SOUP DRAGONS: DUB MIXES
Is this a bit of a controversial post? The Soup Dragons certainly were when they switched from none-more-Indie to Dance at the start of the 90s. Their big hit “I’m Free” (1990) got them major chart attention but burnt their bridges with the Indie and Dance communities. It would be their only hit and they eventually split to massed indifference in 1995. Previous post with more extensive biog here. Is it now time to re-assess them?
Today’s tracks date from a 1991 promo, which had different mixes to that on the commercial release. These are ostensibly two dub mixes. But they aren’t very dubby, neither are they instrumentals. They are a bit slower than the originals with a more spaced out, psychadelic feel. Mix 1 is the better version, Mix 2, which didn’t have a commercial release and isn’t radically different from Mix 1, is for completists. Although the mixes have the funky drummer feel to them, this doesn’t dominate and there is enough psychadelic wierdness to make the tracks enjoyable today.
The Soup Dragons – Electric Blues Dub (Mix 1)
The Soup Dragons – Electric Blues (Mix 2)
ACID TED 
No need to reasses them, nobody does with Primal Scream when they made the same sort of change. The Soup Dragons with Jim McCulloch and Sushil Dade were equally competent musicians if not superior to the Scream and Sean Dickson could give Gillespie a run for his money in the name dropping of obscure (at ther time) influences.
[…] had the Soup Dragons a month ago. Hailing from Scotland – more info here – their big hit was, of course, I’m Free. […]