Jah Wobble & Tian Qiyi - Mystic Liverpool - The Beatles' Psychedelic Psongbook

Since making his recording debut as bassist for Public Image in 1978, Jah Wobble has dabbled in a multitude of different genres through both his solo work and collaborations.  Now with Mystic Liverpool - The Beatles' Psychedelic Psongbook he has collaborated with his two sons John T and Charlie Wardle, who perform at Tian Qiyi, on a release containing their own unique renditions of ten songs from The Beatles.  Along with Wobble’s notable bass-work the use of Chinese instruments like yangqin, erhu, morin khuur and guzheng, the last of which is courtesy his wife and their mother Zi Lan Liao, give the album and fun and unique twist on the songs.  Opener "Tomorrow Never Knows" is arguably The Beatles’ most psychedelic song, and their take  maintains the core of the song but gives it their own spin with Wobble's thick droning bass and the use of the Chinese instruments erhu and yangqin among the highlights.  With Zi Lan Liao’s previously mentioned contribution on guzheng, “Strawberry Fields Forever” has an interesting start with the use of yangqin and then shifts into a beautiful, extremely psychedelic, version with the Chinese instrumentation giving it a fresh sound.  Although it sticks pretty close to the original, “Within You Without You” has more of an Indian feel, while “I Am The Walrus” is slowed down giving it a haunting, somewhat disorienting feel along with a low, pulsing bass.   Also slightly slower and somewhat stripped down with a bass that is more in the dub direction, “Norwegian Wood” replaces the sitar with erhu giving it a distinctive sound.  One of the albums weaker tracks is “Blue Jay Way,” which has more of a modern-day feel and a bit of a droning sound that seems to go on too long causing it to lose the quirky charm of the original.  Originally released as the non-album B-side to “Lady Madonna,” "The Inner Light,” was a very Indian influenced track with minimal instrumentation and is most likely the least know track here.  Their version uses Chinese instrumentation to make it their own and with hypnotic instrumental sections they take the two minute and thirty-six second track and stretch it to six minutes and forty-two seconds.  While “Love You To” was the first Beatles song to completely embrace Indian music, their version is more percussive, which really gives it a new direction.  The short instrumental “Flying” was originally on Magical Mystery Tour and here is turned into a slow, swirling track with a heavy dub reggae beat giving it almost no resemblance to the original.  The album closes with a cover of “Rain,” which, although well-known, was actually the b-side to “Paperback Writer."  Theirs is a fairly faithful version, but with a slightly offbeat, disorienting sound similar to “I Am The Walrus” a few tracks earlier.  Even though they are quite likely the most covered band out there, Jah Wobble and his sons still manage to take these song and give us something new and fun to listen to.  

(30 Hertz Records)