High Tone

There are two ways to enjoy this pulverising slice of dub: loud and louder. High Tone’s mission is to remind the world that dub is dance music first and foremost. These French "dub-maitres” have a pretty straight-up formula on this compilation of three EPs; introduce the groove, then lay it down at a break neck tempo. It’s hard to say whether the songs are fundamentally live or programmed, but they hit hard no matter what. Many tunes cruise along well over 130 BPM, making the interpolation of breaks and trance elements a natural progression. Originality is not their strong suit; vocal samples of U Roy, I Roy and Lee Perry break no new ground, but this is a minor criticism when this music is played at an unreasonable volume. They’ve managed to make simplicity work for them — this is dub that goes straight for the jugular and succeeds.