Last year, just before Bill Callahan released his ‘Dream River’ LP he released the single Expanding Dub, a re-imagined take on the song Javelin Unlanding. As the title suggests Callahan ventured bravely away from his norm into Dub territory with pleasing results which led us to make it a Song of the Day. Well he obviously enjoyed the experience as he has expanded the dub treatment to all eight tracks on Dream River in his latest release ‘Have Fun with God’.
Did you ever expect to see the word ‘Fun’ in a Bill Callahan album title? This is worth getting your hands on if you’re prepared to take that leap as so eloquently stated by Drag City “Dub is a ghost, a duppy. Here are Dream River versions, killed and resurrected, spilling tales of the other side of life in a language conceivable only if you let yourself be taken there.”
Don’t be expecting a huge transition…this isn’t as leftfield as it maybe sounds and Callahan still sounds…well…like he normally does. If anything the added dub bass and echoing guitars, make the whole experience a little trippy. The whole treatment is fairly minimalist and on some tracks like Small Dub (dub version of Small Plane) they sound the better for it giving his voice even more focus…but it would be wrong to compare the two…as this is a different beast, right?
Well, we enjoyed it and if you approach with no grand expectations then you may be quite surprised at how pleasurable an album this is.
For those that missed his Expanding Dub, last time around here it is again:
Released 21 January via Drag City
Read Thomas Blake’s review of ‘Dream River’ here