Radioaxom: A Dub Transmission

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Although they have hitherto collaborated on innumerable projects, bass giants Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble have never actually released any product under the duo's own name.

'Radioaxiom' is now the worthy recipient of this honour. Spawned from Wobble's entering Laswell's New York studio to simply put down a few ideas while on a stateside visit, the dub spectre so familiar to them both soon manifested itself and the record demanded to be made.

Some of the usual suspects from the Laswell stable were soon drafted, including Amina Claudine Myers, Nicky Skopelitus, Graham Haynes, Nils Petter Molv*r and possibly the greatest quartet of percussionists ever assembled on a single CD - reggae stalwart Sly Dunbar and avant-fusionist Hamid Drake on drumkits, Aiyb Dieng on chatan and congas and Karsh Kale on junglized tabla.

The trumpets of Haynes and Molvær glisten whenever they appear and Myers folds restrained funky and gospel-like organ lines deftly into the mix. An album of stunning musical virtuousity all the way through, perhaps the musical highpoint is the third track, 'Virus B', where the dissonances and melodies of the organ and (Haynes's?) trumpet float and flit with consummate skill over a thick bottom-feeding groove.

Add the vocals of recent Laswell discovery, Ethiopian songstress Gigi and her sister Tigist Shibabaw on 'Alsema Dub' - spiritied East African skank with an irresistable little guitar riff dipping in and out of the mix - and you've got another, maybe the best, dub masterpiece to add to your Wobble and/or Laswell collections