The only reasonable way to get started
Jeffrey Yutzler | Alexandria, VA USA | 12/22/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Okay. Jah Wobble has been making music for over 25 years, but has stayed under the radar in the US. As I have explored his music, I am frequently impressed with what he has helped put together. A lot of it really floors me.
The problem is that his music is so varied that it is hard to get a feel for which albums to buy. His best albums do not have all that much in common with each other except for his distinctive dub bass style. Let's see, there is Umbra Sumus, which I guess I would call world-beat pop. You've got Fly which is electronica. You've got Passage to Hades which is freestyle jazz. You have Metal Box (AKA Second Edition) which is post-punk. I'd be surprised if anyone really like all of it and this anthology is the only way you can figure out which ones to buy.
The reason it gets four stars instead of five is that some of the music is mediocre at best. There was a concerted attempt to draw from every portion from his career, including projects that he would have been better off abandoning. Therefore it will take a little work to figure out which tracks/styles you like and which you don't. I recommend that you be your own editor and trim the three CDs to one or two.
Also, better liner notes would have helped. All the information is there, but it is not as organized and easy to sort through as it could have been.
By the way, if you want some more detailed reviews, check out the UK site at amazon.co.uk."
The Wobble World View
Paul Ess. | Holywell, N.Wales,UK. | 03/16/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"'I could Have Been A Contender' is an impressive, almost encyclopaedic overview of 30 years of Jah Wobble and his eclectic, eccentric music.
It's an enormous wade-through, and it's unsurprising that the quality of each finished piece depends almost entirely on who he's been collaborating with.
Examples: The PIL work with Lydon and co is exceptional: 'Poptones' is here like Hercules, as is 'Death Disco' in a version bafflingly called 'Swan Lake.'
A duet with mad Irish God-botherer Sinead O'Connor 'Visions of You' is the collection's ethereal highpoint and the funkoid post-punk 'Snake Charmer' wins, despite being co-written by the frustratingly unreliable Holger Czuzay.
It's pointless trying to make any sense of the chronological aspect of 'Contender,' Wobble is a lunatic for versions, extracts, rehashes and particularly, parts. You can read 'part 1' of some title or other, only to discover part 4 was recorded 10 years previously, and there are no parts 2 or 3! Such is his sheets-to-the-wind attitude - but it's his album, so he can stamp and do what he likes.
'Contender' is always challenging, sometimes inspired and often magnificent. Wobble is kinda the Snakefinger of ethnic industrial disco, the Clock DVA of roots. Every conceivable musical instrument and vocal style from all the corners of the earth are employed: from Evan Parker to the Temple of Sound - The Edge to Brian Eno.
Monstrously, 'Dreadlock Don't Deal in Wedlock' is sadly absent from 'Contender,' an omission which has cost clever-clogs Wobble a star, but depreciates the overall value of this mammoth sampler only minutely."
The Man Really is Something
Scott McFarland | Manassas, VA United States | 01/15/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you haven't been paying attention in the last 10-15 years to Wobble the artist, you might be surprised at the fine quality of music this guy has been making for some time now. This box is, frankly, loaded with goodness. Some of it rests well on his deep dark bass playing, some is strikingly poetic and evocotive, some incorporates "ethnic" or "world" music of different types with rock or pop in strking ways. There is too much brilliance on here for me to point you towards one track or another. He could have been a contender, he is underheard, and this is a great collection of music.
"
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1
