New Sounds in Reggae and Dub From Extra Classic

Los Angeles-based Extra Classic’s album Your Light Like White Lightning, Your Light Like a Laser Beam is an imaginative update on classic roots reggae with purist sonics and an edgy soul/rock vibe. Josh Adams’ drums are more straight-up rock than reggae, but the music still swings and sways, and keyboardist Adrienne Verhoeven’s shoegazy vocals make a great match with the deliciously analog-sounding, reverb-toned Lee “Scratch” Perry-influenced production. Alex deLanda’s tasteful, bluesy Chinna Smith-style lead guitar, propulsive bass and a gently trippy cascade of oldschool dub effects round out the mix.

The first track is Congo Rebel. It’s got distorted guitar and busy drums that go prowling around. Metal Tiger blends a catchy reggae bass lick with understated, smart piano and bluesrock lead guitar. With a nice, creepy organ intro, You Can’t Bring Me Down sounds like a classic reggae-pop hit from the early 70s, a vibe echoed on the absolutely gorgeous, swirling, organ-driven Creation. Electric Stars has the same kind of dubwise vein the Clash mined on Sandinista – you can imagine the crew gathered around the mixing board, its lights twinkling through the haze of ganja smoke. It comes together with a warmly atmospheric vibe before the bass picks it up with an unexpectedly funky edge.

Verhoeven gets a chance to really cut loose on Give Them the Same, her big soul crescendos alternating with more of those tersely bluesy guitar leads. The aptly titled Demon Hit swirls around a catchy bass riff, while Lesser Pan has noir trombone and absolutely luscious layers of sound. The album ends with a couple of straight-up soul songs: Angel Eyes, with its pretty two-chord melody and stripped-down production (just bass, guitar and vocals) and Give Me Your Love, a wickedly catchy, soaring number that wouldn’t be out of place in the One and Nines catalog. Whether your taste in reggae leans toward greats like Burning Spear or Jah Bob, or current-day bands like John Brown’s Body or iLamawana, Extra Classic are worth checking out. As a nice plus, the album is available on vinyl – where the richness of the sonics really rings out – as well as the usual digital formats.

Some Fun Stuff to Download

Today is fun free stuff day. First, here’s allstar indie classical ensemble yMusic’s take on Annie Clark AKA St. Vincent’s Proven Badlands, seven minutes and seventeen seconds of pensive, sweeping melody. Also from the peeps at New Amsterdam Records, here’s itsnotyouitsme (Caleb Burhans and Grey McMurray) doing a characteristic lushly hypnotic dreamscape titled It might be time to leave this place and go mingle with our heroes.

And raising the fun factor even higher, you can spin Tom Hitt’s In the Biblical Sense, a folk song that needed to be written, from the Erie, Pennsylvania songsmith’s latest album Scribe and Jester. For a much, much darker sound, check out Cessna Devotion from Glimpses, his 2010 album of songs based on weird-but-true news stories.

The new Extra Classic album Your Light Like White Lightning, Your Light Like A Laser Beam came out at the end of last month. It’s got a delicious, richly analog flavor, whether on this oldschool soul ballad or on Lee Perry-inspired dub reggae soundscapes. Nice laid-back vox from former Anniversary frontwoman/keyboardist Adrianne Verhoeven.

Last but hardly least here’s percussionist David Shively performing highlights from his half-hour cymbal-and-gong solo on Keeril Makan’s latest album Target. Don’t play this unless you’re fully awake – it’s hypnotic but very intense.