Patterns Of War

Dr. Israel – Patterns of War (ROIR)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 11/13/05
Harder than hard reggae with a great anti-war message. The production is beyond killer, the beat will mash your brains, and the lyrics are righteous. Combination of male and female voices is very nice indeed. Most songs run together so you can put it on continuous play. Great, phat sound.
Couldn’t make out any FCCs. It’s so juicy and tasty that it’s hard to pick favorites, but I like 4 and 11 best.
1. *spoken intro, downtempo dubby groove, female singers.
2. **starts with female vocals in Hebrew? African-sounding beat shifts into militant reggae and Dr. Israel toasting. Several seconds of breathing at end.
3. moody and ethereal, female vocal echo-y and hard to make out. Strong beat, but still a rather amorphous sound.
4. ***midtempo forceful beat with cool vocals – the combination of voices is gorgeous and the beat is hypnotic. Cool! Long strange ending.
5. **very downtempo but hard beat. Great, harsh, crazy sound. Fake ending in mid-song.
6. spacey midtempo groove with very pretty female singing.
7. **Hard midtempo bubble with crazy noises, Dr. Israel singing.
8. downbeat, jazzy, with middle-eastern styled female singing turning into midtempo with more typically “R&B” vocals, although the first voice returns periodically and Dr. Israel toasts.
9. *spoken patois intro reminiscent of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Dr. Israel toasts trading off with patois guy. Hard midtempo beat.
10. **dub of track 1. vocals echo around, music is full of odd noises and occasional glitches.
11. ***beat continues straight from previous track but gets weirder, then goes into handdrums and then into dub of track 2. Much crazier noises than previous track. Crazy mad shit!
12. *Dub of track 6. Damn near experimental electronica, although beat finally comes in and holds it together for a while. Some very quiet bits as well.