Dub Side of the Moon (Easy Star, 2003)

To call this album ambitious would be an understatement.  Not only is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon revered by many rock aficionados as a classic '70s rock concept album, but reproducing its spacious, pensive, psychedelic, largely instrumental sound inna reggae riddim seems like a daunting task that few would dare even envision.  Well, Easy Star's Lem Oppenheimer dared not only to envision it, but he makes it a reality on Dub Side of the Moon.  As the title indicates, Oppenheimer and the producers wisely approached this project from the angle of it being a dub album, thus more easily replicating the spacey instrumental vibe.  While there are vocal tracks, the overall aura is one of tranquil, echoing dub.  I must admit that until this tribute album came out, I had not listened to Dark Side of the Moon, but I felt that I needed to do so in order to properly review the reggae remake.  In doing so, I can see how this music has been so popular (especially in the drug-hazed '70s) and how Easy Star might think it could translate into reggae, because like reggae, it's easy-going manner is conducive to kicking back and relaxing while you drink/smoke/have sex/vegetate/take root.  Finally able to compare the two, I found that Dub Side does an often remarkable job at imitating and updating the power and tone of Dark Side while still remaining largely true to the reggae sound.  Even with its adherence to the standard of Pink Floyd's original work (extra points go to Easy Star for including instructions for playing Dub Side with The Wizard of Oz), there was ample leeway for the producers here to adapt the music to reggae standards so as to not scare off reggae fans who don't necessarily want to hear a rock album.  Thus, the guitar riffs were replaced with more traditional reggae elements like horns, melodicas, and even DJ toasts/chatting.  Even sound effects were tinkered with, as the cash registers that begin "Money" are transformed in the reggae version into ganja pipe sounds (granted, it doesn't make as much sense, given the song title...), and the industrial machinery in the interminable build-up to "Breathe" is now a more palatable Nyabinghi drumming.  Even more inventive is the cover of "On the Run," in which the producers incorporate a jungle/drum 'n bass sound that perfectly updates and gives more structure to Pink Floyd's digital noise.  On the other hand, I don't think there's any way to adequately represent trippy tunes like "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" inna reggae stylee.  Overall, not surprisingly, the songs I most enjoy on Dub Side are the ones I most enjoy on Dark Side -- namely, "Breathe," "Time," and "Us and Them" -- but reggae fans don't necessarily have to know the originals to appreciate these covers (and I doubt that Pink Floyd fans have to care much for reggae to get a kick out of Dub Side).  A bonus for listeners of the reggae album is that additional versions of 4 of the tracks are included -- 3 dubs and a nice DJ take on "Any Colour You Like."