Battle Cry Remixed

Back in the early-1990s, when rave culture took off in the UK, many a party would have a dub room where the likes of Jah Shaka would spin incredibly heavy dub plates. This was a way of linking techno to the Jamaican DJ culture and created some interesting hybrid sounds. Now, with the US having gone EDM crazy (electronic dance music being what they call their version of rave) the same thing appears to be happening. Brooklyn dub duo Tour De Force, having released Battle Cry (an album of ten original dub mixes with noted vocalists Luciano and others guesting on several tunes), decided to reach out to DJs involved in the EDM scene and let them remix any of Battle Cry's dubs. The result is 15 remixes, some more imaginative than others, most respecting the Jamaican flavour of the originals. Thus we have a CD of remixes that thankfully don’t mess much with what Tour De Force have created. But nothing here matches the masterpieces King Tubby, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and their rivals cooked up in Kingston several decades ago.