Rising Above Bedlam

Jah Wobble is a spaceman. Literally, since like all the best bassplayers, he abides by the late Miles Davis' infallible rule that it's the space – it's what you leave out – that counts. And metaphorically too, because Wobble's imagination casually drifts into realms of entrancement, most other musicians don't even dare to dream about.

Certainly Rising Above Bedlam may be one of those rare blueprint albums that don't get proper recognition of their significance till some yeas after their release. Even with Sinead O'Connor's guesting on two tracks, it slipped out late last year only to get lost in the Christmas rush. But then it's a contrary and unclassifiable record that only could be filed under 21st Century World Music.

Take it as a storycloud born adjacent to Jamaica that drifts across the Atlantic to settle somewhere over the Mediterranean, between Algeria and Andalucia. With its mixture of dub grooves and Arab and Spanish melodies, this could be new Moorish music albeit also a record that despises "all the empty internationalism of an airline advertisement".

And if Sinead O'Connor possibly hints at some of her own current musical preoccupations on 'Visions Of You', it's Natacha Atlas' dramatically vivid singing that steals the honour on a further four tracks. It's Woobie himself who raps through the title track, a wry and surreal stream of consciousness meditation on urban chaps.

But don't ever reckon that Rising Above Bedlam is some empty academic experiment. Sometimes remarkable but always fascinating, it is as electric as it is eclectic, a record devoted to the principles of a single world music market that avoids all the border guards and passport controls.

And yet for all its rich and colourful cosmopolitanism, the Invaders Of The Heart ultimately really do bring it all back home. For, once you pause to think about it, Rising Above Bedlam is how the music of London's own global village really should sound.