Various

Another great release from Wordsound. The cover art sets the tone for the aggro-dub within — the image of the burning American flag on the CD tray and track names such as "Al Qaida" tell you it’s going to be a rough ride. Featuring very little dub from the roots, Certified Dope Vol. 4 continues this series with an assemblage of spine crushers and outward-bound riddims. Of the former, you've got to hand it Zion Train and Philosophy Major for some hard and steely dub. Organic hybrids are represented by the no-wave leaning "Disco Lips” by HIM and a fresh sounding Twilight Circus dub guided by a liquid bass line. Of course, no Wordsound release is complete without a Laswell, and his "Finite State Machine Dub” is a cut above much of what he usually puts out. Things get more slow, slurry and strung out as the disc progresses, but Teledubgnosis jacks up the energy level and are easily the stars of the latter half of the disc.