** BOB MARLEY DREAMS OF FREEDOM: AMBIENT TRANSLATIONS OF BOB MARLEY IN DUB ISLAND

(Axiom)

Bill Laswell says he thinks of Bob Marley's voice as "poetry, a message not to be mutated just yet." So he drops it out of this dubwise remix of classic tracks from Marley's Island catalogue, which leaves him just guitars, bass, drums, and a few nebulous horns and strings to work with on this tribute CD. He reinvents "Rebel Music" as a 10-minute cantata; he layers gospel chords over the backing vocals on "No Woman, No Cry."

Otherwise, very little is changed from the Marley originals. Dub has been around as the booming, spacy cousin of reggae since the early '70s, and Laswell is one of the form's bona fide mad geniuses, having ripped up and restitched brilliant musical fabrics with PiL, Herbie Hancock, and Material. But he seems to think that dub techniques confer instant spiritual credibility. They don't. When it comes to doing a dub remix, everything, including sacred vocals, should be up for grabs. Treating the sources as sacred turns the project into a "famous quotes from Marley" set for the nostalgic fan. Which begs the question "Why not buy the original?"

-- Chris Tweney