Plenty of rock-oriented bands have dabbled in dub and reggae, with results ranging from exceptional (Bad Brains, PiL) to questionable (the Clash) to risible (Sublime). While dub elements are by nature foundational, the structural bottom of any composition in which they appear, many dub-dabblers use it like window dressing to spruce up their rock. But for Dub Trio, the trajectory is reversed: Their first album, Exploring the Dangers Of, was a fairly unadulterated dub/reggae platter, while their second, New Heavy, is an experiment in splicing dub with post-hardcore metal and punk.
But "splice," here, is misleading-- usually, in music criticism, it refers to a seamless hybridization. Dub Trio's musicianship is certainly seamless-- comprised of seasoned session musicians including the regular bass player for G-Unit, the drummer for the reunited Fugees, and a guitarist who's worked with Common and Mos Def, the group has chops to spare. But their music is profoundly Balkanized, spliced literally, in the manner of film, end to end. So in most songs we get a few meters of spacey dub, then a few of post-hardcore heshing, so pronounced in their segregation that there might as well be little reel change ovals flashing before each abrupt cut.
The dubs are credible and sufficiently deep, and the tracks on which they aren't interrupted with gnarly riffage are the best. "Table Rock Dub" is a barren expanse seething with detuned plinks and bowel-shaking rumbles. The compelling but brief "Yes You Can't" is an ominous dub plate with buzzy slabs of dangerous bass and bright bursts of percussive melody, slithering with a hitching squelch. "Sunny I'm Kill", with its trilling melodica and sprightly reggae lilt, is a standout, and the abstract watercolor washes of "Lullaby For..." close the album with a subtlety that's all the more refreshing for its close proximity to the decidedly unsubtle post-hardcore trappings that mar about half of the record.
The pop-metal of "Illegal Dub" has tight dynamics but no surprises, dotting a harsh desert of dude rock with little oases of glassy pings and watery string delays. Guest vocalist Mike Patton gets preposterous on the bombastic "Not Alone", belting out absurdities like "We're all alone/ In this psychodrome" and "Like a Starbucks chain/ We're taking over this neighborhood" over lockstep bass and crunchy chords. "Angle of Acceptance" misplaces its echoing dubs amid a wince-inducing array of pre-Armani Metallica chugging and canned start/stop dynamics, and the tense reggae of "Jack Bauer" is poorly served by the cock-rock carnage surrounding it.
If there's a track on the album that successfully blends dub and rock, it's "Screaming at the Sea", a Smashing Pumpkins-style string-bent anthem that morphs into a serpentine dub. With its less abrupt transitions and recourse to non-post-hardcore rock, the song speaks of Dub Trio's unrealized potential. For now, they're talented musicians welding durable dub onto tired post-hardcore with very mixed results. One wishes they'd either stuck to dub or found a less odious rock genre to experiment with, one that could blend more organically than post-hardcore's stampeding china-shop bull.
