Utterly inspiring in their dogged perseverance while aging like a fine vino, the Mekons returned last year with yet another solid album, Horror, its dozen songs easily up to the band’s usual high standard as they steadfastly refused to stagnate. Backslide? Absolutely fucking not. As evidence, here comes Horrorble (Mekons vs Tony Maimone in Dub Conference).
As one might ascertain, a decidedly psychedelic strain of Jamaican roots is part of the method in collaboration with the veteran New York City-based drummer-producer and friend of the Mekons, Tony Maimone, formerly of Pere Ubu and numerous other concerns. This new set further invigorates a still-fresh batch of tunes while presenting alternate sonic avenues and avoiding any trite stylistic maneuvers. The album is available June 5 on vinyl, compact disc, and digital with a bonus track.
The most overtly Jamaican-tinged moment in the Mekons’ recent scheme comes at the beginning of Horror, with the beautifully sour Brit post-punk reggae-rock buoyance of “The Western Design” and its deliciously bent dubbing-out, which lands as track five on Horrorble. And it becomes clear that Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh, Dave Trumfio, Susie Honeyman, Rico Bell, Steve Goulding, and Lu Edmonds, the current and long-established lineup of the Mekons, are disinterested in any predictable linear moves.
That’s not to say that Horrorble isn’t a fully dubbed-up affair. It’s just that the warpage is more in line with NYC or London than Kingston. The pretty carnival-esque indie pop of “Sad and Sad and Sad” and its corresponding version, brighter and bigger and revealing a timidly strange Brit-folk root, are sequenced second on both albums.
One of Horror’s great joys is when the violin enters the techno-laced guitar-pop of the third track, “Glasgow.” The Horrorble version is swaddled in an echoing and chattering atmosphere that’s recognizably dub, but the guitar-pop foundation remains. Interestingly, the grand sweep of Horror’s “Fallen Leaves” feels almost designed to be the album closer, but it’s sequenced fourth.
The “Fallen Leaves” version lands in Horrorble’s penultimate spot ahead of the bonus “Dub Crawlers,” which is all surging and splashy like Adrian Sherwood’s invaded the studio. It’s quite the wild offshoot from the straight-up rocking of “Mudcrawlers” from Horror. There’s also a more propulsive version of “Mudcrawlers” with guest vocalist Benji Webbe from Welsh reggae metal band Skindred.
“War Economy” bounces around like a hypothetical mid-’80s Gang of Four traveling to North Carolina to work with Don Dixon after signing to I.R.S. Records. The version’s vocoder-infused version is a treat. Loosely tied to this, “A Horse Has Escaped” has a dark, not-quite goth ’80s air about it, as its version hits like a ’90s remix dished by some left-field producer and released by Astralwerks.
“Private Defense Contractor” has a sly Middle Eastern vibe about it that’s nicely beefed up in its version, the folky singalong “Sanctuary” gets a version that begins with a molasses slo-mo from deep down in a cavern only to spring to full-bodied life, and the take of “Surrender” on Horror is already a smidge dub-imbued, like the ghost of Agustus Pablo is hovering in the outskirts. In its more trippy version, it’s like Pablo has fully joined the party.
“You’re Not Singing Anymore” is another track with an anthemic, almost ’70s rock late-album feel, but on Horrorble it’s in the middle of the order, sounding like it’s playing out of the transistor radio swinging from the steering wheel in Rocket #9 commandeered by Lee Scratch Perry and headed for the planet Venus. Naturally, the cut explodes into full color near its conclusion.
Horror’s closing track, “Before the Ice Age,” is suitably guitar raw and emotionally achy, and its version, which opens Horrorble, sounds like it could’ve been a single issued at the dawn of the ’90s by 4AD. It sets in motion an album of reinterpretations from a band that, in its beginnings, sounded unlikely to last six months, much less 50 years. What a goddamned wonderful surprise.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Horror
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Horrorble (Mekons vs Tony Maimone in Dub Conference)
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