Dub Reviews
Artist: Necessary Intergalactic Cooperation Cover scan:
Title: In Dub
Label: Hammerbass
Catalogue Number: BASSCD030
Format: CD
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Result: Just the name itself is worth the money
Review date: 2008-06-04
Detailed review:
OK, let's start with the name: Necessary Intergalactic Cooperation. Why is it necessary? Can anyone explain it to me, please? ;-) Apart from that, it's not that intergalactic either because NIC is based in Oslo, Norway. Wait, Oslo? Some e-mail conversation from back in the days came to my memory... Oslo, Ted Parson, Teledubgnosis... what happened to them? The answer: N.I.C. Aha! So, here we go.

So, N.I.C. is a dub-oriented band. But when I look on the tracklist of this album, what do I see? Twilight Circus, Dub Gabriel,Spectre (oh, so he is still making music?!) and several other artists. How come? The answer: It's some kind of a remix project:N.I.C. played some studio sessions and delivered the tracks to the remixing artists and they made completely different songs out of the files. Seriously, if I wouldn't have been told that the above is the case, I would have never realised that but would have thought that all the songs are individual songs. Interesting.

So, there are 13 tracks available and the outcome is quite different. It starts with a brilliant rootically "#1 Dub" from Twilight Circus, continues via a bass-driven "Youre in Norge now Dub" by Youth and an electronical version by Dub Gabriel, focussing on a vocal speech and less on the music. Afterwards, it gets dark and "dirty" with Dalek's "Deadverse Dub", kinda trip-hoppy, I thought of Tricky although it sounds completely different. Spectre's "The Ill Saint Dub" disappointed me, maybe because I was too curious about the fact that he did some music again. But it's too ill to my ears. Dr Marble's "The Love We Had Dub" is some kind of rock-blues-tune and I don't like it either.

But then comes "Big Smoke Dub" by JK Flesh. The title of the song is program. It's cloudy, it's massive, it's dense and thick and smoky. One of the wildest dubs I have come across yet. And a tune which stands out in here. Wow!

The rest which follows had no chance to compete: Mothboy's "Bare Elements no Fuss Dub" is a sweet and calm dub, hurts nobody and reminds me a bit of Roots Control. Teledubgnosis vs N.I.C. sounds exactly like I would expect from Teledubgnosis (and no, I cannot describe in words how they sound, sorry). Amadou Sall who dubs "The Darkside" is too weird and hard for my ears, King Salmonella delivers a very slow and deep dub with some kind of churchical sound feeling but he has to work on his titles. "Twiddly John's Oysterhouse Dub" doesn't really invite to check it out. Is that a restaurant in Oslo? Or a brothel? ;-)

"Double Pain in the Rain" by Kanario D Bogart sounds like Humphrey's canary, just different. And finally, the CD ends with another veeeery deep "NIC'n'MOK", featuring a didgeridoo and some cockatoo (in order to end this review with a rhyme).

All in all, a very nice CD with very different songs on it, although they are all based on the same stuff (whatever this stuff may be). Now there is only one question left to answer: On my radioshow on 9th April 2007, I played a song called "Materialis" from a band called NIC. I have this song as MP3 but I have no idea what it is and where it came from. Is it this NIC or someone else? If you know more, let me know, thanks.

P. S. I hate the cover! It makes me scared... ;)