The Easy Star All-Stars Dubble Your Pleasure
"Versioning," the reuse of sturdy and sticky rhythmic material, is a reggae cornerstone. There's pleasure to be found in repetition, a notion that the Easy Star All-Stars have exploited with a certain conceptual genius since their 2003 release of Dub Side of the Moon, the New York-based collective's meticulously arranged and elegantly performed reggae version of Pink Floyd's ridiculously popular psychedelic masterpiece. The All-Stars followed up Dub Side's success in 2006 with Radiodread, an equally ambitious reimagining of another dark and moody generational touchstone, Radiohead's OK Computer, and again in 2009 with an upbeat switcheroo, the easily decipherable Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band.
Disenchanted by both the digital dreck then coming out of Jamaica and an American reggae scene that had ossified around Bob Marley, Michael Goldwasser, Lem Oppenheimer and Eric Smith formed the Easy Star label in 1996. They wrote material, booked various singers and recorded a batch of solid singles that were collected on 1998's Easy Star Vol. 1. Oppenheimer is credited with the notion of recording a dub version of Dark Side and Goldwasser began work on its arrangements in 2000. "The overall idea for all these projects," Goldwasser says between sips of Yogi Cold Season tea, "if I had to sum it up, would be: Imagine if the Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper's in Jamaica during the late 1970s or early '80s — my favorite period of reggae."
The care and taste with which Goldwasser approached the challenge of reconfiguring Dark Side's musical DNA is apparent from the murmuring voices and Nyabinghi drum beats that open "Speak to Me/Breathe (In the Air)." Spacy David Gilmour guitar solos become smooth DJ toasting. Using different guest vocalist for each track, Goldwasser and production partner-engineer Victor Axelrod (AKA Ticklah) body-snatch the Floyd's original material and replace it with the alien yet comforting essence of planet Jamaica.
According to Goldwasser, Dub Side wasn't intended to be the first in a series of remakes. But the popularity of both the album and the top-notch touring group the label assembled to deliver it unto audiences (with the side benefit of attracting converts to reggae), made a follow-up attractive. Radiodread, their surprising yet logical choice, presented a larger challenge for Goldwasser than Dark Side. For one thing, while reggae is usually in 4/4 time, seven out of OK Computer's twelve tracks are in other time signatures. In addition to getting his grooves in line, Goldwasser brought out the taut, compelling melodies that often lurked in the background of this dark, dystopic vision. (Thom Yorke liked Radiodread so much, particularly Toots Hibbert's vocals on "Let Down," that he touted it from at least one stage.)
Compared to Dark Side of the Moon and OK Computer, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a sunny afternoon during the Summer of Love. Easy Star drummer Patrick Dougher suggested the project during a Dub Side recording session, and Goldwasser took a year and a half to arrange the upbeat pop-art masterpiece after Radiodread. Less dubby than its predecessors, Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band is a richly ornamented reggae triumph full of real horns and strings but adamantly "no samples."
Just as every track on Sgt. Pepper's reflects a different musical style — from the woozy 10/8 sitar rock of George Harrison's "Within You Without You" to the circus nostalgia of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" — Easy Star's version evokes nearly as many different styles of reggae. Goldwasser massaged "When I'm Sixty-Four" into an early-'80s Studio One dancehall riddim modeled, he says, on guest vocalist Sugar Minott's "Herbman Hustling." The legendary DJ U-Roy toasts over "Lovely Rita" in the proto-rap style he pioneered during the '60s. The Mighty Diamonds bring their upful vocal-trio finesse to "Getting Better." And Steel Pulse vocalist David Hinds transports his band's pop-leaning British skank to "Good Morning."
"The reggae beat is infectious in and of itself," says percussionist Ivan Katz by way of neatly nailing the appeal of Easy Star's trio of classic covers. "And there are a lot of great reggae grooves that aren't necessarily great songs. So when you blend great grooves with amazing melodies, it's a particularly cool combination." There have been plenty of prior reggae covers of the Beatles, but none honor the originals as imaginatively Easy Star's. The only question remaining is, What icon will they big up next?
