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Dirge overkill

Music Features

Of beats and beatitude

But that’s for the studio and the home. In concert, Wobble keeps his music as organic as possible. “We played a dub festival in Paris this summer and we were the only live group there. The rest were using laptops and samplers and stuff. We did our thing and I think everyone was amazed because we lived and breathed it. I’ve gone out with samplers before, but I get bored with it after a while, because it all sounds very impressive, but there’s no real playing. You can’t change tempos; you can’t be spontaneous.

“You can learn to reduce your style in the way a martial artist may. The Japanese and the Germans are great reductionists in that way, creating very economical little styles. Why waste energy making a great big movement when you can make a succinct small movement? I like the æsthetic of that. I like playing fewer notes and not overstating the case in regard to phrasing. I aim to blend that with almost a jazz-like flexibility to meet the challenge of taking this fixed form and making it fluid. We do a lot of things in 7/4 and 5/4, and I’ve gotten much better since the Public Image days at making odd time signatures really groove. When we play, I’m hoping we can pass something on where people get lost and maybe forget where they are or how they are — that will take them very deep.”

JAH WOBBLE AND THE ENGLISH ROOTS BAND + SPIRITUAL REZ | Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge | Jan 27 | 617.497.0576

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On the Web:

Jah Wobble: http://www.jahwobble.com

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