Molam Dub

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When this year comes to a close, Molam Dub (30 Hertz Records) by Jah Wobble and The Invaders of the Heart will most likely have withstood whatever the competition can throw at it and be acclaimed the "World" music release of the year. Over the past decade, Wobble has carved himself his own little niche by displaying an enviable capacity for thinking up unusual combinations of "ethnic" and Western musics. Rising Above Bedlam (1991) effectively bumped the Anglo-American pop music paradigm healthily off kilter and subsequent recordings featuring the talents of Arabic, Indian, Far Eastern and Central Asian singers and players alongside American funksters and European rock musicians have achieved varying degrees of success. On his latest effort, he has gone into the studio with the Paris-based Laotian ensemble Molam Lao, a troupe specializing in a particular form of southeast Asian toasting on amorous themes. Wobble and his Invaders supply a reggae rhythm and deep dub spaciousness within which these remarkable and gleeful party vocals echo and careen, often to the accompaniment of a Laotian mouth organ called the khene, reminiscent of the melodica but with its own special, wheezing swing. The result is totally captivating. The singers are just bursting with both tender and ribald joy, often raising their voices in a collective shout as if they just can't hold back how much fun they're having. A lot of artists from outside the reggae sphere proper have been pushing the dub envelope in the past few years, but with Molam Dub Wobble has succeeded in ripping it wide open.