Artist.......: Roots Tonic
Album........: Roots Tonic Meets Bill Laswell
Label........: ROIR
Genre........: Reggae
Catnr........: RUSCD8297
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Sep-20-2006
str.date.....: May-06-2006
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. road to axum 05:34
02. concrete sunrise 05:24
03. akademikus du umbeigu 05:10
04. jd3 06:36
05. employees must wash your hands 06:11
06. instrument of the trinity 06:29
07. healing of the nations 05:49
08. clean escape (the crew is here) 06:09
Runtime 47:22 min
Size 70,10 MB
Release Notes:
You may have already heard Roots Tonic. In fact,
you may love Roots Tonic and not even know it.
Roots Tonic is Hasidic reggae superstar MatisyahuÆs
band. MatisyahuÆs star has risen dramatically in
this past year, culminating in the recent release
of Youth on Sony/Epic (currently #4 on BillboardÆs
Top 200) and the certification of Live at Stubbs as
a Gold Record. One cannot underestimate the
importance of Roots Tonic to MatisyahuÆs success.
Roots Tonic bassist Josh Werner co-writes many of
MatisyahuÆs songs, and Roots Tonic brings those
songs to stage, to record and to life, making them
pop with the drama and dynamics youÆll hear on this
album.
It is no coincidence that world class bassist and
producer Bill Laswell is involved in this project.
For one, it is Laswell who produced MatisyahuÆs
Youth. Laswell, the world music genre-fusing
genius, has worked with so many notable artists:
Mick Jagger, Afrika Bambaataa, Yoko Ono, Brian Eno,
Fela Kuti, John Zorn, Peter Gabriel, George
Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson,
Motorhead, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sly & Robbie, Swans,
Last Poets, and has remixed the work of Santana,
Bob Marley & Miles Davis. As one writer puts it,
ôBill Laswell is god. Can you prove heÆs not?ö He
is a true maverick and a perfect match for Roots
Tonic and MatisyahuÆs blend of reggae, hip hop,
soul and traditional Jewish music. Their chemistry
was so perfect, in fact, that after the Youth
sessions were completed, Laswell invited Roots
Tonic back to his Orange Studios to record this
album, Roots Tonic Meets Bill Laswell, which is NOT
to be confused with the dub version of MatisyahuÆs
Youth.s
With no Matisyahu, Roots Tonic was forced to stand
and deliver on an album without vocals or lyrics on
which to rely. Deliver they did. With Laswell
serving as studio lion Lee ôScratchö Perry to Roots
TonicÆs Aggravators, Josh, Jonah and Aaron have
created a living, breathing disc of instrumental
reggae, as funky as, say, the classic ôMacka Dubö
by the Barrett Brothers (Aston ôFamily Manö Barrett
& Carlton Barrett, The WailersÆ rhythm section).
The grooves are so loose and lively you can tell
they were having a blast recording. At the mixing
board, Laswell economically weaves in everything
from synth stabs to phone touch tones to
unrecognizable sound splatters. He stays out of the
way of the bass, and heaps echo on the drums and
guitar, allowing the high end to spiral out from
the music.
Dub as a genre always seems to be making a
comeback. Its influence is consistently heard in
other forms of music from Radiohead to Missy
Elliot. But, judging by the surge of interest in
and activity by bands like Heavyweight Dub
Champion, Goathead, Dub Nomads, LAÆs Future Pigeon,
to the reunited Systemwide, to Roots Tonic
labelmates Dub Trio, Dr Israel and 10 Ft Ganja
Plant, American Dub is currently very fertile
musical ground. This spring, expect Roots TonicÆs
popularity to bloom with the release of this album,
plus live Matisyahu and solo dates. There is even
talk of Roots Tonic opening for Matisyahu.
------
Few developments in the pop music world came as
quite as big a surprise as the orthodox Jewish
reggae singer Matisyahu's chart hit "King Without a
Crown" in early 2006. The unlikely sight of a fully
bearded, overcoated, and behatted Hasid beatboxing
and toasting on-stage with an electric reggae band
was visually startling, but it wasn't strange
enough to complete distract from the man's
heartfelt lyrics of spiritual yearning and
finger-wagging declamation, or from his band's
powerful, sinuous grooves. That band is called
Roots Tonic (there's an in-joke for music theory
geeks in there), and Roots Tonic Meets Bill Laswell
is the trio's chance to shine on its own, under the
loving care of famous bassist and producer Bill
Laswell (with whom they worked previously when he
produced Matisyahu's major-label debut). If you're
looking for innovative electro-dub or Jewish-reggae
fusion of the Adonai & I variety, you'll need to
look elsewhere; this disc is nothing but
rock-solid, meat-and-potatoes instrumental roots
reggae with a deep, dark production style and a
pervasive dubwise ambience of the type familiar to
Laswell fans everywhere. Highlight tracks include
the slowly rocking "Road to Axum," a loping
one-drop number titled "Employees Must Wash Their
Hands," and the generically titled but supremely
heavyweight "Healing of the Nations." Very highly
recommended to all fans of modern roots reggae.