Dub / Reggae: An Idiot's Guide

I'm a big fan of a lot of Barrington Levy's 80s stuff as well

where would you start with Levy? I've never wrapped my head around his discography, but I've liked what I've heard (mostly Junjo stuff probably)

btw, the Thompson/Auralux one I mentioned is this and is awesome: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Roots-Of-Dancehall-Thompson-Sound-Meets-The-Roots-Radics-At-Channel-One/release/647566

my first intro to him was on some 80s dancehall comp that a couple of his giant hits ("Here I Come", "Under Mi Sensi") and then I kind of worked backwards. As far as albums go - Shaolin Temple, Prison Oval Rock, and Here I Come are all really solid and have that crisp, hard sound. There is also a great comp of his Joe Gibbs stuff called "Teach the Youth" that covers 80-85.

Teach the Youth is good, Sweet Reggae Music is another good comp of that period

Robin Hood is my top pick as far as albums...you will recognize most of the backing tracks if you've heard the classic Scientist albums.

Here are a few good'uns:

The Viceroys - Can't Stop Us Now
Black Uhuru - Plastic Smile
The Gladiators - Mix Up
Burning Spear - African Teacher
Ini Kamoze - World A Music
Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution

they're not really related (I don't think) but this Hugh Mundell album has a similar sound/vibe to Night Nurse iirc

Roots Radics are the band on both I think? Agree the Mundell's a good one, I haven't heard a bad Hugh Mundell record.

Slightly off-topic, I have started listening to Freddy Mckay lately, having never paid any attention to him post Studio 1. I've been enjoying "Harsh Words" and "Tribal Inna Yard" a good deal.

"lonely man" is a wonderful freddie mckay song

listening to that viceroys "cant stop us now" tune, dog latin, very good

that thompson comp i mentioned has "come closer" which is also great, very similar minor key vibe

yeah i love that viceroy's song so much.

the scratch-perry produced version of the wailers' "dreamland" is a miracle

bunny wailer's voice on that is so beautiful

picked up Kingston Sounds reissue of Tapper Zukie's "The Man from Bozrah" - good stuff but sound quality is shittier than the other Tapper reissue I got from them, which is disappointing

I have no idea if the 1000 posts have included this, but here's to make sure it is (and check if I can embed a YT)
https://youtu.be/_Xxf5qSocrU

(and the same post after having read the help)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xxf5qSocrU

"What do Ilxors think of the UK-based Prince Fatty/ Mungo's Hi-Fi/Congo Natty/Hollie Cook dub axis?"

congo natty vs mungos hi-fi on the dub version of the 'jungle revolution' album, 'in dub', that is coming out in a bit.
features a sample stuffed on-u sound remix (that's clearly my highlight), alongside several names i have never heard of.
old school vs nu-era : the end result is truly fantastic :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ9yqeQHJBU

p nice

got the Veal book over the holidays and read the introduction the other night. Veal's writing is pretty dry, but looks like there's plenty to appreciate in his attention to detail and the meticulousness of the research. Wasn't quite expecting such an academic text, although he's already touched on ideas/issues that I hadn't really seen anyone write about in any meaningful way, particularly the distinction between reggae that was aimed at the Euro-American market (like Jimmy Cliff, Toots and Marley) and how that differed from the dub/roots stuff that was more popular locally. I don't think it's necessary or helpful to draw a qualitative distinction but it's always been clear to me that these were different branches, and how and why they came to differ was not clear to me when I started getting into this music. There was a pretty large gap between the period where I first heard Marley/Cliff/Toots and the much later period where I first heard Lee Perry, King Tubby, Trojan dub box sets etc. and it confused me how different these things were. Obviously there are links but in some ways hearing the Euro-American marketed stuff had led me to be kind of dismissive since it basically just sounded like contemporary R&B/rock instrumentation but with the one-drop rhythm. When people would use the terms dub and reggae interchangeably I would scratch my head cuz I didn't see the connection between the references to crazy production and minimalism and booming bass lines and, say, "Three Little Birds".

the track i listened to the most in the past week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R1uKKfvQ00

only Heptones I have is Party Time (which is insane and not at all representative afaict)

Heptones Studio One stuff is amazing.

