"State of Mind" is the first original Zion Train album to be released since the Grammy winning 'Live As One'. The Dub/Dance pioneers and undisputed leaders in the genre for the past 2 decades are one of the finest live dub acts on the planet, promoting the practice of dynamic onstage dub mixing performed alongside acoustic instruments and the best vocalists. Founder Neil Perch has been performing worldwide for over 20 years. He has been involved in all sorts of information dissemination from music to magazines, CD Roms to Internet Sites and also contributed songs to various soundtracks including Venice film festival award winner - Antonio Boccola’s ‘Fame Chimica.’ Graduating from Oxford University with a first class BA and then an MA in Biochemistry, Perch has given lectures on music and politics at the University Of Mexico City as well as being the inaugural speaker at the Rototom Sunsplash 'Reggae University' and giving music workshops at the famous Ostroda reggae festival in Poland. 'State of Mind' follows hot on the heels of the superbly received 'Best of' compilation, 'Dub Revolutionaries' also reviewed recently by UKRG. The band's staple ingredients of brass, bass, dubwise rhythms and hard electronic beats are combined with new additions of violin, viola and dub poetry, making 'State of Mind' a step forward for the Zion Train. Featured artists include Brinsley Forde of Aswad alongside Zion Train's own Dubdadda and Lua, not to mention the up and coming Jamaican Dub Poetess Jazzmin Tutum. The album was previewed with the single, 'Rainbow Children', an update of the Aswad classic with Brinsley Forde joining Dubdadda on vocals. While regular readers know how much we have loved this band over the years but I have to admit feeling slightly “disappointed” by the previous release albeit a ‘best of album’. However, “State Of Mind” have been spinning non-stop since it arrived on my desk. It is fantastic and takes ZT back to where they belong, banging our foundation Dub tracks with an edge and this album doesn’t fail to deliver this. In fact there probably no tracks on the album that I dislike but there are some that stand out above the others. “Rainbow Children” is a superb Roots track with deep dark basslines but with lyrics that will be proud blasting out from any sound system and radios the world over. Featuring the main vocals of Dubadda, this track gives a true impression of what this band sounds like live and having seen them on many an occasion, I can certify this. The title track “State Of Mind” begins with a “Matrix” sample about being in a dream and then drops into another top Roots track with more melody and heart to others on the album. This is followed by a wicked dub track called “Semper Augustus”, a totally wicked swinging track with a deep bassline – totally awesome. Another favourite track of mine is “Ital Stew”, a wickedly named track as it is a mash-up of dub styles which is totally up there, can see this one being played on UKRG Radio a lot..... However, my favourite track from the entire album has to be “Tribute To Shura”, because it features all the elements of ZT that are just them – wicked baselines, quality horns from the lads and that little something extra and unique, being the warble of a 303 synth and a corny sample to round the overall sound and album off to a tee. “State Of Mind” is defiantly the finest recorded works of Zion Train since “Live As One” and possible on a par with that ‘essential’ album. Gotta be worth a few pennies from your hard earned cash.....