Jah Wobble – Dub, Volume 1: Album Review

By Seuras Og on 21st July 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Dauntingly worldwide vision of dub, through the eye of East End visionary Wobble, and set there as well.

Release Date : 18th July 2025

Format : CD / Vinyl / Digital

Prodigious and prolific

This is Wobble, right, one of the more prolific production lines of musical output we have, and, as any fule kno, this is far from his first excursion into dub, he having dabbled and dowsed this bassy glade from the minute he burst into acclaim with PiL. So why the title, apart from suggesting a whole lot more to come? This is down to Dimple Records, who seem suddenly to be popping up all over the shop, they being the recorded home of the Bring Your Own Hammer collective, sorry, faction, whose My Grief On The Sea, featuring Wobble on one track, was reviewed so recently.

He has recently signed to the label. Whether, of course, it will have any bearing on the prodigious torrent of releases hurtling forth from his own imprint, 30 Hertz, is any guess or the myriad collaborations elsewhere. (Viz, with his sons’ band, Tian Qiri, taken quickly last month.

important reasons of importance

There are, however, a number of other important reasons that render this release maybe more important than the 1001 (estimate) before, the first of which being because it is so darn good. Wobble can be, let’s say, a little precious, and liable to scare the horses with some of his more idiosyncratic moments. Don’t tell him I said that, mind, as he’s a big fella, however zen he is now said to be. But, here it feels he has taken extra care in fining and refining each the eight tracks, with a greater polish and with greater consistency. Indeed, should anyone dub curious want to know quite what it might all mean, this might be a good place to start.

OK, once you have pointed them in the requisite essential directions of King Tubby, Mad Professor and Lee Perry. But, this is the rub, dub isn’t, or needn’t be, all about reggae. And, like fellow Brit, Adrian Sherwood, he has been trying to widen the range of genres that can be plated in dub style. This is not a reggae album, but it might contain love songs.

Chopped and spooled dub-alchemicals

Wobble is keen to assert this is an East End album, as in of London. From that area himself, his family tree is typical, refugees ending their exodus from wherever to the sound of Bow Bells. With his forbears, it was the Irish Famine that led to Wardles, his real name, being in the East End, mingling with all the other immigrants, at that time often beleaguered Jews from Eastern Europe, all scratching a precarious living, often on the water. As such, there are myriad hints and clues, from sources across the globe, meeting here in well-crafted collisions that embrace the paradox of their meeting and meld.

There is often, thus, a cinematic feel to it, which gets taken a step further. Wobble loves his soundtracks, TV and film, dropping them into his live shows. (There is even a 2015 release, Covers, which collects together his take on the OSTs from Get Carter, The Sweeney and Midnight Cowboy, amongst others.) Many the melodies here carry that semblance, if then chopped and spooled into the necessary dub-alchemicals.

bass grumble

Dub In The East starts with his bass grumbling out a melody in a style of a chap, always a chap, humming a jolly tune, under his breath, as he goes about his duties. The drums form a staccato clatter and keyboards add chordal echoes. It is a wonderful contrast, added to by the glossy horns that dip in and out. Hollywood, Bollywood even, through a mystic haze of let’s just say smoke. Utterly absorbing, it makes you more smile than skank, audacity and expertise holding hands together, skipping down the street. It makes you want to hug whoever you are with, which, in my case, confused the dog no end.

Talking of dogs, Tyson Dub Remix then bounds in on some now athletic bass, like the namesake limbering up in the ring. Yet this is nothing to do with the prizefighter, rather relating to Wobble’s beloved and deceased pooch of that name. And it is a remix, Tyson Dub original stemming from 2021. This is a slightly cleaner and smoother version of that, and pootles along convincingly and competently. This has more of JA lilt to it, but stil not in your face. Enough, I’ll wager, to have you swaying, though. even as the effects get increasingly dialled up.

A formidable construction, no questions asked

What is more existential than dub might be a question to ponder on. But another and more pressing question is that this is billed as a completely solo enterprise, with it all being written, performed, and arranged entirely by Wobble. I was looking to see who the additional musicians might be, and there are none, with the only asistance coming via Anthony Chapman’s mastering. Yes, I know he can drum as well as play bass, and is likely proficient enough on a keyboard. What trickery is the brass, or can he play that now too? Samples? Synths?

