http://www.thepier.org/view-cd-review.php?artist=143
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad - Live Up! - CD REVIEW
The Pier.org
January 2010
By Joseph Fantozzi
There’s a lot to like about Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad’s new album, Live Up! It may seem risky for a band to have a live album as its sophomore release, but it works for GPGDS. The band’s music has a steady dub vibe that invites improvisation and which feeds off the atmosphere of live situations, and this album captures that well. It captures those moments of inspiration, when they’re deep in a groove and something just happens, music is made which could be hard to remember much less reproduce later in a studio.
Live Up! is one song shorter and roughly ten minutes longer than their previous album, Slow Down, and has only one song from that album; Seasons Change, which is three minutes and thirty-two seconds longer in this new version. There’s a philosophical message in the album title, as with Slow Down; to quote its MySpace page, “Live Up! is to live ultra-positive.” It’s a message that comes through in the lyrics in songs like In These Times and Work Very Hard, and even more strongly through the instrumentals, the positivity embodied in the rhythms and melodies.
This is GPGDS’ last album with six members in the band, as Matthew and Rachel leave and James, Chris, Dylan and Aaron continue on. The songs are mostly in the neighborhood of five minutes long, but there are songs from 2:17 to 4:20 to an 11:57 extended jam, on the song Work Very Hard. This is the kind of reggae where a groove takes over and grows as a song progresses, subtle changes dawn slowly and seem more impressive as a result.
There’s audience sounds, (cheering, mostly at beginnings and endings of songs, some during), but it blends into the album and isn’t overdone as it sometimes can be on live albums. I haven’t seen GPGDS live yet, but after getting a taste of it on this album I’d definitely like to.
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