Dub / Reggae: An Idiot's Guide

I wholeheartedly recommend both B&F sets. Also the best dubs on freedom sounds in dub are versions of Alla tunes. He's got an amazing voice.

Studio One is a surprisingly decent source for this kind of reggae imo. Obviously Burning Spear's first two albums, especially the original "Door Peep" which is the zenith of this vibe, but even Alton Ellis's "Blackish White" sounds pretty haunting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkhL1bUOSAc

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/US-based-reggae-producer-Philip-Smart-dies

US-based reggae producer, and former NY reggae radio host Philip Smart dies

excerpt:

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Phillip Smart, whose Long Island studio was the hub for reggae/dancehall in the tri-state area, died Tuesday in Port Washington, New York.

Smart, who was in his late 50s, died from pancreatic cancer, his brother-in-law and business partner Michael McDonald confirmed.

The prolific engineer/producer worked with countless artistes at his HC&F Recording Studio in Long Island, most notably Shaggy who recorded several of his hit songs there.

‘Mampie’, ‘Oh Carolina’, ‘Big Up’ and ‘Angel’ were some of the songs Shaggy worked on at HC&F.

man, this prince alla song is, to me, every bit as epic as anything from, say, led zepplin or black sabbath. just such a massive sound, that apocalyptic production and vocal sound, with hooks from beginning-to-end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJnI6rfDoUE

not sure if i prefer the original or the king tubby produced dub version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC9KT5N6xVc

in an interview, i saw prince alla say that he had to resort to being a fisherman during his heyday, because unscrupulous producers would tell him a record hadn't been released, then he discovered it had, but overseas (e.g., in the u.k.). i wonder which producers he's referring to (king tubby?).

woah this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whDTHVbzIQk

the angels aren't really getting a discount but then again trout is an unprecedented player
--le goon (J0rdan S.)

In

man, this prince alla song is, to me, every bit as epic as anything from, say, led zepplin or black sabbath. just such a massive sound, that apocalyptic production and vocal sound, with hooks from beginning-to-end.

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not sure if i prefer the original or the king tubby produced dub version.

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in an interview, i saw prince alla say that he had to resort to being a fisherman during his heyday, because unscrupulous producers would tell him a record hadn't been released, then he discovered it had, but overseas (e.g., in the u.k.). i wonder which producers he's referring to (king tubby?).
--Daniel, Esq 2

King Tubby was an engineer. Producers are like Dodd, Lee, Perry, Pablo.

how do you distinguish between producer and engineer? creative input?

there's not a great way to really distinguish, but in JA music, a useful shorthand would be that the producer pays the singer and the musicians (and the engineer). There are (probably lots of) exceptions, like Lee Perry and King Jammy, but a lot of Jamaican producers were really just financiers and networkers and didn't have much creative input in the way that we think of producers like Brian Eno, though bringing together the right mix of musicians + singer + engineer certainly had an affect on individual songs as well as the course of the music in general. afaik Tubby didn't really do the kind of record label type work that would give you the opportunity to unscrupulously cheat people like Dodd, Winston Riley, Bunny Lee, and others have been accused of.

i knew robert palmer liked roots-reggae. i didn't know he briefly recorded at lee "scratch" perry's black arc studio in the 70s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS6hTE3NuPY

interesting results.

pretty interesting indeed - palmer doesn't quite pull off fitting into the groove to my ear but texturally his voice is a great fit and he has some great moments

Yeah its weird. He ignores the one drop rhythm and phrases everything like its a standard 4/4 beat

Ha yeah I just heard that not too long ago

Trinity's "Rasta Determination" fitting the apocalyptic dub niche nicely

Studio One is a surprisingly decent source for this kind of reggae imo.

just picked up 8 soul jazz reissues cds of studio one grooves

someone had dumped the lot into my local fopp and they were £2 a pop !

was not going to pass on those

bloke behind counter : "they were mine, only put them in the racks an hour ago .. "

timing.

this doesn't have the booming low-end, and it's more of a plea to civility than a warning of apocalyptic doom, but i think it gets at the themes and vibes that shakey wanted. i love the almost ghostly guitar lines curling around the periphery of the song. this also shows you how many great, epic tunes were recorded at lee perry's black-arc studios but left unreleased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3E-I3NKfAM

also, this song -- posted long ago by scott seward -- is epic.

okay, i can't resist, two tracks that knocked me on my butt this week. so much so that i don't know if i can part with the 12 inches despite the fact that i am supposedly a record dealer. but they are both so epic. guitar at the end of the earl zero track kills me every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7_e-CciHig

the guitars at the end sound very un-reggae to me (much more like a rock song). i'm intrigued by it. other examples of guitars used to similar effect in roots reggae songs?

