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Bassist and expert genre interpreter Wobble has dropped the single nation explorations of his most recent CDs, Japanese Dub (as Jah Wobble & The Nippon Dub Ensemble) and Chinese Dub (as Jah Wobble & The Chinese Dub Orchestra) to produce an around the world in 21 tracks dash.

The first thing that strikes you about Welcome To My World is the cover. A fantastic condensed map of his world complete with map references for the each of the tracks on the CD. The opener ‘Asa’ is actually off map in a region that it indicates ‘The Past’ (but it sounds more like India). And on this map, you’ll find Stockport bigger than New Delhi, Route 66 linking Brazil, Greenland and Mongolia and the Northern Line going as far south as Tottenham Hale beneath La Concha mountain (very odd without taking into account Victoria line issues).

Back to the music, he says that this is his tribute to his musical like Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Mohamed Addel Wahab and Joe Zawinul as they go on world tour.

The whole Sketches of Spain section is fantastic. ‘Rhonda’ is big favourite at the moment (but ends far too quickly) and ‘Granada’ has a 60’s ambient feel with ‘Cadiz’ dubbing out overlooking the major shipping routes.

Talking on shipping, ‘Last Days Dub’ gets on the sea shanty boat and ‘Port Said’ skanks on the locks of the Suez Canal. And back to the geography of the Far East, ‘China’ is dubbier than Chinese Dub.

This is like a Plugged-In-World & Conrete Indo-jazz version of on Andy Votel’s Vintage Voltage with its own Jonny Trunk-ish interlude with Wobble moving on from doing the ‘Get Carter’ theme. He says ‘Blowout’ is a combination of a tribute to the film Blowup (the one with David Hemmings) and the equally famous (for train spotters) London To Brighton In Four Minutes; it’s 60s d’n’b on a high speed train but old carriages.

Back in the capital, ‘Putney’ is a bit trippy Joe Meek, ‘London’ is a mysterious dub-rock and ‘Highgate’ captures the dark side of a stroll in the park, the final resting place of Karl Marx and the local suicide beauty spot.

The CD ends a little awkwardly with ‘Outback’ (I-1 is Australia), a couple of Motorway treats as a tribute to 90’s Acid House raves (‘M25’ & ‘M60’) and a couple of ‘off map’ pieces via 19th and 20th century cinematic excursions.

I admit the longer tracks (‘New Delhi’ and ‘Port Said’) are initially the most pleasing but the album becomes surprisingly more coherent after a few listens and there’s probably a DJ mix in the style of a “journey” in there somewhere but for “a sturdily built middle aged man”, Wobble acts like a butterfly fluttering from one theme to another on a Michael Palin travelog in music - only Wobble could produce such a varied and fantastic album and it’s worth the price of the ticket.

Also, see the fantastic interview with Jah Wobble Shaing Up Performances in yesterday’s Metro (see links below) as he’s playing at the Royal Opera House on Saturday as part of the Ignite festival.

Reviewed: Jah Wobble - Welcome To My World (30 Hertz Records) Cat. No: 30HZCD32 Release date: 20th September 2010
Tracklisting
1 Asa (2:46)
2 New Delhi (7:27)
3 Port Said (5:09)
4 Tunis (1:38)
5 Dusk (4:19)
6 Rhonda (2:42)
7 Granada (2:44)
8 Cadiz (3:08)
9 Brazil (2:15)
10 London (4:00)
11 Last Days (2:08)
12 Last Days Dub (2:57)
13 China (2:14)
14 Blowout (3:40)
15 Putney (3:00)
16 Highgate (4:11)
17 M25 (3:21)
18 M60 (3:04)
19 Outback (3:16)
20 Late 19th (3:22)
21 Early 20c (3:21)

Links:
Ignite Festival Fri-Sat www.roh.org.ukSaturday 4 September: UNDERWOOD featuring Jah Wobble and his 10-piece Nippon Dub band, No Nation, Talvin Singh, Leafcutter John and Radio Zumbido PAUL HAMLYN HALL AND CRUSH ROOM Evening runs from 8pm - 11.30pm
The Big Interview with Jah Wobble - Shaking Up Performances p34/35 Thursday September 2, 2010 e-edition.metro.co.uk/2010/09/02/index.html?p=34
www.jahwobblefilms.com
30hertzrecords.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jah_Wobble
“Hornsey Lane Bridge” but locally known as Suicide Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A1_road_(London)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highgate_Cemetery