Righteous Boombox by asher dust

Review By Nightshift Magazine

ASHER DUST
`Righteous Boombox’
(Self released)
It’s not a new thing of course but it’s still
refreshing to hear artists with many years of
experience under their belts seemingly freed
from the constraints of trying to be commercially
relevant. Asher Dust is a few decades behind
Scott Walker or Yoko Ono age-wise but he’s
been making music since the 1980s, including
two stints signed to major record labels. The
realisation that pursuing mainstream success
comes at the price of a little bit of your soul has
led him out on a far more rewarding journey in
recent times, his expansive, esoteric horizons
making him a genuinely maverick figure on the
local scene.
He’s prolific in the extreme too, and it can be
difficult to keep up with everything he releases,
but this latest full album might be a good starting
point for anyone new to his music and daunted
by his extensive back catalogue. Yes, it’s hip hop,
yes it’s electronica, and yes it’s dub, but it’s plenty
more besides and never, ever fully fits into any of
those genre pigeonholes.
For starters `Righteous Boombox’ can barely
sit still, fidgeting with almost manic energy
for the most part, wearing its disjointed nature
as a badge of honour, from the skittish, trippy,
burbling opening title track, a suitably righteous
call to arms to destroy prejudice of all kinds, to
the squelching, militant ska-flavoured electronica
of `This Life’, on through the woozy, crazed dub
scurry of `Hey Love’ and the almost queasily
phased-out `Not Quite But Nearly’.
It’s decidedly lo-fi but neatly constructed stuff,
Asher Dust’s distinctive grating soul boy delivery
a sometimes potty-mouthed but melodic core
amid some often seriously scouring electronic
noise. However, it’s the more considered, and
darker `Junk Heart’ that provides the album’s
real highlight, AJ exploring a part of his personal
history he’ll be glad to have left behind.
Perhaps too scattershot and unpolished to appeal
to many genre diehards, `Righteous Boombox’
should be worth investigating by anyone more
interested in music that in some ways doesn’t
even know where its headed itself; far preferable
to artists content to stay trapped in their own
comfort zone.
Dale Kattack



Eclectic Sonics

Album Artwork by Spiritually Inspired ( Susie Woods )

I Make Music