Atom / Small Rocks / The Rip Off Artist
Dub Tribunl
Inflatabl
The suspension of disbelief. It’s a challenge all fiction writers must face. To get us to step into their ride and allow ourselves to be taken away in/by it. The experimental writer has even a harder time because a lot of times the audience is just damned hostile to the artist’s whims. That’s exactly the challenge Atom, Small Rocks, and The Rip Off Artist face with Dub Tribunl. Though Atom has proven his brilliance many times over (Senor Coconut, Flanger, Geez n Gosh), it is, at first, hard to reconcile his click-hop approach to dub. To abstract that deep, walking bass and otherworldly reverb effects seems a harder marriage to pull off than J. Lo’s latest foray. And that prejudice seems to hold fairly true for the beginning of the disc. However, something strange does happen. The collage starts to come together, and you start to realize that this triumvirate has constructed a unique and almost beautiful work. The maverick experimentation that created dub is reincarnated, and there is nothing to do but revel in the heady delight. This is everything but a pat approach to music. It is daring and unusual and a Picasso-like pleasure to be appreciated, treasured, and savored.
Atom: http://www.atom-heart.com • The Rip Off Artist: http://www.ripoffartist.net • Inflatabl Records: http://www.inflatabl.com
