Released in 2012, the debut album of French crew Stand High Patrol “Midnight Walkers” met with a very good reception – they served us original blend of music, which they described as dubadub – melting pot of various beats, from hip-hop to club, from contemplative to heavy climates, all bonded by bass and dub spirit.
Album artwork by Kazy Usclef
The new album contains 13 compositions, recorded in a home studio within a year, on them we get the return of the dubadub style, which exceeds another boundaries of musical exploration areas. Pupajim, MacGyver and Rootystep do it very bravely, directing to the minimum arrangement (beautiful ballad “Sleep On It”, digital “Routine”) or jazzy elements and compositions (“Tempest”, “Geography”). This side of the album impresses me the most – the combination of trumpet, bass, smooth cymbals, subtle sounds of the piano, it sounds really beautiful … Of course “dubadub musketeerz” have not forgotten how to move people from the seats – whether it’s with bouncy “Gambling Johnny”, hip-hop flavoured “Ruckus” or heavyweight dubs – “Warehouse”, “The Bridge” and “The Tunnel” will please fans of dark and heavy sounds.
Vocally Pupajim has moved even further than on the previous album, his extraordinary voice beautifully fits the music and with such interesting compositions he can serve us the entire spectrum of timbres. You can hear it well, amongst others, in rockin’ “No Matter How Long It Takes”. Lyrically it is also variously, as on the first album – from serious topics to lighter ones, from a story about sad routine to a tale about driving an overloaded track to a sound system session.
The greatest art in creating a diverse album for me is, in spite of appearances, consistency. That despite a large musical blend everything sounds not like a medley. That everything is based on something sticky that glues this diversity. Artists have different ways to achieve this I think and one of them is to have your own style. Stand High Patrol already has it, it is called dubadub and knows no musical boundaries.
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We’ve been writing about Mystical Powa recently, about their collaboration with Kibir La Amlak (http://dubmassive.org/7818/mystical-powa-meets-kibir-la-amlak).This time two great artists met on their new 12” – Idren Natural and Addis Pablo. The A side belongs to the first one, who is one of the most characteristic vocalist on the sound system scene for me. His mystical, hypnotic vibe is heard especially in “Hold a Gathering” where the producers from Mysitcal Powa also added their mystic to this steppers style riddim. The B side belongs to Addis Pablo and his melodica, which is a very successful completion of the main theme. 
