Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Twenty years after their first release, the band that the great John Peel championed with passion, Dreadzone have released their latest opus Escapades and the result is something that perhaps the great man would no doubt have raved about for many years to come.
Not only is the usual hybrid of Reggae and hard Folk fused with the electronic-dub very much in evidence throughout this articulate and thoughtful album but its charm lies with the appreciation of memory, of battles fought, wrongs righted and knowing still that the war is from over, there are still far too many injustices to take care of. Dreadzone capture the antagonism of the age superbly, the ever creeping anger at the way many have become marginalised just for being who they are whilst others revel in the misery caused.
Escapades takes all this and presents great tracks such as the superb Next Generation, and it’s morality tale of what we may have already inflicted onto those following in our wake when we have left, a tremendously seedy affair in Too Late, the blistering Rise Up, and the respectful, almost frightening confrontational question and repose of Fire In The Dark.
The members of Dreadzone combine so well, as they always seem to have done to make this album a treat, an album that holds a very large mirror up on the state we have found ourselves in and what it has cost us in terms of our humanity. What gives it that extra snap, that bolt of electricity is the added bonus of Mick Jones, an old band mate of Greg Roberts from his Big Audio Dynamite days, to come along and perform on the outstanding track Too Late in which Punk Rock god meets the Dub phenomenon, it is an exercise that is just worth buying the album for alone.
Once in a while it is good to get shaken up by something new that makes the legs quiver in anticipation and Dreadzone are the ones to have supplied that feeling. `
Dreadzone come to Liverpool on December 7th at the o2 Academy on Hotham Street.
Ian D. Hall