Dub Colossus - 'Return to Addis' (Real World) Released 29/06/09

It’s easy to be sceptical about the creative potential of bridging the gap between the ‘West’ and obscure corners of ‘World Music’, with well-intended collaborations a bit too prone to collapsing into a muddled mess unfit to flatter any of the participants.

For every success story such as Damon Albarn’s ‘Mali Music’ and Mulatu Astetke’s recent, electrifying ‘Inspiration Information’ workouts with the Heliocentrics, there are scores of platters that struggle to capture the strengths of either party, with the, say, African artists proving a bit too happy to water down their style in search an audience beyond their domestic markets, whilst the internationally renowned high profile names involved sound out of their depth, possibly motivated more by the vast potential to score ‘authenticity’ points than any genuine love or understanding of the source material.

At least the central idea of Dub Colossus – injecting traditional Ethiopian forms with the bass-worshipping spirit of dub – makes undeniable sense. With Ethiopia being the promised land of Rastafarians, the teachings of which power so much of the best that vintage and contemporary Jamaican music has to offer, surely it’s logical to have a go at combining the musical traditions of two far apart but undeniably closely connected countries. Even so, Trans-Global Underground founder member Nick Page – or Dubulah, as he prefers to be known these days - deserves plentiful thanks and praise for the ease with which his project rises above various pitfalls such a clash of styles presents.

This EP, released to coincide with the Dub Colossus collective’s first live shows, isn’t quite as essential as last year’s full-length ‘A Town Called Addis’, the best bits of which resembled classic Mahmoud Ahmed cuts treated to a session at King Tubby’s echo chamber. It’s still superior stuff, as the horizontal grooves of greatest Jamaican music collide headfirst with the equally unhurried, smoky and mysterious Ethiopian styles and carefully portioned drops of funk, soul and Ethiojazz with horns to the fore, the results forming compelling new shapes that never once succumb to the deadening lure of polishing off the music’s sharp edges. Pick of the bunch is a Sidestepper remix of album track ‘Black Rose’, a seamless union of elemental percussion, powerful vocals, haunting flute twirls and economic guitar licks Ernest Ranglin would be proud of.