Welcome: Jah Wobble presents PJ Higgins

With this new release, Sonar Kollektiv is delighted to introduce an artist with a reputation that precedes him. The living legend that is Jah Wobble would actually need no further introduction. As a founding member of Public Image Limited (PiL), he has collaborated with Holger Czukay, Brian Eno, Francois Kevorkian, Björk, Peter Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor and Bill Laswell (to name but a few). Thanks to his experimental journeys into the nooks and crannies of dub and world music, the London born and raised John Wardle (his real name) has become one of the most influential musicians/producers of our time. There’s probably no other bass player who constantly reinvents himself as recklessly and unabashedly as Wobble. Over the last seventeen years, he chiefly released material on his own label 30 Hertz Records. Therefore, it’s an even bigger honour for Sonar Kollektiv to have him put out his latest work on their imprint. On the upcoming album Inspiration, Wobble has teamed up with producer/engineer Alex McGowan (Tricky, Martina Topley Bird, Wilko Johnson) and the London-based singer PJ Higgins, who has collaborated with a host of artists over the years, lending her quirky and distinct anecdotes to many a project and recordings. Currently, she co-fronts the critically acclaimed Dub Colossus, who were winners of the Songlines Cross Cultural Collaboration 2013. The album was mostly recorded and mixed at McGowanÕs Space Eko Studio in London. As a pre-album 12inch, we get the track Watch How You Walk in  three remixes that couldn’t be more diverse. For instance, let’s take Dennis Bovell. He is an undisputed maestro of UK reggae Ð having worked as a musician, producer, writer, and arranger on countless reggae, punk, pop and rock albums. His dub albums were an inspiration to the likes of Adrian Sherwood and Mad Professor, as well as being the pioneer of Lover’s Rock. His remix of Watch How You Walk catches that specific UK sound system vibe perfectly and leaves enough room for PJ Higgins’ voice to shine to the fullest. For extra rubba dub effect he even adds some of his own ad-libs. Next up is Anthony Parchment, aka DJ Kutz. This younger producer draws from bass and post-dubstep as well as basic electronic music forms such as house and techno. He sports a more dapper rework interpreting Jah Wobble’s dub roots to work for the current flavour of the floors around the world. Kutz does this masterfully with enough natty twists to maintain his remix timeless like the original. Future bass music.Not many artists have the privilege to even think about asking the godfather of dub, Lee Scratch Perry, to have a go at remixing their material. The former Upsetter, now at the age of 77, still manages to deliver some pure magic and an updated 2014 version of what he used to cook up in his infamous Black Ark studios in Kingston more than forty years ago. Be prepared for a sound design that is as futuristic as it can get and some added vamp rhymes by the master himself. Even without this remix, this release would be a highlight of 2014. But with Lee Perry’s contribution, it’s one of the essential 12inches of the year. Let’s bag it in!

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