In the end, I don’t care, and, as if to answer the first question, Existential Dub now wafts in mysteriously, by asking further questions. It is a classic, repeated piano lines over a hypnotic bass/drum groove. More overt synth lines proclaim a self-supporting riff, as some muted/treated Shaft/wah-wah guitar shuffles to the fore. It then becomes almost orchestral, if with a stutter. At nearly 8 minutes it is a formidable construction, with each layer, deeper and deeper as they go, all demanding full attention. When the repeated moaning vocal starts, it is yet another swerve into the exotic and I love it, forgiving even the fade.

steptoe & wobble ride again

Losing All Sense Of Balance Dub isn’t actually that random a name, with a bur-dee-bur-dee-bur bass pattern that lurches out with a, sorry, wobble, a bit like the leary TV themes of 60’s and 70’s comedies. I’m thinking Steptoe, as it then becomes a bizarre mix of Massive Attack and Pink Floyd, with some Kool and the Gang in there for good measure. Odd and marvellous in equal measure. Is that some good old cock-er-nee joanna tinkling in there too? Wobble does add some of his off-kilter spoken asides to this one, but thankfully few, reining in that one tendency of his that can gripe. Some jazzy sax suggests it isn’t a sample at all, adding yet more kudos. I’m giddy.

Tom hardy???

Lovers Rock Dub suggests it may be more traditionally derived. And it sort of is, as he now bursts into treated song: “my love will last for ever for you, my dear“, repeated, multi-tracked, distorted and auto-outoftuned. The old bugger carries it off too, with the refrain diving deep into and under your skin, an earworm of lingering intent, both the chorus, if you can call it that, and the lovely bass line. Still grinning like a loon, Tragic Slavic Dub breaks that mood, upping the ante, breaking into a real look over your shoulder Gangs Of London vibe. Balkan style fauxchestration spirals in momentarily, the sound of gypsy fiddles and klezmer clarinets, before taking over the track fully into that direction. What was that character played by Tom Hardy in Peaky Blinders? This could be his fever dream.

Echotastic

Exhausted by that, Sweet Dub then sort of is and sort of isn’t. Think sweet as in sweetshop, it is the sound of e numbers in a 5 year old brain, burbling bass and skittering keyboard glissandos. Again, the bass line is repeated to perfection. When ice-rink organ, or is it fair-ground, enters the fray, is this the second half the Sunday afternoon treat? Possibly the simplest of the tracks here, it is necessary ballast amidst the cantileverd fusions that abound it. Which is, of course, to what we return to, for Old Jewish East End Of London Dub, with train and car horns honking echotastically. A siren fires up and the mood is set, as reverbs verberate and vibrate equally.

Melodica makes a late appearance, along side the kaleidoscopic array of kitchen sinks all playing their part. Laughs and wails appear from nowhere, disappearing as quickly. This really is Alfie Solomon territory, that was his name, yes, and some. The second longest tune on the disc, it makes for a terrific finale and is fine reflection of the state of Wobble’s maverick magpie mind. “Enough with the reverb already, oi veh” is the spoken word conclusion, “driving me mad“.

Jah Wobble hits the road later this year:

OCTOBER

Sat 04 Skipton Town Hall (with PRE-SHOW Q&A)
Wed 08 Huddersfield Parish
Fri 10 Margate Elsewhere
Sat 11 Lewes Con Club
Fri 24 Stoke On Trent Sugarmill
Wed 29 Newcastle Cluny
Thu 30 Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms
Fri 31 Glasgow Oran Mor (with PRE-SHOW Q&A)

NOVEMBER

Sat 01 Galashiels Mac Arts
Wed 05 Exeter Cavern
Thu 06 Newport Riverfront Theatre (with PRE-SHOW Q&A)
Fri 07 Bideford Palladium Club
Sat 08 Truro The Old Bakery
Sun 09 Birmingham Hare & Hounds (METAL BOX)
Wed 12 London Signature Brew