DR. ISRAEL: Inna City Pressure

Dr. Israel

Inna City Pressure

© 2005 ROIR (053436829127)

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The most fully realized statement from the underground massive in quite some time. - VIBE Inna City Pressure is a world music masterpiece. - CMJ

tracks

1 Inna City
2 Pressure
3 The Doctor Vs. The Wizard
4 Armageddon Time
5 Survivor
6 Coppers (Brooklyn Version) Rancid Vs. Dr. Israel
7 Life In The Ghetto
8 Revolution* (New Version)
9 Crisis
10 Israel
11 Iron City
12 Together
13 Time
14 Junglist** (Bonus Track)
15 Jacob's Ladder** (Bonus Track)
16 Together (Version)
17 Dubvivor

notes

ROIR is proud to re-introduce one of the landmark albums of the last decade-remixed, remastered w/ two bonus tracks ("Junglist" & "Jacob's Ladder") plus a new version of "Revolution". Inna City Pressure was originally released by Dr. Israel in late 1998, at a time when the scene he was associated with (NYC's "illbient" collective which included DJ Spooky, WE, Sub Dub, Spectre, Techno Animal, Badawi) was garnering major press attention. Of all the albums to emerge from that scene, this undoubtedly was and is the most important and, I would dare say, the best.

Doc's music is a fusion of world musics in the best possible sense. Dub/reggae, jungle/drum n bass, hip-hop, rock, punk & metal are all part of a completely organic whole, achieved with urgency, acumen, charisma and purpose. In fact, the album is so strong it should return some import to the terms "World Music" and "Fusion"-two terms whose meanings have been diluted, hyped and bastardized to the point of inconsequence. Doc's ability to represent and reprocess his influences (Black Uhuru, Black Sabbath, Bad Brains, Run DMC, Roni Size) into compelling new forms is astounding. And what ties these styles of music together so organically? The answer is simple: Doc understands that what he loves about all music is BIG BASS and BIG DRUMS. He also understands how to implement that knowledge. It's why Black Sabbath can be reimagined as a pot-smoking rasta chanting over drum 'n' bass beats. And why Doc is such a special musical mind.

The most fully realized statement from the underground massive in quite some time. - VIBE
Inna City Pressure is a world music masterpiece. - CMJ
The most adventurous and cohesive reggae album of the late 90s...the most fully realized reggae concept album since Bunny Wailer's Blackheart Man, and it reflects a level of originality and power that's rare in any genre.
- BOSTON PHOENIX
Dr. Israel's "Inna City Pressure" is as catchy a fusion of dub-ragga weirdness and power-chorded rock as you'll ever hear...Original & inspiring. - Rolling Stone

The rerelease of Inna City Pressure will be followed by a new Dr. Israel album entitled Dr. Israel presents Dreadtone International: Patterns of War, out October 17th, 2005. Patterns... is his first album in over 3 years and marks the continuation of a great & lengthy relationship with ROIR (those are Doc's dreadlocks on the cover of ROIR's first ever CD release-Dub Revolution: UK Roots). This new album by Doc and the young Brooklyn collective Dreadtone International is a new-school-meets-old-school marriage of roots, dub, trip-hop, rock, and R&B. Teaming up with vocalists Lady K and Chemda, along with an assortment of Brooklyn's finest dub players, the good Dr. has created possibly his most accessible effort to date-an entirely new dub sound. Think Massive Attack vs. Fugees. Heavy heavy bass lines, thundering beats, beautiful melodies, pristinely produced vocals, and conscious lyrics paint an over-all soundscape which is as powerful as it is unique.

THE SONGS-too many highlights but here are a few:
TRACK 3 - "The Doctor vs. The Wizard" the album's thesis statement. A thoroughly kickass dub/rock fusion. Doc loops
the killer bass line from Black Sabbath's The Wizard, & appropriately substitutes Sabbath's harmonica with melodica. Here skittering d'n'b percussion replaces its rhythmic forefather-the echoing dub triplet.
TRACK 6 - "Copper (Brooklyn Version) feat. RANCID" Doc's collaboration with punkers Rancid. Brooklyn version vastly improves upon the original from Rancid's "Life Won't Wait" album. Punk vs Dancehall vs hip hop.


Dr. Israel's "Inna City Pressure" is as catchy a fusion of dub-ragga weirdness and power-chorded rock as you'll ever hear. The butter-baritoned Brooklyn toaster herbalizes a soulful kind of doomsday, introducing Jah apocalypse tometal apocalypse in a Black Sabbath cover ("The Doctor Vs. the Wizard");updating the Clash's update of Willie Williams' "Armagideon Time"; and collaborating with Rancid's ragged soccer louts in a toughening of their recent "Coppers." He also approximates the foreboding urban relief of StevieWonder's "Living for the City" in a gorgeous good-kids-gone-bad parable called"Life in the Ghetto." Even when he drifts a bit into drum-and-bass bong-wateratmosphere and mystic conspiracy-theory nonsense, Dr. Israel manages to keep his bare feet grounded; not since Unity, by fellow New Yorker Shinehead a decade ago, has a raggamuffin sounded this original or this inspiring. - Chuck Eddy, ROLLING STONE

Deserves to be the sort of Next Big Thing the many, many publicists who get wet over the smooth integration of genres claim he's going to be...The doctor really understands what dub, jungle, punk, metal and reggae have in common, and is demonstrably skilled enough to make them work together. In doing so, he drives home musical points that an army of hack critics haven't yet been able to figure out...a rock and a hip-hop fan can groove to this. - NY PRESS

