Pure And Applied

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Systemwide is a five-man band from the Pacific Northwest with an agenda all its own when it comes to doing things with dub. Alternating songs with long, wending jams, this is agit-dub, dub with a punk sensibility - not so much insofar as the sound, but rather the attitude and the bold social conscience, is concerned. A previous EP, 'Osmani Stepper', highlighted the conflict in Kosova, and "Interference", a call to civil disobedience on 'Pure and Applied', makes even more evident the members' sense of outrage in the face of unjust war. For this stellar release, the band has also recruited Dr. Israel of Brooklyn's famed dub consortium for two tracks, "Crisis Time" and "People of the Book". Always a welcome guest whatever the context, Israel's righteous wrath further underlines the band's moral and ethical engagement.

Systemwide offer a broad palette of colours all squirming for space within the dub framework. Tempos change, textures go from smooth to rough, guitars and melodicas solo and instruments drop in and out of the mix in traditional dub style. But the beat and the bass, ah, they never disappear, and they never relent. The band emerges from the ranks of the new dub as something entirely unique, blasting open an otherwise somewhat insular and introverted scene with raw power and a thought-provoking worldview, and 'Pure and Applied' is its eloquent manifesto. Now watch out for the coming remix version.