“Retrospect 七重天” Celestial 天上 Asian Dub from the Hong Kong masters of the genre, this is a spaced-out sound-clash, bringing together Asia and Jamaica, in a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the first release from this collective. 2016 is the 20th anniversary of the first Celestial 天上 album release in Hong Kong, and “Retrospect 七重天”, the seventh album, was engendered as a celebration of those first 20 years. A combination of completely original tracks plus re-imaginings of tracks from Celestial’s 20 year history, this time the sound veers towards the dark side of Asian Dub. Those familiar with the sounds of Hong Kong and Celestial will hear suggestions and references, echoed and layered, reverberating like ghosts of past dubs. Again featuring the Erhu of Hsin Hsiao Hung, and the Shakuhachi of Sunny Yeung, the album also includes many other musical snippets and recordings, collected over the last 25 years in Hong Kong and beyond. The first track “Vietnam Redux”, features a recording, made by Shelley Bayman, of a vocalist and spoonist in an outdoor restaurant in Hue, Vietnam. The recording originally featured as the basis of the opening track on the first Celestial album, Spirit House, released in 1996. Several other tracks feature recordings made over the last 20 years, some familiar, some brand new. “Kanchhi Redux” features vocals from Nepalese trio “Sur Sudha”, recorded over 10 years ago in HK, but not then used on that version of “Kanchhi”. “Dead Ahead Dub” is based on “Dead Ahead” from the album “Electric Road”, but now with a completely different arrangement, and new vocals from Adrian Da Silva. Many of the tracks veer into the moody world of Film Noir, painting a soundtrack for the dark clouds that have been hanging over Hong Kong in the last few years. Filmic strings, minimalist piano and reverberant melodicas echo uncertainty and confusion over the deep dub bass - however at the end the silver lining always breaks through. The sleeve (get the 12” vinyl version to see it in it’s full glory) is by well known Hong Kong artist anothermountainman. Track listing and credits: 1) Vietnam Redux 2) Chek Lap Kok Dub 3) Last Gong Dub 4) Fragments 5) For Whom The Dub 6) Kanchhi Version 7) Moon Palace (Lust For Dub) 8) Dead Ahead Dub 9) Electric Dub 10) Green Island Dub 11) Back To Life Featuring: Erhu: Hsin Hsiao Hung (2, 3, 7, 8, 10) Shakuhachi: Sunny Yeung (2, 7, 9, 10) Lead Guitar: Eugene Pao (2, B8, 11) Koto: Emiko Hisada (2, 9) Congas: Johnny Kember (2, 6) Harmonica: Dave Packer (2) Vocals: Adrian Da Silva (8) Vocals: Sur Sudha (6) Vocals: Yoki Yip (2) Vocals: LiYa (6) All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Peter Millward at Drum Music Hong Kong Sleeve by anothermountainman Thanks to Jay FC for the English title and anothermountainman for the Chinese title