Yet the studio one stuff is great

*yea

Black is Black and Freedom Line are on youtube, those have been my introduction. A friend of mine, a veritable reggae encyclopedia. directed me to this track.

Party time is such a weird album I really need to spend more time with it, it has that very late period black ark sound that is kind of nebulous and difficult to get a handle on sometimes

yeah and on top of that I have the "deluxe" edition which is like 40 tracks or something, it's nuts

It's a great album and I have the Auralux album as well which is quite good but it's neither the best of that period's Black Ark records or the best Heptones record.

xp oh then it might include Night Food or Cool Rasta too which are both pretty great as well. I don't think there are 40 Black Ark Heptones tracks...

in some ways hearing the Euro-American marketed stuff had led me to be kind of dismissive since it basically just sounded like contemporary R&B/rock instrumentation but with the one-drop rhythm.

Think you've summarised the reason I hear a lot of people saying reggae sounds 'all the same'

I thing "Party Time" is my favourite Heptones LP, fwiw, has been for a long time. The discussion about how many tracks the Heptones cut at the Black Ark led me to this: http://sweetrarereggaemusic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-heptones-party-time-deluxe-edition.html which has the 10 on Party Time and 12 more, then more than 30 attendant versions and dubs and so on. Looking forward to making my way through this stuff.

Also excited that VP are getting round to putting out the three Glen Brown / Pantomine comps, particularly Boat To Progress, which came out on Greensleeves in the '80s; been looking for decent condition / affordable copies of those for years (thinking about it, probably about 20 years :( )

I did not know those were coming out that's pretty exciting. I have the two Hot Pot Brown comps so I'll need to check overlap.

Not a huge crossover IIRC (tho I only have one of those Hot Pot ones). I may not RC of course.

which has the 10 on Party Time and 12 more, then more than 30 attendant versions and dubs and so on

yeah this is what I have, lots of multiple versions of tracks

I'm unfamiliar with Glen Brown

Then there's a treat in store for you, I hope.

outic pick up termination dub you will love it

http://www.allmusic.com/album/termination-dub-mw0000180942
http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk/album_detail.php?id=bafcd015

veal book is really great btw, it is definitely an academic text and the writing can be pretty dry but it goes into incredible depth

xp Yes, and the Brown-produced Sylford Walker LP "Lamb's Bread" (think Blood and Fire did an expanded version of that also). I never owned the trio of Greensleeves LPs I mention above, but my brother owned two of them and I always wanted them, thought they were great.

sounds promising! d/ling now

wow shit how had I not heard of this before

Blood & Fire features the less inspiring Welton Irie deejay version of the same riddims. Termination Dub is amazing.

Blood & Fire version of Lamb's Bread that is.

Yeah. The Greensleeves version is the thing, I think - I have both and it's the LP that makes it out of the pile most often.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLkRK7jQmkc

a recent favorite

finished the Veal book (well, the parts of it I was interested in anyway - I don't need to read academic essays on how dub has impacted IDM or whatever). Something that really struck me that I hadn't thought about before was how Jamaica's musical culture totally skipped the whole sheet music/publishing/copyright establishment era of music, and without that there was never any kind of environment for questions of authorship to be raised or resolved. Going straight from an oral culture to a recording culture meant that they approached recording in a completely different way than the Americans or the British did.

book did make me want to hear that Lee Perry-produced George Faith album, is that actually as good as he says it is?

It's a good record, but I think it's probably one of my least favorite Black Ark full length. Of course considering the competition that's still pretty high praise.

this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hhYw_OothY

xp that George Faith is a special album, the Hip-O-Select edition totally worthy. It's strange though to see these kinds of questions anymore because https://open.spotify.com/album/5FQ0VOWxjl3Dsgz1O3jP2I

I'm afraid to read that Veal dub book because it might be very expensive. I've found most OOP stuff is available on shitty MP3s ripped from vinyl, and I get tempted to pay $$ for CDs.