Album Review: Various - Declan Kelly Presents: Diesel N’ Dub

It’s a great concept, to take an iconic Australian album and make it reggae, following in the footsteps of Easy Star All-Stars popular reworkings of Pink Floyd, and of course Little Roy versioning Nirvana. The results are mixed – in general it seems the vocalists, including Indigenous artists Frank Yamma, Emma Donovan and Stiff Gins, alongside Tina Harrod, Alex Lloyd and Katie Noonan, bring their own preconceptions to proceedings, neglecting the stuttering groove simmering underneath. Some transform and transcend, like Pat Powell’s Jamaican-inflected Read About It, and Mad Professor’s Beds Are Burning remix.