Y in Dub album cover
Y in Dub

Dennis Bovell , The Pop Group

2021
Mute

Y in Dub is a quiet triumph that subtracts the noisiest bits of Y, the band’s 1979 debut, without diminishing its aggression. It is a very dub record insofar as it allowed original producer Denis Bovell to revisit the nature of the individual instruments and alter his decisions some forty years later. He chops down Mark Stewart’s lyrics into encouraging interjections, like stickers. “Western values that mean nothing to her!” and “My little girl was born on a ray of sound!” float in the echo, louder than anything else, sometimes louder than seems healthy. The guitar is softened up and the bass inflated, leaving many tracks to breathe with a luscious capacity. At several points, the drums drop out for a few bars while the other instruments push back through clouds of echo like Mad Max outrunning a sand storm. On Y In Dub, the band plays peekaboo with itself, and impoverished ideas of “aboutness” are dissolved.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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