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Dub Pistols, 'Speakers and Tweeters'

London beatmakers enlist a legendary singer to liven up their sound

By Tamara Palmer

Special to Metromix
May 5, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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Backstory: The Dub Pistols (led by Barry Ashworth and Jason O’Bryan) released their first album “Point Blank” 10 years ago, when fellow U.K. DJ/producers Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers ruled the roost with bombastic beats. At the time, the similarities didn’t much help the Pistols when it came to establishing their own identity, especially in America. “Speakers and Tweeters,” the group’s third album, attempts to change that.

Why you should care: Fans of legendary British groups the Specials and Fun Boy Three will find much to be excited about here: the lead singer of both those groups, Terry Hall, appears on four cuts. And for those unfamiliar with Hall, his buttery smooth voice sounds fresh and inviting.

Verdict: While this album distances the Pistols from the comparisons that have dogged the group from the beginning, it’s ironic that the two best songs here are actually covers. Hall stands front and center for an amazing version of Blondie’s “Rapture,” which adds a lightly chugging bass line to create a dancier take on the classic hit. He also outdoes himself when covering “Gangsters” by his old, hallowed group the Specials, with a vocal performance that’s a hundred times more confident than the tentative original. Leading U.K. MC Rodney P rhymes on three songs, most notably with Hall on “Peaches,” a cute track about ogling bikini bodies that sounds relatively restrained compared to American rappers’ rhymes about booty.

X-Factor: “Rapture” gets a further boost through its inventive music video, which provides unusual shots of levitating objects and bodies and collapsing buildings.