Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, Hague NSJF 1998

December 25, 2009 9:54 AM

Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, Hague NSJF 1998
posted by philip-random (17 comments total)

Random indeed.
posted by daniel_charms at 10:02 AM on December 25, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL4gkkklsN0
posted by Avenger at 10:04 AM on December 25, 2009

fixed now. Thanks. Still beautiful.
posted by philip-random at 10:22 AM on December 25, 2009

Thanks for this. I've been awed by this man's work atonal dub with PIL for decades and yet I know almost nothing about his Post-PIL stuff. I clicked on this, a song called Saturn, on YT and it's pretty nice as well.
posted by Skygazer at 10:57 AM on December 25, 2009

I'm so deeply afraid.
posted by The Whelk at 11:12 AM on December 25, 2009

I just finished reading Wobble's autobiography, Memoirs Of A Geezer, which is a pretty interesting book - the guy's certainly a charmer. And then yesterday, my long-awaited copy of the 3CD Jah Wobble anthology, I Could Have Been A Contender, arrived. I've only listened to the first two discs, but I'm already amazed at how great so much of it is. I loved Wobble-era Public Imaged Ltd, and I was a big fan of his Betrayal solo stuff from around that time. But I tend to follow artists chronologically, and most of the stuff he did in the next few years felt like experimental doodling with little payoff. A few later things I heard sounded new agey and a little on the dull side.

But this compilation has opened my eyes. There's a song called "Blacksmith" (as well as its dub counterpart) that takes an old English folk song and adds a penny whistle and very PiL-ish bassline with the result being pure, intense beauty. Another song is a take on a very old Bosnian sevdalinka("song of longing") called "Mehmeda Majka Budila," with a singer I know from Bosnia - it's simply beautiful and frankly a lot better arranged than most modern versions of sevdalinke. Another of my favorites is a musical version of William Blake's "Tyger Tyger," with lyrics recited by Wobble and a musical backing that sounds like soca played by heroin addicts in heaven. Most of this stuff shouldn't work at all, but it tends to not only work but to cross the line into the sublime. I haven't even gotten to the Laotian dub stuff and his related mixture of Chinese music and dub (Wobble's wife is a musician from China.) But it's gonna be brilliant for sure.

I bought this nice 3CD box for about $16 shipped from Amazon UK, brand-new and totally recommend it.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:22 AM on December 25, 2009 [6 favorites]

Molam Dub - the Laotian CD - is absolutely stunning. Saw him live in Leeds about 5 years ago doing the Solaris stuff, which was also fantastic. He's a hero.
posted by handee at 12:01 PM on December 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

For ignoramuses like me who just met Mr. Wobble via this cool post, here's a little more.
posted by bearwife at 12:04 PM on December 25, 2009

Jah Wobble's Sunset Gun.
posted by Jairus at 12:33 PM on December 25, 2009

Jah Wobble's Sunset Gun.

That signature guitar sound blasting out from Killing Joke's guitarist there...nice.
posted by Skygazer at 12:41 PM on December 25, 2009

Wobble's Can-and-dub-steeped bass on Metal Box is the cat's pyjamas. "Memories" and "Swan Lake" are on my workout mix; these tracks get the blood flowing.
posted by porn in the woods at 12:49 PM on December 25, 2009

I've never been a fan of dub for whatever reason, but Wobble's always been able to make it work for me. A couple of his Invaders of the Heart albums have been on regular rotation in my playlists - I always listen through the whole albums, they have a great flow - for most of a decade now.

Thanks for this post. I'd never seen their live stuff before.
posted by ardgedee at 5:06 PM on December 25, 2009

Coolest bass player evar.
posted by doublesix at 8:07 PM on December 25, 2009

I just had a very distinct — and, until-now repressed — memory of listening to Visions of You and drinking a Crystal Pepsi. Thanks?
posted by Alt F4 at 8:41 PM on December 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

Another of my favorites is a musical version of William Blake's "Tyger Tyger," with lyrics recited by Wobble and a musical backing that sounds like soca played by heroin addicts in heaven.

That's from The Inspiration of William Blake - Mr Wobble doing a bunch of Blake's poetry, not unlike The Celtic Poets, which is him doing what it says on the can.

I generally pick up anything I see of his, unheard, as it's always bound to be something different every time, and also guaranteed to be a bit left-of-centre - often doing a kind of crossover world fusion kind of thing, only without the cloying Buddha Bar kitschiness of most of the exponents of that kind of genre.

Other particular goodies:
- Molam Dub (with Laotian music, mentioned above - fantastic!)
- Full Moon Over the Shopping Mall (Indian - sitars & tablas etc)
- Shout at the Devil (Arabic)
- Deep Space (just plain wobbly)
- Take Me to God (all kinds of influences & collaborators)
- I Could've Been a Contender (3-disc compilation, mentioned above)
- Radioaxiom (with Bill Laswell, an apparent kindred spirit in dub-world crossover music)

And I see now that he has a Chinese Dub album out now; looking forward very much to hearing it.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:42 PM on December 25, 2009

often doing a kind of crossover world fusion kind of thing, only without the cloying Buddha Bar kitschiness of most of the exponents of that kind of genre.

yeah. he just seems to have a special knack for not being bogus. call it cool, the genuine kind. Maybe it's that extra large head of his.

He really does have an extra large head.
posted by philip-random at 9:15 PM on December 25, 2009

He really does have an extra large head.

That's probably why he Jah Wobbles.
posted by Skygazer at 11:21 PM on December 25, 2009