Pressure Sounds

Following recent neck surgery Dennis Bovell was under heavy medical discipline, amongst other restrictions there was to be strictly no playing of the bass. Now, more than any musician, the bass player has an almost physical connection to his chosen instrument, umbilical even, so the prospect of no vibration sensation was going to be difficult to deal with for the recovering Dennis. Not one to let such news impede his onward path Dennis came up with the idea of returning to unfinished work in an attempt to distract attention from his enforced low-end bass cold turkey. Down in his musical lock-up lay a stack of boxes containing old 2 inch multi-track analogue master tapes, some dating back to the late seventies; Dennis selected some likely looking titles that never had dub treatment and arranged some time in Neil Fraser’s (the Mad Professor) studio as he knew the Prof had every gadget under the sun, there he “baked” tapes ready for digital conversion via an Alesis HD24 a 24 track, 48kHz hard disk recorder rescuing the sounds from an inevitable oxidisation process that comes with age. At the mixing end Dennis utilises a whole range of outboard gear from old analogue to the latest digital sets, explaining the unique and separate end sounds of the dubs presented on the album.