The new album from UK roots reggae band Dubwiser, Bring The Light, collects favourite songs from across the band’s career, adds a couple of newbies for good measure and delivers an enticing mix of dub, roots and joyful ska.

Release Date:  11^th July 2025

Label: PinDrop Records

Formats: Digital

DUBWISER – A REAL PEDIGREE

Their pedigree is unarguable.  Jonas Torrance – vocalist/trombonist with UK roots reggae act Dubwiser – served his apprenticeship on Oxford’s thriving music scene, alongside fellow luminaries of that scene like Ride, Radiohead and Supergrass.  Vocalist/drummer/producer Spider J has collaborated with a host of names like Mad Professor, UK Apache and Dub Pistols, as well as legends including Stevie Wonder and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.  And, to complete the Dubwiser lineup, Sierra Leonean brothers, John and Eddy Smythe (respectively, guitar and bass & keyboards) bring along an enticing combo of West African grooves and blues stylings.

CHARACTERISTICALLY IRONCLAD GROOVES

Bring the Light is Dubwiser’s 6th release and follows 2011 debut album, A Crack In Paradise, and a string of EPs – most recently, Come Correct, which appeared in February of this year.  The tracks that comprise Bring the Light take influences from ska, rocksteady and reggae, with added tinges of Latin/Caribbean and African rhythms.  Dubwiser wanted to bring out a record for 2025 that: “… has ‘characteristically ironclad grooves’ and a 21st century sound, blended with old-school singing and a subtext of positivity, optimism and empowerment.”

And that’s an objective that has been comprehensively achieved.  Bring The Light is a bright, uplifting album, packed with positive messages – all delivered to rhythms that are utterly irresistible.

SLEEK, FAST-MOVING, CLASSIC REGGAE

Dubwiser revisit Come Correct, this year’s EP release, to kick off this new collection with that record’s title track.  Guests Josh Wilkinson and Loz Taylor supplement the band’s sleek, fast moving classic reggae sound with some tasty horn parts to get Bring the Light up and running.

A 2025 edit of Smile Plenty, the title track of Dubwiser’s 2023 EP, features Oxford singer/songwriter Asher Dust and up and coming American singer/songwriter Inky Skies.  It’s bright and sun-drenched and it swings like the pendulum in the town hall clock.  John S plays some lovely, relaxing guitar and the bursts of trumpet are heavenly.  Smile Plenty is considered to be a Dubwiser classic, and it’s easy to see why.

“REGGAE COMES TO LIFT YOU SOUL”

“Born in the UK, comin’ in from hot, hot, JK” are the words that launch the joyous Rude Bwoy General.  It’s a song that celebrates ‘positive vibes’ and the tune is just as upbeat as the lyrical message.  “Reggae music comes to lift your soul,” sings Jonas, and it sure does!

The press release for Bring The Light describes 1 Tune for Mi 2C as “A showcase for Dubwiser’s ska roots on the UK scene” and cites bands like Madness and Bad Manners as being amongst those that inspired the song.  I’d beg to differ on that score – this one is the REAL thing…

DONNA SUMMER TERRITORY?

Spider J took the reins to remix Slowly, another song considered to be a Dubwiser classic, and the result of his labours is fantastic.  It’s a sophisticated number, full of gravitas and guest vocalist Natalie Maddix of The House Gospel Choir adds a dreamlike quality with her sweet, intimate, tones.  We’re venturing into Donna Summer territory here…

Dubwiser’s signature roots reggae sound is overlayed with a Latin flavour in Keep The Music Live, a song that’s described as “…a call to musical arms.”  The band are in the driving seat, but they don’t detract from Jonas’s half-sung, half-rapped vocals.  The sound is supplemented by Dave Fulwood (Zion Train)’s trumpet for the divine Come Forward.  It’s a song that, with lines like “A voice can heal all, if a voice is heard,” calls for clarity and unity in troubled times.  And that call is made with love and determination, to a strong, pulsing bassline and Dave’s trumpet highlights.

THOUGHT-PROVOKING

Perhaps the album’s most thought-provoking track, Johnny tells the story of John “Johnny” Smythe, father of Dubwiser members John and Eddy, who left his Sierra Leone home to become a WW2 RAF airman.  The song’s lyrics tell the dramatic story of how Johnny was “…shot to the right and to the left” during the 26 successful missions that he flew, before capture and imprisonment during his 27th mission.  It’s a celebration of an incredible life and the West African pop stylings that pervade are entirely appropriate.

Events take a lighter turn for The Chunnyman, a song in honour of Roger Romyn, beekeeper, landlord of The Wheatsheaf in the Oxfordshire village of Chinnor and a close friend of the band.  And that friendship is celebrated with a slice of good-time reggae and lines like: “In-a-de Wheatsheaf, everyone bums around to dub and ska.”  I’ll be paying The Wheatsheaf a visit in the not-to-distant future, that’s for sure…

Jonas wrote Papa is a Rudie as a “…celebration of family and mis-spent youth.”  And it truly is celebratory, with the voices of guests Bam and Akeel and Miss Megumi hitting the listener’s ears from every conceivable direction.  Jonas’s vocals are passionate and intense and the horns from ‘Sexy’ Steve Anan and Dave Fullwood are wonderful.

THE EMPIRE WINDRUSH

Everyone likely to enter the Dubwiser orbit will, surely, be familiar with the story of The Empire Windrush.  This album concludes with a song, “Dedicated to all those who sailed on the Windrush,” which recounts the experience of one of those early, brave, pioneers.  The song’s subject is a young Jamaican woman, travelling to the UK, from Jamaica, her heart loaded with hope, anticipation and trepidation.  She has a one-way ticket, which, she says, will take her “halfway home.”  The other half of her journey will, she hopes, take place when she earns enough to take back to Jamaica to ease the lives of the loved ones she’s left behind.  It doesn’t work out that way, of course. 

The song is a moving tribute to those who had the courage to make that first journey into the unknown and it also contains a message of hope to those wishing to make that successful, fulfilled journey back to their distant origins.  It’s a fitting end to a wonderful album.

Listen to Smile Plenty – a track from the album – below:

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