The album in both a history lesson and foretelling prophecy to the suburban rude-boys and girls looking for the futuristic, afro-mythic dub versions on The Clash. Buy this record. - URB

Suffused in gritty urban poetry, a sense of humor, a surprising respect for hard rock (Rancid and Clash covers, not to mention a whole song based on a loop of Black Sabbath's "The Wizard"), and a deeply rooted sense of spirituality, records such as Dr. Israel's late-'98 Inna City Pressure rise above the base elements of today's stoned-slow reggae, melody-deficient hip hop, songless electronica, and crotch-grabbing Korn-metal. - VILLAGE VOICE

Of special notice is a truly ragga remake of "Armagideon Time,"...It's safe to say, with the improved production, that this may just be better than the original. - MTV.com

Boasting a wealth of impeccable influences, Brooklyn's Dr. Israel creates an intoxicating blend of reggae, ska, hip-hop, world music, punk, and drum 'n' bass married to a strong lyrical social consciousness on Inna City Pressure. "Pressure" brings to mind the great Two Tone band The English Beat jamming with Goldie. Dr. Israel updates the Clash classic "Armagideon Time" by tossing drum 'n' bass beats into the dub of the original, resulting in a funky stew of samples, grooves, and piano snippets. Vastly improving the version of "Coppers" he and Rancid recorded for Rancid's Life Won't Wait, the track is something akin to reggae with a hip-hop edge and a punk snarl. Actually it's a bit surreal to hear Rancid in the context of this album -- for a minute, I could swear I was listening to Joe Strummer and some great, lost Sandanista song. - POP MATTERS

Inna City Pressure, the debut disc from Brooklyn-based dread Dr. Israel, is a rich musical soup that expands on a blueprint laid by Sly and Robbie, Goldie, Roni Size, The Clash and Rancid (who make an appearance on the album)...blurs the boundaries between Roots and Dub, Jump-up Jungle, Hip-Hop, Punk, and Ska by uniting them. - DJMIXED/BPM

In a rational world, this irresistible fusion of reggae, dub, hip hop and jungle would be on every radio station's playlist & booming out of every car stereo...a remarkable album. This is one of the best CDs of the year (1998). 4.5 of 5" - ALLMUSIC GUIDE

The Doctor mashes up dub, reggae and jungle, ganja and Sabbath, social conscience and Rancid, technoid paranoia and dirty breakbeats, RUN DMC's cowbells and philosophy into one genuinely eclectic and forward-thinking album. Fusion, if it wasn't so loaded with negative connotations, would be a good description---a fusion, not of unrelated and unsuitable components, but of styles that lock into each other, the ska interface with Rancid, the hip hop and drum'n'bass cross-overs with dub, punk and reggae's long-standing relationship (musical and social) renewed and caressed into place. The main ingredient is the dub spine, heavily infected in the first half by junglist tendencies, which holds the whole thing together and comes to the fore in the later tracks although always giving room to the song. Which is just about my only gripe: the sequencing loads all the pounders up-front and the dub never really clangs low-down. A great record though - ROBOTS & ELECTRONIC BRAINS ZINE

Dr. Israel's Inna City Pressure, released on the New York-based Mutant Sound System label, may not be the first reggae album of recent memory to wed an unlikely batch of musical styles together, but it's certainly one of the more effective. With an emphasis on instrumental-backed drum 'n' bass and jungle tracks, Inna City Pressure is at its best when dropping mad, freaked out science on songs like The Doctor Vs. The Wizard (a remake of Black Sabbath's The Wizard) and reconceptualizing songs like Armagideon Time, which was itself versioned by The Clash roughly twenty years ago. - THE HECKLER

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to take the best portions of virtually every music genre, throw 'em in a big cauldron and stir? Maybe it would be pleasing, and maybe a little chaotic. For Brooklyn-based artist, Dr. Israel, it's that and a whole lot more...places him on the tounges of underground/alternative fanbases worldwide. - BLACK BEAT

The most adventurous and cohesive reggae album of the late 90s...one man's testimony concerning the plague of American urban violence and its effects on the spirit...no mere stylistic smorgasbord - it's the most fully realized reggae concept album since Bunny Wailer's now decades-old Blackheart Man, and it reflects a level of originality and power that's rare in any genre. - Norman Weinstein, BOSTON PHOENIX

Drawing on a deep understanding of classic dub and reggae forms, this Brooklyn-based dub poet blends them with jungle, ska, funk and rock to create a liquid collection of truly global grooves. - LA TIMES

A jaw-dropping, multifaceted release. Forget whatever preconceptions you might have regarding what a dub or reggae record is supposed to be like, because Inna City Pressure moves beyond them with an amazing power. - MEAN STREET

Brooklyn's Dr. Israel drops a major bomb with Inna City Pressure...Dynamic...electrifying...spiritual...somber...provocative...commanding. - RAYGUN

His compelling music, his beautiful voice, and his powerful presence are so fucking impressive that you know he's gonna be huge. So sit back, chill out and inhale the wisdom, then go out and buy the damn disc! - Steve Blush, SECONDS

reviews

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  • DANSTARRRRR
    author: DANSTARRRR

    THE C,D IS VERY NICE,,,I WAS THERE TO WITNESS SOME OF IT IN THE MAKING.. DOC, GET BACK @ ME danstarr3000@yahoo.com

  • Rootsy and inovative
    author: Dubcupboard Recordingz

    Feelin' the rootsy and inovative spectrum that this artist brings to the jungle table! . Dubby, soulful, and rocking, a definate nod to the 'heds' with this one. A must for the collective!!

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