Tino

Jack Dangers and company's continuing Tino project get a mini-showcase with Tino's Dub Select, selecting tracks from Tino's Breaks, Vol. 5 and Tino's Breaks, Vol. 6: Hallowe'en Dub. The title of the latter should give away the general spooky holiday-themed nature of the collection, as do song titles like "It's Halloween Dub," "Vampire Circus Dub," and "Lochness Monster Dub." Plenty of drop-ins from weird Halloween records and sources -- howling wolves, demonic cackles and the like -- make this a good soundtrack for pumpkin carving, as does the monstrous bass unsurprisingly on display throughout. Tino's work isn't really advancing the barriers of dub any -- the blueprint laid down by Lee "Scratch" Perry and many others is followed well enough on many tracks -- but then again, there's no sense that this is the goal. Dangers has proven himself enough of a dub fanatic over the years and Tino is, in ways, a chance for him to relax and groove away from the Meat Beat Manifesto name. The sly jazz-pop beats of the "It's Halloween Dub" and the semi-loungey percussion jams of the "Vampire Circus Dub" keep things from being one note, and suggest odd alternate pasts of sound -- a world where Esquivel recorded in Jamaica. Where there's a bit of a newer edge introduced, the results are pretty sharp -- "Kick It Dub," besides having an amusing drum-instruction start, plays around with the abbreviated power of early jungle/hardcore efforts without completely exploding. "Monster Dub" similarly hints at 2-step while still staying within the established genre. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide