Jah Rules
Bramhall-based Jah wobble is back on the road and he doesn't care what anyone thinks. Got a problem with that, says Marc Rowlands?
It's difficult to envisage anyone with more than just a passing interest in music not owning at least one Jah Wobble records. His unmistakeable dubby basslines have played such an important role in music over the last quarter of a century. He arrived as part of Public Image Ltd, his reggaefield bass pitched against a raw, claustrophobic and industrial backing and John Lydon's career-best sneer. Since then he has released a horde of solo albums, created three bands and collaborated with a myriad of musicians from experimentalists like Brian Eno and Pharaoh Sanders to more mainstream artists like Primal Scream and Bjork.
His solo work, meanwhile, covers a range of music equally as diverse. The first three Invaders of The Heart albums (including the Mercury-nominated Rising Above Bedlam) were ambitious, yet commercially successful melanges of dub reggae, pop and world music, particularly of a Far Eastern slant and as recognized classics have acted as a blueprint for many other ethnocentric projects since. "I've had four purple patches in my career and that was one of them," says Wobble, old enough now to be unconcerned about critical acclaim. "You keep on doing what you do and sometimes the world comes round to what you do for a little while, then it moves on."
Not six months since touring with the esoteric Solaris project, Wobble is back on the road. The concerts are in three parts; to begin avant-turntablist Philip Jeck and Wobble will reinterpret Beethoven's 'Ode To Joy' using samplers, decks and bass. Next up Molam Lao, a Parisian-based group with whom Wobble recorded the Molam Dub album recently, will perform their rarely-heard traditional music from Laos. Last up are Deep Space, Wobble's current touring band. "We started off as a club thing, but we've gelled so well that this year we're going to do some of the big festivals," comments Wobble. "(Simpsons creator) Matt Groening is curating one and he's asked for us to appear, Bill (Laswell) ahs asked us to do another which is great."
The Manchester show will be accompanied by the visuals of acclaimed artist Marc Atkins. All in all an enticing package and one the restless artist is unlikely to repeat. For fans, Wobble's own 30 Hertz label continues to release material, the latest being his Fly LP. Jah Wobble, so called after a slurring Sid Vicious mispronounced his real name, John Wardle, once when introducing him, will have yet more to come in the near future. "I've produced an album this year by an amazing singer Yuduz Usmanova from Uzbekista. I've done the soundtrack to a French film Fureur which I really enjoyed doing, even though I made the director cry a couple of times," he jokes, indicating there may yet be some of the feisty punk still there.
"There'll be another Deep Space LP before the end of the year as well. I'll just keep on doing it. I love it, y'know, and the older you get the less you can be arsed to worry about whether something's a commercial success or not. You just do it."
Jah Wobble plays Band on The Wall on 29 January