Originally a digital-only release, Foundation Sound’s 2014 solid collaboration with Skari has proved sufficiently popular to warrant a limited 7″ pressing.
Full in both sound and message, “One Love” strikes an excellent balance of power between the Shofar Allstars’s crisp-yet-deep horns and Skari’s positive lyrics.
Over a steady stepping bass line, the tenor’s vocal style is well-suited to covering the educational value of music: “young youths listen when them words are pronounced; words are the power and the power when it sound; make it full up in your heart,” with his intonation and delivery making the most of every word. Simplicity done well shows graceful poise in the booth, with lines like “a politician brings oppression, and religion brings division; one love to all of the youth dem; spread love to all of the children” sounding neither cheesy nor contrived.
The funky closing horn definitely serves as an excellent prelude to the reverse, as it’s all horns and delay to open the dub. Slowly building amidst swirls, “One Dub” really comes into its own when the bass enters, pushed up in the mix as guitars echo in the foreground.
A mutated bar nearly creates a drop, and then the heart of the tune enters around the one minute mark. Horns ripple and hang in the air, and then a few vocal snippets appear in the musical mist as Foundation Sound pushes the weight of the production in all the right directions, maintaining a modern feel while rooted in dub’s decorated past. If the a-side is pure positivity on a tough riddim, then the dub is a sonic tour de force.
More info:
One Love on Juno
One Love on Discogs
One Love on Jah Waggys
Foundation Sound website
The Groove Thief
.the future of dub is the present.
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