damage, which always surprises because it seems to have been written for a one-drop rhythm. The return to the opening one-two for Eclipse embodies the cycle of the album, the false epilogue of a lunar journey unique of its kind. One by one, the musicians leave the stage. "Dark Side of The Moon" is a highly conceptual album, with successions of moods that are sometimes abrupt. Before an audience of connoisseurs, these studio musicians will have brilliantly pulled off a difficult, even downright perilous, show.
Report written by Sébastien Jobart
Photos réalisées par Benoit Collin
Tags : Dub (192), Reprises reggae (11)
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