Jah Bami Suns Of Dub How It's Happening Review

Jah Bami & Suns Of Dub – How It’s Happening (Justice) – Review

Jah Bami and Suns of Dub: How it’s Happening (Justice) Single Review by Mr Topple for Pauzeradio.com.

The first pre-release from Suns of Dub’s forthcoming project has just dropped. And it certainly bodes well for the full release – as it’s a lush, intricate and affecting affair.

How it’s Happening (Justice) sees Suns of Dub team up with Jah Bami, across a composition from Aaron V (“AV”). The production outfit have taken an old skool Sound System Dub sound, complete with various devices, and brought it bang up-to-date – making the whole track work extremely well.

It’s a heavyweight sound, dominated by the frantic and unrepentant drum and bass lines. The former is fairly complex in its arrangement. Throughout the majority of the track, the kick focuses on every beat – giving it that driving, old skool Dub vibe. The snare focuses on the third beat, while hi-hats run a double time rhythm. But at points, the percussion is stripped away to nothing – giving those signature Dub breaks. At others, the kick is lost, which slows the feel of the BPM right down to half the time. Additional claps bring a human quality to How it’s Happening and some tin drums rolling just out of earshot? African vibes. It’s a clever arrangement, complemented extremely well by the bass. Like the drums, it has been orchestrated in a scattergun way – at points being present, elsewhere – absent. It runs across double time notes, working melodically around the root triad chord. The bass’s sound is exceptionally rich and resonant, almost vibrating in your ears. These two lines combined are the driving force of How it’s Happening. Then, its other additional instrumental lines are gorgeous.

There are tinny, abrasive horns that strut in and out. They open on dotted notation, running a countermelody to Bami’s main one. But for the rest of the track they intermittently appear, mostly at points where AV has aimed to make a more complex sound. They tend to run a melody across semibreves, which brings some smoothness juxtaposed against the frantic rhythm section. And the horns engineering is intentionally gritty – which fits the overall composition well.

A synth, bowed string section double up the horns, following the same motif. Again, these too are tinny and high-passed – almost scratching across the other instruments. But another string line (or rather, what sounds like one) uses a plucked, compressed and dampened synth sound to perform dotted notes on occasion – once more smoothing out the other incessant lines, but with peaking and troughing decay running across it. Then, keys also play several roles: at points running a crotchet melodic line, working from tonic² down, at others performing a guitar-like skank.

This deeply intricate arrangement is as furious as it is compelling. It should be noted that the engineering across How it’s Happening is also first rate. The dB of all the lines has been exceptionally well levelled, so as to create a rich sound which gives prominence to the driving rhythm section, but ensures it’s not overbearing so as to drown out the other lines. All of this is the perfect backdrop for Bami to go to work on.

He has a delicious soulful voice, filled with expression and technical skill. Sitting in a broad tenor range, Bami effortlessly works up and down his register, with clarity and decent timbre. The occasional growl brings some emotive nuance to proceedings, and his enunciation is crystal clear. He makes good use of dynamics, toning down the volume on the stripped-back mid-break, before slowly building up in power to fit with the musical arrangement. But it’s Bami’s rhythmic eloquence which really stands out. He hits nearly eight syllables a second at one point – and makes very good use of rhythmic repetition and embellishment across the singjay sections. He intuitively clips and extends notes to match the lyrics; has an expressive vibrato and does some nice vowel gymnastics, changing their shapes for effect. Bami impresses lyrically, too – as he pulls apart the state of society and the system and how too many of us unwittingly are allowing the chaos to continue.

How it’s Happening is a brilliant foray into modern Dub with all the sensibilities of the old skool, Sound System vibe. AV’s composition is highly impressive; the production top-class, and Bami’s powerful and affecting vocal and lyrics finish it off, perfectly. A very strong opening for the forthcoming project. Fyah.

Jah Bami & Suns Of Dub How It’s Happening (Justice) review by Mr Topple (24th October 2020).

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