Kaly Live Dub

If the late Derek Bailey coined the term "non-idiomatic improvisation” to propose improvising, which doesn’t seek to further one specific tradition, perhaps "non-idiomatic dub” is on its way. Certainly Mei Tei Sho and Kaly Live Dub would be among those. KLD have a strong reggae backbone, but there’s just as much techno, rock and various Eastern tinged soundscapes to their brew. Their third album finds them abandoning the drum & bass influence they sported some years ago (except for one judiciously used instance on "Alfraid”) to concentrate again on mid-tempo-to-steppers grooves. The blend of samples and live playing is very deft; sampled jazz brushwork gives a different dimension to "Cyclic Spleen” and Japanese koto enlivens "Don’t Disturb the Dragon.” These compositions aren’t just sample tapestries over unchanging groove; there are excellent turnarounds in almost every song, which is evidence of a tight live band. These inventive breakdowns and pauses in the music create great drama. Their combination of live playing (hence the name) and clever engineering keeps each groove sounding fresh; the experimentation within the band and within the studio is a hallmark of so much contemporary French dub. The moral of this dub story is that you never know from whence delays will spring forth in shimmering waves. Kaly Live Dub are such a tight blend of textures and rhythms, one can’t pin them down to one genre.