Music review

Title: Boot Party
Band: Dub Narcotic Sound System
Label: K Records
It's always difficult to say definitively where movements and genres originate; but surely, electronica, trance, and hip-hop owe as much of a nod toward Dub as they do toward the inventiveness of Grand Master Flash and the minimalist movement.
    Dub started in the streets and studios of Jamaica sprung from the R&B roots of Ska, alongside Reggae. Indeed, Grand Master Flash and his hip-hop brethren owe much to the transient truck-mounted DJ battles that wound their way through the Jamaican towns.
    Dub, from its inception, has been a straight forward equation. Take two heaping spoonfuls of deep bass beats, season with MC lyrics and live instruments, have one master DJ add samplings to taste, and shake the whole thing up 'till all the bottoms are a wigglin'.
    Dub Narcotic take this forumla and spin unerring booty-bobbing tunes. Boot Party is their first full length LP. Dub Narcotic has long been a K Records project and this release is just another example that Olympia has more to offer the world than punk rock, folk singers. amd frightening legislation (not that I dislike punk or folk).
    Boot Party gets off to a false start with Test Pattern, then moves into the bottom heavy Monkey Hips and Rice. The mostly nonsense lyrics compliment and echo the solid bass lines throughout.
    Ship to Shore follows, shining slightly brighter than the other songs on the album. Lois (of the band Lois) lends her voice to the mix in a song about the intricasies of life after breaking up and the persistence of life. "It's hard enough to try not to remember. It's hard enough to write Return to Sender. It's hard enough to know it's over when it's over." Lois' vocals give one a sense of empathy and strength that you just don't hear coming out of your stereo too often.
    Super Dub Narcotic, Robotica, and Bunny Echo are episodic beat explorations that fiddle with the base of your brain. On Afi-tione, Jennifer Smith sings about a scene of desire and dismissal by the water that, as lain over surreal beats, is both alluring and perturbing.
    The album is rounded out by the evenly spaced happy-go-nonsense Monkey Hips and Rice, Shake a Puddin and Boot Party. When all's been properly stirred, mixed, and bounced, Boot Party manages to say, "Whether you're happy or sad, if you start shaking your puddin, everything will start getting better."