You would hope that, in 2010, no genre of music would need 'saving'. It's been over a decade since Napster, and compared to 2000, the average kid in 2010 has access to twice as many music TV channels, ten times as many radio stations (if we include digital ones at least), not to mention entirely new things like YouTube, Spotify, Last.fm, and Pandora - and the knock-on effect of all that is that word of mouth, the primary way anybody discovers music, has gone into hyperdrive. The number of bands that the people you know listen to has probably increased anywhere up to a hundred fold in the past ten year; and if that's an exaggeration, it's not a particularly big one. Is it any wonder that people's tastes are more eclectic and Catholic than ever before? And is it any wonder that musicians themselves have responded with such gusto?
The range of genres in rude health right now is incredible. There've been more classic soul albums in the past 3 years than there have in any 3 year period since the '70s. Drum'n'bass has suddenly surged in popularity. Grime - albeit a watered down, castrated version - is enjoying its commercial day in the sun, while the pioneers still soldier on doing what they always did. Kings of Leon are experiencing the kind of U2-level success that some predicted a rock band would never see again. Indie can point to Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, The National, and Animal Collective, all of whom are not just massively acclaimed but are actually real-life famous these days. Metal can boast a whole raft of acclaimed albums and fresh talent too, and hip-hop's recent artistic successes include not just the old-timers (Raekwon, Mos Def, J Dilla, The Roots), but fresh new faces too (Black Milk, Dark Time Sunshine, The Gaslamp Killer; and though it might seem like Gullty Simpson's been around forever, don't forget that he only dropped his first album in 2008). Really, this list writes itself- I could go on for hours. And yet, I'd be hard pressed to argue the toss for dub.
It's odd, because there probably isn't a single person in the first world under the age of 30 who doesn't enjoy at least one song that owes its very existence to dub. This is a genre of phenomenal importance we're talking about, but its path recently has taken in only cult acts who are making great music that nobody's hearing (Killa Sista, Disrupt, High Tone), or bands who aren't really making dub so much as creating a hybrid sound with other genres that take more importance (Fat Freddy's Drop, Roots Manuva, Dub Trio), or both (Sound & Vision). People will point to dubstep, but how dubby is most dubstep, really? Tracks like Gravious' "Monolith" are the exception, not the rule - the name 'dub' simply points to a similar focus in production, not a shared sound.
Realistically, The Shabby Tinkerz aren't the band that are going to save dub - much like Fat Freddy's Drop, they draw in too many other genres - but there's still something oddly exciting about a band choosing to make music so heavily inspired by dub despite coming from England, being too young to have lived through the genre's heyday, and in the majority of the band's case, being classically trained. They just don't look or seem like the kind of band that should be making this sound, particular when most of dub's followers lean toward electronics rather than live bands, and yet they are; that's a strike in dub's favour, particularly when their sound gives the listener so many clues about the other genres they could be playing, and excelling in. The lead guitar, the bass, and the vocals from the drummer (one of the three vocalists in the group) could certainly be adapted into a Joe Bonnamassa-esque hard rock setting, for instance, while lord knows what else could have come from combining the doomy late-Romantic piano playing on "Mr. Reaper" and the jazzy clarinet on "Summer Sikky". To say the various members of the Tinkerz flaunt their virtuosity would be wrong, because they're not that sort of band, but they certainly don't shy away from it.
But dub it (mostly) is. In addition to the drummer (who largely contributed backing vocals only), there's one female singer and one male MC trading the spotlight out front of the band, both of whom sound heavily influenced by the bigger names to emerge from London in recent years (Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, The Streets, Dizzee at a push). The cast behind them includes a typical rock line-up with two guitarists in a traditional, if generally sparse, lead/rhythm set-up, augmented by a pianist whose playing betrays an influence from The Mighty Handful, and another instrumentalist that switches between saxophone and clarinet. In size and diversity, it's a line-up that's capable of getting your attention before they even play a note, so perhaps it's not surprising that they've been on the receiving end of so much attention already, even in their infancy as a band. Not only has the local media cottoned on quickly, with the band appearing on television and in newspapers, and having their own radio show, but they've already worked with '80s dancehall stars Clint Eastwood and general Saint for the Love Music Hate Racism campaign, and been remixed by a member of Asian Dub Foundation, who also released one of their songs as a single on his label. They've also supported The Levellers, one of the most enduring popular live acts in the UK. As far as grassroots hype goes, this is pretty big stuff.
It's not hard to see why it's all kicking off for them so early; although
2010 Draw still has a few telltale signs of youth and inexperience, it's remarkably well-rounded and fully formed for a debut EP. "Mr. Reaper", despite opening with a voiceover that represents the EP's weakest moment, displays a gift for the things most young bands take for granted; texture, structure, range, even good humour. That's a matter of attention to detail, and the Shabby Tinkerz have definitely put in the hard graft on that front - look at the way the two vocalists bleed into one another on the windswept, almost Gothic "Par'in It" (plenty of bands their age simply wouldn't think to have both voices going at once), or the way the nu-jazz "Summer Sikky" keeps up a complex rhythm at a heartbeat-quickening tempo and still remains the record's least intense track. They also already have what plenty of people take for granted and never achieve - an identity. Even after just four tracks here, it's pretty safe to say most people struggle to identify a fifth as the work of the same band.
There's creases to iron out yet, though, as there are with every band on their first release - and most of them revolve around the lyrics. Three of the four tracks - "Mr. Reaper" in the intro, "Par'in It" in the first chorus, "Summer Sikky" in the second verse - try to tackle socio-political topics head on, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing in itself, it starts to feel a little preachy by the time the line about 'fighting terrorism' comes around in "Summer Sikky". It's obviously well-intentioned, but you suspect the effort would be better if it was concentrated into one burst of anger, rather than spread across an entire release - at the moment it's all problems and no answers, and not even Rage Against the Machine could sustain that for longer than one album without getting boring. It's possible that the band already recognise this themselves - it might be telling that the EP is named after the song that veers furthest from the News at Ten.
These are minor quibbles, though, and it's wrong to focus on them - we should instead focus on the fact that
2010 Draw is an astonishingly accomplished, diverse EP that, sonically and culturally, comes entirely from leftfield. They will undoubtedly improve, and yet they're already well ahead of schedule - these are some pretty impressive foundations to be building upon.
