Dub Reviews
Artist: Dub Fanatic Cover scan:
Title: Terrible Riddims
Label: Mossburg Music
Catalogue Number: MB-2013
Format: CD, MP3, AIFF
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Result: Not so terrible!
Review date: 2008-07-09
Detailed review:
Dub Fanatic aka Johnny Horn shouldn't be so harsh to himself. His riddims aren't that terrible. In fact, they are pretty nice. That leads me to saying: Yet another interesting dub release out of Canada.

Obviously, DF is into roots dub music and so it is no wonder that his "Terrible Riddims" are all produced in the classic 70s dub style tradition (check out "Red Handed Dub A and B" and tell me it doesn't sound like from back in the days). You get deep, groovy and minimalistic tunes, sometimes one drops with flying cymbals and dry snare drums, sometimes heavy stepping riddim sections. It sounds a bit smokey, he possibly blew some ganja smoke over his recording gear. And it is dark as well, wouldn't surprise me if he had the curtains down while making the tunes. ;)

My favourite tunes are "Pow Wow", a very intense one drop and "Shibambu", an ice-cold stepper which reminds me a lot of the late 70s / early 80s Scientist productions. And also the title track "Terrible Riddim" which I guess I would chose if I had to name only one single favourite tune. "Viva Dub 1" should also not be underestimated. (And here I want to add that I am not 100% sure if the titles are correct because I got the MP3 version of the album and my JetAudio player shows different trac information than the actual tune is named, so for example "Terrible Riddim" is shown as "Steak and Fries", a tune which I don' t like too much. So I hope my name choices are correct. Not that you think later on: What, why did he write xyz is a stepper when it's a one drop or something).

Anyway, if you're into roots dub in a modern fashion, I recommend this album without a doubt. You get 15 tunes and the price is not bad either as you can see here.