Dub dot dash

Great news for the modern man
Eru Dangerspiel rolled into town last Friday night with his 12 piece band, and proceeded to tear it up at the monthly Turnaround club night, here in AK.

Eru Dangerspiel is the alias for one Ricky Gooch, formerly of reggae jam band Trinity Roots. I know a lot of folk are in raptures over fellow ex-Trinity Roots member Warren Maxwells' new stoner rock outfit Little Bushman, my preference is for the funky psychedelic soul of Mr Dangerspiel. His debut album Great news for the modern man dropped last year, and it's easily one of the best local releases of the past year. It's a little bit Stevie Wonder and a little Sun Ra too.

This is only the second live performance by Dangerspiel (I think), and his band is a stellar bunch of talent, featuring members of Fat Freddys, Kora, and Open Souls. Friday's show featured lotsa cowbell action, a wicked horn section and, three vocalists including the stunning soul of Laughton Kora, and the delightful sight of Joe Lindsay of Fat Freddys dancing in his singlet and boxers while furiously slapping a pair of jandals together for percussive effect. Oh, and all the band wore Zorro masks, except for the 2nd drummer seated next to Dangerspeil (Julien Dyne of Open Souls) - that fella was in a dinosaur costume. Gutted you missed it? You should be.

There's a few albums that dropped late last year that have surfaced here on local release. A Town Called Addis by Dub Colossus was one of my fave albums of last year (Ethiopia meets London dubmeister), that's in the shops now. Also worth checking, the latest album from Amadou and Mariam, called Welcome to Mali is out here now too. Their previous album Dimanche A Bamako was a big fave of mine. Came out late last year overseas, and made a few best of lists.

Speaking of which, I've noticed this odd trend with CD reviews in the NZ Herald lately - they seem to have spent much of last month reviewing hiphop albums that came out last year and made numerous best of lists, like Q-Tip's The Renaissance, The Knux' Remind me in three days. or Common's Universal Mind Control. Q-Tip's album was available here in early Nov shortly after its US release, and The Knux dropped late October. Common dropped late December, so that may have only recently come out locally. Weird trend, though. That Q-Tip album is mighty good.

Oh, and who was the marriage proposal in the middle of the Alice Russell gig on Saturday night?