AMG Review of Anarchy & Alchemy

Rick Anderson
All Music Guide

Few artists have explored the borderlands that divide reggae, hip-hop, and political punk as fruitfully as producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist Dub Gabriel. On Anarchy & Alchemy he brings together an impressive list of guests including the excellent Brooklyn reggae singjay Dr. Israel, French chanteuse Judith Juillerat, rappers Yo Majesty and Jah Dan, and even R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe. Unsurprisingly, the music is kind of all over the place: "Run Down" (featuring No Surrender) is grinding, gritty hip-hop with a minimal beat and nasty, woozy synthesizers; "Mash Out" (featuring deejay Juakali) is a rough-hewn slab of heavily bouncing postmodern dancehall; "Cheree" is, oddly enough, a cover of an old Suicide song, built on "Wild Thing" chord changes and featuring an unrecognizable Michael Stipe on lead vocals. In between these wildly disparate entries are exercises in heavyweight dub ("Spirit Made Flesh"), so-so French electro-pop ("La Vie S'Envole"), and hip-hop excursions both brilliant (the exquisite "Pony Girl," featuring Yo Majesty) and mediocre (the serviceable hip-hop-reggae fusion of "Crooklyn Clouds," featuring 77Klash, Turbulence, Lutan Fyah, and Team Shadetek). Although it sounds unlike anything else you've ever heard, Anarchy & Alchemy is one of those albums that could only have come out of Brooklyn, which is a compliment -- but no guarantee of consistency.