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Salmonella Dub: Heal Me

A watershed record for the band considering the near-simultaneous release of former front man Tiki Taane’s first solo record. Sal Dub return to their pre-Tiki configuration with three founding members. A California-dreaming haze seems to permeate the record and the restorative properties of the theme abound. The music is agreeable, laid-back and melodic with drummer Dave Deakins doing double duty on the vocal mic. ‘Heal Me’ has been riding high in the charts, so Kiwis seem to have embraced the changes to one of their best-loved groups. Former producer David Harrow (On-U Sound) reprises his role behind the mixing desk and may have influenced the Gary Clail-like dulcet invocations in Beat the Game, Heal Me and Rong. ‘Killervision’ fans might miss the more immediate hooks of For the Love of It, but this is a record with details that improves with repetition. There are interesting guitar textures at the back of the mix, vocal and
lyrical barbs hidden behind sunny horn lines and smooth harmonies with existential
loneliness and mortality wrapped up in atmospherics. A strange one in a way,
perhaps not all-healing but listeners will likely enjoy a better condition. Includes ‘Tonic’, a remix disc of tweaked-out instrumental versions.

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