Combining elements of reggae, dub and hints of ska, Dub Colossus present their rather varied album experience titled ‘Addis to Omega’. The new album showcases Dub Colossus’ interesting style of genre fusion, as well as their understanding of musical structure within the confines of the genres they choose to work within. There’s a varied mix being presented on the album, which shows that Dub Colossus are no one-trick pony, and instead have a fair amount to offer. Whilst there’s something of interest being presented by the band, it seems that there’s a little too much happening on ‘Addis To Omega’, which fails to string together its great selection of genres in any cohesive way.
‘Addis To Omega’ is a little all over the place, but the album does demonstrate some nice ideas and a few rather nice tracks. The whole album is incredibly rich in terms of the instrumentals being offered by the band, which isn’t restricted to the most basic of instruments, and instead takes great strides to incorporate many different elements. There’s some interesting tracks being presented by the band, most specially when the band head into the reggae genre. Dub Colossus’ style of the genre is one that is a little different, though rather relaxing and enjoying, forming the highlights of the whole album.
Much of the album seems to go more or less down the dub line, and whilst its interesting, it feels like the vast majority of the tracks being presented by Dub Colossus, (even some of their reggae songs) simply don’t offer anything that is new or interesting, and is instead just a rehashing of everything else preceding it. Song structures seem to just follow the exact same format as other songs found within the genre, making the individual tracks incredibly pointless and somewhat frustrating to a point. Considering there’s some real strong moments on the album, it seems odd that Dub Colossus have chosen to dominate their album with incredibly poor and dull tracks.
There’s some rather enjoyable moments on ‘Addis to Omega’, though the whole album experience is incredibly flawed and not really worth bothering with in this respect. There doesn’t seem to be much of an album structure being demonstrated by the band, instead sounding more like a compilation of little genre experiments. There’s some great tracks scattered amongst the track-listing, though it’s not enough to really make this album worth bothering with, and even so, there are much better songs out there within the genre. Dub Colossus demonstrate some nice ideas here and there, but hardly enough to make an incredible album experience.
Album Rating:
- ★★★☆☆ 3/5
Selected Songs:
- The Casino Burning Down
- Keep On Rocking
- Soft Power
Dub Colossal’s new album ‘Addis To Omega’ is out now.
The CD Critic 