High Above Harlesden [Box Set]

Creation Rebel are pioneers of the UK dub scene. Emerging from working-class London in the late 1970s, their music stepped on untrodden ground, where spacious dub reggae met industrial experimentation and the punk influences of the surrounding zeitgeist. Their 1978 debut (Dub from Creation) also documented the beginnings of stalwart producer Adrian Sherwood’s career, and anticipated the birth of his On-U Sound label. However, touring as Prince Far I’s band, with six seminal albums under their own name, Creation Rebel came to a sudden halt: core member Keith ‘Lizard’ Logan was jailed for an incident involving HM Customs, and, in 1983, Prince Far I was killed. 40 years later, in October 2023, the band released their comeback (Hostile Environment) with Sherwood steadfast at the producer’s helm, alongside a core of ‘Crucial’ Tony, Charlie ‘Eskimo’ Fox, Mr Magoo and myriad guests.

High Above Harlesden brings together the Creation Rebel story via six albums. The result is an opulent slice of sonic history. While firmly within the dub framework, the collection is diverse and endlessly engaging, drawing from an array of sounds, influences and studio experiments. Largely instrumental album Dub from Creation includes ticking drums that dissolve into echoing trails, and hypnotic basslines, reverberating beneath analogue effects, spluttering drum hits and bursts of melodica. Close Encounters of the Third World (1978), meanwhile, leans into vocal melodies, with sublime falsetto backings that reach a rocksteady-esque quality. Accompanying horn lines spin out of a rootsy dub that communes with the pit of the belly. Elsewhere, Starship Africa (1980) transmits from an otherworldly space, where extra-terrestrial voices meet backwards tape and clanging, alien percussion, while melodic bass and pulsing rhythms drive the record, gripping the ear. Other moments suggest post-punk, avant jazz, dancehall, politics (Hostile Environment, notably, references British anti-migrant policy) and beyond.

Ever-relevant, from honeyed vocals to deep space, any remotely dub-inclined listener will find depth, beauty and chills-inducing sounds in this crucial, captivating collection.