Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell – Ghosts Outside

For those baffled by seemingly endless bass culture sub-genres (hello UK post dub-step), Steve Mason’s collaboration with Dennis Bovell is refreshingly old-school. Bovell was a one time member of British reggae act Matumbi, finding more recent success as a record producer. As such, Ghosts Outside takes Mason’s acclaimed Boys Outside album and strips it down to its dub-reggae elements (who knew?) with surprising results.

Understand My Dub (all titles are similarly ‘dub’ centric) sets the genre blueprint with throbbing bass, propulsive beats and brass trimming. Throughout, Mason’s vocals are kept minimal; a sampled line here, an indecipherable, looped enunciation there. Still, the DNA of the parent album comes through whilst sounding a world away from the source material. Perhaps an EP length would have better suited this endeavour, but for all Mason’s previous flirtations with disparate styles, it’s surprising how well this one suits him. [Darren Carle]