Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart at La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, Scotland – 26th April 2025
28th April 2025I don’t even know where to begin. Possibly at the bar, where a man in a crumpled linen suit was explaining to anyone who’d listen that Jah Wobble invented gravity. Not the concept, the actual force. He seemed very sure. He was drinking cider from a teapot.
Inside, the stage looked like someone had tried to set up for both a heavy dub gig and a local PTA meeting and just decided to roll with it. Wires everywhere. Microphones pointed in suspicious directions. A bass amp large enough to house several modest-sized goats.
Anyway. Jah Wobble wandered out, smiling like he’d won a bet against time itself, picked up his bass, and immediately caused about six people to lose their footing. The first song was something with a groove so deep it might technically qualify as a mining operation. I don’t remember the name. It was possibly called BASS FREQUENCY (EXTENDED PANCREAS REMIX), but that’s a guess.
It all sort of became a blur after that. The music was everywhere. Funk, dub, some jazzy bits, possibly an accidental polka. They even veered into what sounded suspiciously like a ’90s rave tune played backwards. I nearly sprained an eyebrow trying to keep up.
The crowd was… look, there was a man who kept applauding half a second before the end of each song, like he was being controlled by a slightly unreliable clairvoyant. Someone even started weeping during a bass solo. Could’ve been joy, could’ve been tinnitus.
By the time they hit the last tune, which may have been a cover of the sound of the universe collapsing into a black hole, very melodic — I felt like I’d been through mild spiritual therapy. Or at least it was like I’d been enthusiastically hit with a large, friendly pillow made of sound.
Afterwards, I wandered outside.
There was a cat sitting on a motorbike, staring at me like it knew what I’d seen. I nodded at it. It nodded back.
