Easy Star All-Stars CD

It was one of those really stupid ideas that we can all be grateful someone had the guts to follow through with. Yes, it's a reggae version of the Pink Floyd classic DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, every track drastically reworked and presented in the same order as on the original album. And yes, it works far, far better than you'd have any right to expect. The artists vary from the relatively obscure (Kirsty Rock, Dollarman) to the big-time (Corey Harris, Frankie Paul, the Meditations) and the musical styles range from roots to dancehall to jungle. Every track works well, but highlights include a very fine (and uncredited) jungle mix of 'On the Run' and the great singer-deejay combo track 'Time,' on which Corey Harris' chesty baritone singing voice is nicely counterbalanced by Ranking Joe's speed-rap. There are several bonus dub mixes tacked onto the end of the program, and while none of them is revelatory they don't detract from the proceedings, either. At the end you realize that you were wrong to even think this was a dumb idea to begin with - dub's psychedelic mysticism is a perfectly good match for Pink Floyd's mannered weirdness. Highly recommended.