by Rick AndersonRichard H. Kirk, who currently records under the name Sandoz, was a founding member of the legendary Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire in the early '70s. Originally a punk band and then an experimental electronic outfit, Cabaret Voltaire was hugely influential on both sides of the Atlantic. As a solo artist, though, Kirk has shown a marked affinity for the dubwise reggae of King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry, and Scientist, and his second album under the Sandoz name finds him paying tribute to those forebears with a program of solid, if not exactly groundbreaking, electronic dub. The album opens on an underwhelming note with the rather pedestrian Africa (Jahsay), but quickly picks up speed with the horn-laden Monopolize and Destroy, and with Strike Fire, which is built on a sort of modified rockers beat complete with flying cymbals. Civilisation Means Manners (Means Discipline) is a fine Afrocentric treat, and Sit in Judgment offers the album highlight with its fiery horn offbeats. Spiritual Communication comes across as a bit cold and sterile, and I and I Meditation is just an alternate mix (and not a particularly exciting one) of Africa (Jahsay). But Thousand Year Dread finishes things off with a bang, with a more complex and faintly nyahbinghi-influenced percussion sound. Not bad at all.