This album focuses on the movement from dub producers like King Tubbys to modern, cool UK urban grooves. It is not afraid to express the rage of our times voiced by Jamaican DJ ‘Mexican’. Dub poet, Ras Jabulani, recites a spiritual voice of courage. The message is positive, spoken by a man who is master of his mind and rhyme:
“ To wake up on a glorious morning / Stretch and see the sun /
Put water to I lips / Breath air to I mind… The simple soul that I am ”
The album’s summation is in the title track. The vocalists zoom in on isolated troubles before panning out on a global picture. The Arabic musical key, weird key change & snake charmer unsettle the composition & evoke biblical scenes where Man is shooting & looting from within the crumbling city walls. It’s chaos; the moral fabric so base, the inability to live side by side still such a modern reality that Dub Poet Ras Jabulani advises us:
“Leave the city, head to where it’s clean / Head for a hilltop, it’s too hot ”
Sessions involved Latin percussionists, Double Bass by Jim Barr (Portishead), Jamaican DJ Youth, Jazz Blowers like Andy Sheppard & Andy Hague, Portuguese & Angolan Soul Singers, Dubby Indian beats by Nitin Sawhney, Dub Poets...And like the Maestros before them, much production was done on home-made valve, tapes, graphic and FX units.
“Don't believe what you read.” Words from the mouth of Jamaican DJ ‘Mexican’ - “Dig it. Don’t mess with it.”
Some of the musicians involved in recording Urban Evacuation.