‘Bass Matters’ is the debut album from Radikal Dub Kolektiv (RDK). The band formed in 2002 and has undergone many line-up changes over the past few years, due to personal issues, differing attitudes and unfortunately death. Some of the tunes on this release are over two years old; however these are the first studio recordings of them.

‘Bass Matters’ takes RDK in a new direction with a more upbeat style, blending reggae, dub and ambient sounds together to procedure a live sound-system feel. The album was produced by Perch at the Zion Train studio and comes after two self released CDs made by the band themselves.

The actual recordings are top notch; this is a serious dub-head album, with typically rolling phat baselines, reminiscent of the mighty Zion Train. This is dub in the 21st century, with plenty of echo and reverb, victory horns and bass that’ll destroy your bins. The ambient, trance-like effects and clever use of intelligent samples just adds to the overall appeal. The track ‘Sach’Kaj’ is a classic example – check the samples about George W Bush!

Stand-out tunes for me are the aforementioned ‘Sach’Kaj’; the opener ‘Unity’ with Omar Perry licking some serious deejay style lyrics over a wicked riddim; and the broken down and reconstructed ‘a brighter future’ featuring Lua.

This is a top class piece of work with no compromise - just dub wise!

Review by Jumpup

>> Back to CD's & Vinyl reviews

>> Back to Reviews Home