From the first crash and gurgle of Reset in Dub, it’s clear that Adrian Sherwood’s extensive reworking of Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s 2022 album offers a new perspective on the original—a reset of Reset, if you will. The Eddie Cochran guitar riff deployed on the album version of “Gettin’ to the Point” is gone, the verses have transformed into horn lines, and the chorus echoes over sirens, flutes, a thick wall of bass and drum, and classic dub effects.
A sunny, trippy, Beach Boys-esque throwback and pastiche, Reset used bits and pieces of late-’50s and early-’60s pop to pay tribute to what had come before. In its unyielding optimism, the record demonstrated a fervent belief in the power of the hook. Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s creative trip to the past dug up bygone melodies and motifs, a modus operandi shared with the Jamaican studio method of musical excavation pioneered in the late ’60s by legends like King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry. That makes dub a fitting choice to further unlock the secrets of Reset, which had already spun off an instrumental version and a smattering of remixes.
Sherwood has a long history as one of dub’s most prolific crossover figures; in addition to many Jamaican reggae musicians, the British artist has produced or remixed Depeche Mode, the Fall, Mark Stewart, Nine Inch Nails, and scores more. In ranging so widely, he frequently departs from dub’s emphasis on manipulating the existing elements of a given song: When Sherwood revisited Spoon’s 2022 album Lucifer on the Sofa to create Lucifer on the Moon, his intricate reworks were billed as “reconstructions.” Here, he breaks open Reset’s songs and packs in as much extra sound as possible. On this record, more is more: more bass, more percussion, more melody, more everything.
On Reset in Dub, Sherwood continues to move past dub’s conventional methods of manipulation, opting for a whole new studio treatment. As he did with Spoon, he has added plenty: extra strings and piano, additional drums and percussion, and horns arranged by Little Axe, a former member of Sugarhill Records’ house band who played on Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” and “White Lines,” among others, before eventually joining Sherwood’s On-U sound crew. He also enlisted former Sugarhill Gang and Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish, whose weighty low end anchors the flyaway vocal harmonies on “Go On Dub,” while on “Everyday Dub,” he breaks out of dub’s confines with a slinky disco-funk bassline. The brass and winds propel the melodies forward, countering the drag of the dub delay and providing an extra measure of dynamism.
Leaning into the vintage samples and rocksteady influence that informed the original Reset, Sherwood digs into each track to find pre-existing potential. The reverberant vocals and diffuse percussion of “Whirlpool” were already swirling toward dub, but Sherwood amps up the echo, emphasizing the pulse with Wimbish’s bass while Ivan “Celloman” Hussey adds extra depth and richness. The cello’s vibrant tone appears most effectively on “Living in the After Dub” and “Everything’s Been Leading to This Dub,” and each time it is as surprising as it is satisfying. “In My Body Dub” is perhaps the simplest treatment of the set. Whereas the original pushed the vocals to the fore, here Panda Bear’s voice floats gently over saxophone, chimes, and delicate piano stabs. The song seems to have expanded its dimensions, sprawling like a galaxy.
Reset was supersaturated with color to begin with, but Sherwood has succeeded in finding still more shades within its nooks and crannies while simultaneously drawing fresh textures from its folds. The effect is to highlight a wide range of emotion lying beneath the duo’s candied hooks. If Reset channeled the uplift inherent in teeny-bopper tunes from half a century ago, Sherwood’s dub pulls the ethereal happiness warmly down to earth.
