various artists - Macro Dub Infection Volume One

Before I fanboyed out of Lee Perry and King Tubby and Scientist, this was what I thought of when I thought of dub. Less associated in my brain with reggae at that time than as a confluence of many branches of electronic music, I was more familiar with Bill Laswell and Spring Heel Jack at that time. And "Macro Dub Infection Volume One", which I first encounted in the back pages of my buddy's CaseLogic binder, is the key reason why.

I love how broadly defined dub is here. This is a distinctly British endeavor, featuring names like Mad Professor, Laika, 4hero, and the Disciples. The Yanks make a couple of appearances: it's the first time I ever heard Tortoise, and Laswell performs under his illbient Automaton banner. This was also probably the first time I had come across Tricky. "Maxinquaye", "Nearly God", and "Pre-Millenial Tension" were such huge records for me in the late 90s, and this was my first exposure to his genius. There are even surface outliers like COIL and Scorn present, though a dive into their tracks provides the context that, yeah, they belong here.

Released on Virgin in the UK and Caroline in the States, it was nice turning up a copy for $3 at Value Village over the summer and nudging me to really dig back into my mid-90s electronic collection. And apologies for any stray tagging here; I would have gone back and corrected with a fresh upload, but I also downgraded my copy on my hard drive to a 128kbps version and stored the CDs. And most folks I know would trade incomplete tagging for a high sample rate.

Discogs

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various artists - Slaves Of New York (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

What do you think it was that lead to pay a penny (plus $1.75 S&H!) to bring this home? I've never seen the Merchant-Ivory film to which this provides the soundtrack. The only artist here I love is Iggy, and I didn't need to snag this to have "Fall In Love With Me". I don't stan P.I.L. or Boy George, and Maxi Priest & Ziggy Marley are low on my list of reggae artists I'm interested in.

That leaves a weird mix of songs that made for a nice surprise. "Buffalo Stance" broughr back memories of my first Walkman, playing the hell out of Neneh Cherry and Public Enemy and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince before I needed to use deodorant regularly. "Good Life"? Only one of the all-timer house cuts, from one of the Belleville Three. There's a pair of Arto Lindsay tracks here, both derived from the second Ambitious Lovers record. With guest spots from Vernon Reid and John Zorn, these are a duo of pretty awesome mid-80s downtown tracks, the sort of which you'd NEVER see on a major label release these days. The whole thing wraps up with a cut from French new wavers Les Rita Mitsouko, a curiousity the likes of which I found most welcome.

That Dalmatian on the cover looks like it aims to misbehave. What a naughty dog.

Discogs

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The Geraldine Fibbers - Live At The Bottom Of The Hill

I'm not sure how some 90s A&R at Virgin heard the Geraldine Fibbers and imagined a future where they'd top the charts, or even appeal to a larger audience. But I dig it...the same way I dig the Gun Club and Flesh Eaters. And maybe (almost definitely) that "cowpunk" tag is technically incorrect, but fiddle songs for us art-damaged weirdos should fit under that nebulous subgenre.

This here was an American promo-only release, coming on the heels of the G.F.'s 1996 album, Lost Somewhere Between The Earth And My Home. Recorded live at San Francisco's The Bottom Of The Hill, this never got a retail version, which is a shame, because while the recording feels flat at times, it was the recording that finally broke through to me on behalf of Ms. Bozulich and co.

It didn't help me avoid run-on sentences, though.

Discogs

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