Dub / Reggae: An Idiot's Guide

You just can't get it loud enough at home. It's gotta be so heavy that you can feel the bass from your fingers through to your toes. I'd pay $25 for that--then again, I'm Canadian. Don't know whether I'd pay $25 US.

Bring on the Scratch, Jammy, and Tubby...and forward the bass.

Soon Forward and Mr. Isaacs are incredible. Smooooth mofo.

A step back a little further to rocksteady can't do any harm

Love love love rocksteady. Anybody who likes American soul music should check into it. Some favorites: John Holt (and the Paragons), Slim Smith (and the Techniques/Uniques), Pat Kelly, Ken Boothe, The Heptones.

The Pressure Sounds comps are great too.

The Royals singles compilation on Pressure Sounds, 'Pick Up the Pieces', has been kicking my ass recently. Classic from beginning to end. Dubwise, the Joe Gibbs comp. 'No Bones for the Dogs' is quality throughout as well.

Other shit that I've been hooked on and can usu be found at a good price: Delroy Wilson 'Good All Over' (rocksteady at the cusp of reggae), Dub Over Dub (27 tracks of Errol Thompson's mixing, with solid tracks as a base), the Wailing Souls self-titled debut (superb, utterly beautiful singing and catchy yet rough tunes), Scientist vs Space Invaders (um, it's early 80s Scientist. nuff said), Gladiators 'Proverbial Reggae' (you know reggae is the shit when an album this good hardly gets discussed)

Born Fi Dead by Laurie Gunst is also essential to get that time, tho less about music than politics.

Ian, check Jammyland in the East Village. Might be more $8-$12 but the selection is all essential. Everything above and more. In JA fashion, will play you 45s and LPs if you ask. If you can make it out to Moodies in the north Bronx, it's also amazing. More stuff straight from JA distributors. VP, of course, too in Queens.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00008LKHZ/ref=sr_aps_music_1_1/202-0254809-4916649

if you stick to Blood and Fire, Pressure Sounds, On-U, Trojan etc at first you should avoid the real stinkers, although all these labels have been guilty of barrel-scraping with certain releases.

On what discs is Blood & Fire ''barrel-scraping''? I mean, I've only got about 25 of their discs (RIP to B&F, BTW), but I haven't heard any ''barrel-scraping.''

Forget Heart of the Congo's, overrated.

-- Omar, Wednesday, October 31, 2001 8:00 PM (6 years ago)

huh

i just ordered that jammys book mentioned upthread

5 dolla

'Nother good dub/reggae book is supposed to be Michael E. Veal's Dub: Soundscapes & Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (2007).

Also 5 dolla, perhaps?

I just randomly found Lee Perry's Ape-ology, BTW. Will be spinning it this evening. Should I prepare myself to be disappointed or is this a "change your life"-type experience (or does it fall somewhere in between, perhaps)?

judy mowatt.
gregory isaacs.

I just randomly found Lee Perry's Ape-ology, BTW. Will be spinning it this evening. Should I prepare myself to be disappointed or is this a "change your life"-type experience (or does it fall somewhere in between, perhaps)?

-- Daniel, Esq.

I like Ape-ology but prefer the Arkology boxset which is full of great vocalists (Max Romeo et al.) and is therefore a bit more accessible. Ape-ology is a much heavier / claustrophobic proposition.

Ape-ology is just Super Ape (super awesome) + Return of the Super Ape (not as awesome) + Roast Fish, Collie, & Cornbread (awesome, but Perry vocals get a little wearying after a while), right? Yeah Arkology is better.

i agree with the poster that said heart of the congo is overrated. there are a couple of very nice trax on it, but....
why come nobody has mentioned Black Uhuru on this thread? i can't think of a better reggae group from the eighties - Anthem and Red are both pretty stellar

Anyway the answer to the original B&F question is that Congos and Burning Spear and Tubby stuff that were among their original releases were so strong that for a while everything else kind of paled in comparison and so a lot of reggae trainspotters got down on the label. Specifically I recall the Morwells, U-Brown, Impact All Stars getting a lot of flack (needlessly frankly.)

re: congos being overrated

this is truly an idiot's guide

Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Cornbread is classic Perry. Also a big fan of "Kung Fu Man" on The Mighty Upsetter.

Hell, I haven't heard any Perry I didn't like. Double Seven and Blackboard Jungle Dub also get a lot of play around here.

Yeah Arkology is better.

