“Refreshingly
urgent and transcendent…rarely has a reggae group ever appeared
so accomplished in mixing orthodox roots reggae with modern dub creation.” —The Beat
Who
is 10 Ft. Ganja Plant? They are a dub & roots reggae band shrouded
in mystery. They hail from the great Northeast and are rumored to share
members with another great reggae group, John Brown’s Body. Their
shows are rarely announced or promoted. In fact, like a yeti sighting,
they seldom occur. Anyone who has seen them live, or owns one of their
albums, can attest to the fact that no other band has captured the 70’s
spirit quite like this crew, that 10 Ft. may be the best roots group in
America.
Bass
Chalice is 10 Ft. Ganja Plant’s third release on ROIR. Their
first, entitled Hillside Airstrip, and second, Midnight Landing,
were both uniformly hailed by the music press. This time around, things
are a bit different. First off, 10 Ft. Ganja Plant will be touring! Before
this, the only chance anyone had to see them live was at an impromptu
show, usually in the Boston area. There have only been a handful of these
gigs and their frenzied, sweaty nature has left audiences clamoring for
more. In early 2006, they will get it—10 Ft. Ganja Plant’s
first ever tour!
Beyond
this, Bass Chalice sees 10 Ft. stripping away a bit of the mystery
surrounding the band’s lineup and actually letting us disclose a
very special guest appearance by the legendary ‘70s Jamaican vocal
reggae group The Meditations! Their first two albums, Message from
the Meditations and Wake Up are downright, stone-cold reggae
classics that must be heard. On Bass Chalice they grace “To
Each” with a spellbinding vocal performance!
The
Meditations are a fitting addition to the album because Bass Chalice,
at its heart, is inspired by the recording processes of the great Jamaican
studio bands of the 70's (and their American counterparts at Motown and
Stax) where a song was typically written, learned, and recorded live in
a single session, with no regrets, and no apologies. Add to this ethos
some dubwise studio mastery and experimentation and you begin to get the
picture. This is good news for a genre that seems to be gathering steam
in recent months. Apart from big releases on ROIR by Dub Trio, Bush Chemists
& Dr. Israel, other bands have been making their mark on stages around
the country: Matisyahu, Future Pigeon, Dub Nomads, Dub Gabriel, Dub As
A Weapon, Jah Division, and (on a different level) Damian “Junior
Gong” Marley. Dub & roots reggae is more popular than ever and
the 10 Ft. Ganja Plant army is poised to make a big, smoky impression.
Beyond Hillside Airstrip & Midnight Landing, 10 Ft Ganja
Plant has released limited edition vinyl 45’s, and a classic CD
on their own I-Town imprint titled 10 Ft. Ganja Plant Presents.
They are well known to those “in the know” and to the ever-growing
clan of JBB concertgoers.
Besides
can you think of a better band name than 10 Ft. Ganja Plant? I think not.
Of Hillside Airstrip:
“It’s
as if we’d uncovered a lost collaboration among Jimmy Cliff, Augustus
Pablo, and Ernest Ranglin.”
—Michael Endelman, Boston Phoenix
“Like
a communion with Jah Bob [Marley] via ouija board.” —Steve
Barker, WIRE (uk)
“Those
who enjoy old school roots reggae will love this.” —Rick
Anderson, AMG
“While
the sounds are stylistically diverse, covering a range of bases from
deep soul dub to lively up rock steady, they are consistently excellent.
Hillside Airstrip is a place that fans of roots reggae will want to
land real soon.” —Shaun Dale, Cosmik Debris
“Refreshingly
urgent and transcendent…rarely has a reggae group ever appeared
so accomplished in mixing orthodox roots reggae with modern dub creation.”
—Robert Nelson, The Beat
“The
best reggae album since the last Culture release.” —Andy
Kershaw, BBC Radio
"Hailing
from upstate New York, this intriguing reggae collective is named in
homage to Jamaica's own version of amber waves. The musicians in this
posse have connections to other U.S. reggae groups, a few members having
performed most notably as part of John Brown's Body and Tribulations.
Serving up deep authentic reggae heavy on the vibes, 10 Ft. Ganja Plant
is basically a delightful anachronism, performing in such a delightfully
retro way that it's actually hard to imagine that these tracks aren't
20 or 30 years old. As such, they're something of a reggae analog to
modern day soul/funk purveyors like Lee Fields, the Soul Providers,
and the Daktaris. They show their reverence for the music of the past
by doing their homework, learning the skills and playing it very much
in the now.” —James Lien, CMJ
Of Midnight Landing:
“Modern
Roots reggae of the highest order” —Steve Barker, The
Wire (UK)
“Midnight
Landing offers a stylistic cornucopia to the listener…the variety
makes for a reinvigorated listening experience that eschews predictability
for a sense of musical absorption of many reggae subgenres.” —Robert Nelson, The Beat
“Refreshingly
thick from start to finish…this recording is bubbling over with
soulful roots and passionate dub…so vintage in sound you’d
swear it was recorded in the mid-‘70s. This is one of my most
treasured releases of 2003.” —Eric Kholer, Reggae
Nucleus
“Woven
of authentic Jamaican colors…They are old-school scholars teaching
a generation weaned on dancehall the joy of knowing one’s roots.” —Global Rhythm
“A
rootsy, dubby wonder…A mysterious studio collective of upstate
New Yorkers affiliated with the roots reggae band John Brown's Body,
10 Ft. gets deeply into the lazy, hazy rasta '70s dub groove of Lee
Scratch Perry, King Tubby, and Channel One. Rumor has it that the brains
behind 10 FT. Ganja is Craig Welsch, who began as soundman for JBB before
diving into the studio with both analog feet. Remarkably clean, buoyant
and musical, with just the right edge of trippyness, the songs were
reportedly recorded live to two-track and mixed on the fly, fresh as
morning dew on da kine buds…Golden Age reggae isn't dead my bredren,
it's just moved to upstate New York, and exceptional cover art by Chris
Capotosto completes the package.” —Eric Olsen, BlogCritics.org
“No
other American band has shown as much dedication to preserving the spirit
of 1970s roots reggae as the mysterious 10 Ft. Ganja Plant, a group
that deliberately keeps its lineup shrouded in a cloud of pungent smoke
(though it's an open secret that the band shares several members in
common with the Ithaca, NY-based roots collective John Brown's Body).
10 Ft. Ganja Plant's third album finds the band doing the same thing
it did, to glorious effect, on its first two: channeling the rich, dark
spirit of the great reggae studios of the 1970s, in particular Channel
One and Lee "Scratch" Perry's infamous Black Ark, where the
wet and echoey ambience that 10 Ft. Ganja Plant favors was perfected.
The band leans toward instrumentals with lots of dubwise production
effects, but the strongest facets on Midnight Landing are the songs
— in particular, the joyful "Let the Music Hit," and
the resolutely skanking "Mercy." Whoever the vocalist is,
he has an interesting voice that lands somewhere between Bob Marley
and Leo Graham, and whoever the bass player is (ten bucks says it's
David Gould), he lays down sweet, heavyweight basslines that will wind
your waist and soothe your soul. Very highly recommended. 4 Stars.” —Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
