When you close your eyes and listen to Dub Pistols, your body and mind immediately head out for a night on the town. At the end of the evening, you inevitably end up at a dance club. You then dance until the club lights get turned on and you’re ushered out into the haze of the early morning. The ecstasy, joy, and exhaustion emanating from your pores tell the tale. Yeah, you’re unsure of the time, but completely sure of the fun you just experienced.
Since 1996, Dub Pistols has released some of the catchiest and most danceable electronic music around.
With their new album, Frontline, this multi-cultural music collective show age ain’t nothing but a number. With eight full-lengths under their belts, you can expect to hear a polished band doing what they love. The record mixes everything from electronica, jungle, reggae, hip-hop, ska, punk, and dub. Put together as a complete album, it’s one hell of a DJ set, as the group invited MCs like Seanie T, Freestylers, Natty Campbell, and Ragga Twins to collaborate.
The highs and lows of Frontline flow so well together, allowing the listener to catch their breath before the next bass drop. Sure, you can listen to it as background music or skip around track-to-track, but the project truly needs to be experienced with your full attention to be appreciated fully. At the very least, I recommend listening to the tracks with a high quality set of headphones. You’ll catch more details in the drum fills and detect hidden intricacies in the arrangements, giving you an even greater regard for the Dub Pistols‘ talent.
On songs like “Moving On,” you can clearly hear the influence of bands like The Specials. The hypnotic ska rhythm serving as the backbone to the entire song immediately reminded me of “Ghost Town.” In a year where we lost Terry Hall, the tune serves as a fitting tribute to that musical icon.
If you’re unfamiliar with Dub Pistols, Frontline is a perfect entry point into their world.
They’re just as innovative and unique as they were when Barry Ashworth and Jason O’Bryan started the group in the late ’90s. This masterclass from true pioneers clearly shows that the group has no signs of slowing down on. It also emphasizes the continued importance of socially relevant dance music that will make you sweat and make you think. You can’t ask for much more than that.