No option for yesterday, as Ape-ology is all this place had. However, some time earlier I did find The Upsetter Selection at the same place. Not bad for a Border's Bookstore music section.

been on a bit of a dub binge lately - Scientist, Prince Far-I, Culture (almost all at the recommendation of some other ILM dub thread - thx ILM!)

I'm really enjoying Ape-ology. I vaguely remember somebody upthread saying it's heavy, dark-ish dub/reggae, but I think the psychadelic touches (n.1) give it a lighter-touch than a lot of other (great in its own way) dub/reggae I've heard, e.g., Blood & Fire's stuff.

___________________________
(n.1) I also want to say the guitars give it a lighter sound, at least I think it's guitars I'm hearing on at least the early cuts on Super-Ape.

A lot of people would argue that Super Ape is exactly the opposite of light. Rather than being dub reduced to drum/bass/echo, it's MAXIMALIST dub with every track featuring more more more production touches, effects, instruments and even vocals. Either way it's great.

Either way it's great.

Agreed, from what I've heard so far. "Maximalist Dub" is a good term for it (unlike the more hollowed-out, minimal sound of, say, Tubby or Hudson).

"i can't think of a better reggae group from the eighties"

There's not much competition here ya know. Steel Pulse? Misty in the Roots? Reggae groups are pretty much the minority anyway.

Guess Whose Coming To Dinner, by Black Uhuru, is good (the song, I mean; I haven't had enough time to consider the whole disc).

It's a good album too. Probably their best.

Shine Eye Dub is my Uhuru of choice.

steel pulse is pretty awes. i really want to hear 'rally round' now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqYT1HWEcF8

what no love for ASWAD

"i can't think of a better reggae group from the eighties."

There's not much competition here ya know.

Fairly or not, I've felt like Jamaican music went downhill fast in the 80s, once it went digital and morphed into dancehall and its progeny. I must need an "Idiot's Guide to Jamaican Music from the 80s to Present." (Actually I probably need an "Idiot's Guide" to everything).(n.1)

_____________________________
(n.1) As I said elsewhere on these threads, I've got that Greensleeves compilation -- From Dubplate to Download -- but I just can't warm to it (not yet, at least).

I love reggae and I love dancehall, but don't like a lot of 80s stuff. Or at least the sound used to really put me off, and I haven't gone back to re-evaluate.

wow I don't think there's any dancehall I've listened to that's POST-80s - all my favorites (Shabba, Barrington Levy, Tenor Saw, etc.) are all 80s dudes.

Much as I love all the other periods, I think 80s dancehall and ragga is probably my fave reggae era.

And this is my hero

I gave up on dancehall around the time of Shaggy's first hits

Early-80s pre-digital dancehall is great (although yeah kind of overshadowed a bit by what preceded it and what came after.) For Barrington Levy, Yellowman and Eek-A-Mouse alone a classic period, but there is plenty of other greatness out there.

Y'all need to hear this one too

Some great suggestions here.

For more roots, Wailing Souls - Fire House Rock really hitting the spot today.

The opening track, "Mr Brown" is funky as hell

I've loved this track ever since I discovered it via a documentary on Jamaican music that I found on this board.

I suppose "funky reggae" is a subjective term, but another entry into the canon would have to be this Bobby Aitken and Val Bennett track, "One Way Street," the opening of which sounds like a Meters tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPrW2KnevhE

I heard yesterday that Sly Dunbar debuted recording on Double Barrel by Dave and Ansel Collins. Great track.

I saw Adrian Sherwood and African Headcharge last week at the Barbican. Sherwood did his version of Scratch Perry's "Makumba Rock" and it was so good, so heavy (Doug Wimbish on bass!) and then this thing happened that I love about reggae, and which makes me wish I was more of a cognoscenti. I was like - this sounds familiar, it sounds like a minor key version of "Your Love Got a Hold On Me" by Dennis Brown, so when I got home I listened to it and yeah, it basically is, so what's that riddim, aha it's Heavenless. Look that up, lo and behold it turns out there's a NEW (ish) Vin Gordon and the Real Rock Band album with a new version of Heavenless on it, in fact the whole album's fantastic, and like the little greedy bastard I am I want it, I want it immediately, but it goes for silly money. But what else has Vin Gordon been up to? Well quite a bit it seems! So I've absolutely fallen down a Vin Gordon rabbithole and I've never been happier with a decision

Would love to have seen that. I recently stumbled across Akwaaba, one of the few albums without Sherwood producing. It is a big, big step down although it's interesting to hear what AHC sounds like on their own.