Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell – Ghosts Outside

Such restlessness is typical of Mason, whose impatient eclecticism has seen him shape-shift through multiple musical genres, from the Beta Band’s pastoral space-psych through to Black Affair’s 80s electronic stomp. Boys Outside, the first release under his own name, reined in this boundlessness. Lyrics that once would have been swathed in multi-layers of experimentation – from hip-hop and reggae to psych and folk – were laid bare. This was Mason exposed, cathartic accounts of his battle with manic depression, suicide attempts, and heartbreak, packaged in Richard X’s slick production. It is no surprise that he felt an itch to rework it so drastically, and even less surprising that he chose to choose a genre quite so out of vogue with the mount of dance-based remixes that permeate the re-release circuit.

Bovell’s version keeps the essence of Boys Outside – the swooping melodic hooks and lullaby vocals – and then demolishes it, replacing its acoustic soundscapes with dub’s core elements: juddering bass tones, reggae guitars and shuffle organ. Verses are cut up and chosen lyrics stand amidst layer upon layer of reverb.

The addition of horns gives a new spark to the opening track ‘Lost and Found’ (now ‘Lost and Dub’), the original piano and rickety electronics bolstered by gold-tinged stabs of brass. It’s the same on ‘Yesterday’ (now ‘Yesterday Dub’) where sultry horns add some welcome meat to what was one of Boys Outside’s most tepid tracks.

The gift of Boys Outside was Mason’s ability to showcase his despair alongside moments of utter exhilaration. But in places, Ghosts Outside drags the melody into such a throbbing underbelly that it’s easy to forget those moments of euphoria. Mason is barely a whisper in the rib-rattling rework of ‘Am I Just a Man’ (which, incidentally, has also been remixed by Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor), and ‘Dub Position’ pulls the original to further eerie depths.

It’s a testament to the quality of the song-craft on Boys Outside that it holds up to such deconstruction. While Ghost Outside doesn’t quite stand up as an album in it’s own right, it’s a worthwhile to addition Boys Outside and to both Mason’s and Bovell’s catalogues.