I think I'm gonna make a playlist

really wish the Trinity was on youtube, annoyed I can't share that here

this is a little lightweight, but c'mon, it's the heptones, junior mervin, and the congos, together at lee perry's black ark studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD55r-GNWRk

really sweet vocal harmonies here.

maybe less "lightweight," and more "under-rehearsed," but that's part of the charm, i think.

so great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEio3UiquFs

anyone know the movie this clip comes from?

That's from Roots Rock Reggae: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245397/

it's on youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0UFSo7UaWA

you should definitely watch it! I havent watched it in years but there's not much else out there from that time, and it's well put together though you'll frequently wish they'd left entire performances intact

don't think I've seen that. crazy! would also recommend "Rockers" from around the same time, that is a really fun movie w/a handful of great performance clips

That "Roots Rock Reggae" was shown as "Beats of the Heart" in UK Channel 4 sometime in the 80s, I remember loving it so much then.

There's a sequence featuring some fellow hanging around waiting for an audition with someone (Jack Ruby?), singing a sing called "Tribulation" that has stuck with me these 20+ years. I've sometimes wondered whether he was the singer called "Tribulation Man", none of whose work I've ever seen / heard. Bet he's not.

isn't that close to the beginning? think i saw that scene last night.

Could be - haven't seen it in two decades!

great thread, great thread revival. so many awesome recommendations here. been listening to a ton of classic reggae/dub recently so this thread is hitting me in a timely way.

one of the things I was getting at w my "apocalyptic reggae" question is that I am always on the lookout for albums that marry the more esoteric religio-politico righteous rastafari lyrical stuff with the spare, ominous minor key boom of the best dub and tbh this seems to be kind of a rarity. I mean I love War in a Babylon and Two Sevens Clash but musically they aren't exactly dark sounding, loads of major key melodies and harmonies etc. This juxtaposition isn't a bad thing at all, but I was just wondering how much of a flipside there was to that, how much is out there that is sort of ... scary sounding? I guess?

haha, i have totally been on the lookout for this vibe of reggae/dub for years, probably my favorite sound. as daniel esq said, it's not exactly rare though.

probably my favorite example, wayne jarrett's "satta dread" that i first heard on a just flat-out killer king tubby comp called "king tubby's in fine style", i think it it is a trojan comp.

here is the regular version with the dub version following it in the same video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIjOU3rC7uY

Like the way that takes the "Curly Locks" sound and just makes it that much doomier.

As a slight tangent, there;also the sense of dread, which I guess is at one remove from, or happens alongside, the heavy religiosity, by which I mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0__zORLVuLQ

(I found a copy of that for 10p in the early 80s and it's been a treasured posession ever since.)

I guess Dillinger's probably my go-to artist for this, maybe because of this one, which is all-time (starts at 2:22 after DB's vocal version): the trombone addition ot this one aren;t on the other versions of "Flat Foot Hustling" on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X3W2NGJjxE

I made a mixtape

thanks!

honestly could have made it twice as long but stopped at the 1 1/2 hour mark

gonna listen later. anxious to see the track-listing.

shakey thanks this is awesome!

sometimes i feel like this kind of reggae/dub is the best music ever made

the organ in black man time!

i knew that i've heard "black man time" before, i was thinking hard about it and when i got home i looked through a bunch of cds and realized i have it on this really old trojan comp that has an album cover the looks like "best party jams of 1990"

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-609856-1267562798.jpeg

it's a really great comp, tons of really heavy, minor key reggae in the vein we've been talking about, though less of the rasta esoterica lyrical content.

and i felt like i've heard that organ line and backing track somewhere else, too, and there's actually another tune on this same compilation that has it -- lloyd parks, slaving. here's the two of them side by side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKIJyoKAspE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fosrew5Q-ts

'sometimes i feel like this kind of reggae/dub is the best music ever made'

fixed.

I do too. I can go weeks without listening to anything made outside of a tiny section of Kingston between 74-82.

your display name kind of gives that particular game away ..

shakey, this mixtape is great. thank you.

Wtf at that lloyd Parks cover image

Downloaded the mix - thanks! Sounds killer so far.

Exactly what humorist (horse) said above.

this mix is on point shakey, thanks.

late to the party, but this cut off of that Studio One Roots comp mentioned upthread hits this same minor key+it shall be dread+righteous rastaman spot for me. and its infectious as hell, one of cornell campbell's best joints:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNoB-ed9DNE