Dub / Reggae: An Idiot's Guide

Reminds me of a thread I’ve been meaning to start.

For the record, I was behind a van on the way to work that bore the magnificent name 'I and I Carpentry'.

If I and I were a carpenter

Should have capitalized the last word

starting to think Prince Far I never made a bad record

I haven't heard a bad one, but they are fairly homogenous. I have 5 or so, but I really only listen to the Cry Tuff compilations and Voice of Thunder.

Cry Tuff volumes are all topshelf, but sometimes I just wanna hear him read some bible psalms, you know?

Just a quick revive to praise jah once more for the Silvertones 'Cheating and Lying' track upthread. Fire.

And I don't suppose this is new to anyone but was listening to Don Carlos on Friday night and this is just immense:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi8m2gMvpA8

so good

I'm feeling this atm

https://youtu.be/FM9AGbJgTSI

Pass me the lazer beam

Cornell Campbell on the same backing track as that Don (Mc?)Carlos track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S67xXlDQTKU

Decent looking show on BBC4 tonight: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00095ky

A treasure trove of tapes from the golden age of reggae has been salvaged and provides the soundtrack to the compelling story of the family behind the legendary Randy's Studio 17.

This "Sound of Macka Dub" (apparently the only album credited solely to Carleton and Family Man) is dope as hell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaxpkW5WHYg

Barry Brown, "Mr. C.I.D."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHj97-qNI1I

^on this fantastic comp: https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Biggest-Dancehall-Anthems-1979-82-The-Birth-Of-Dancehall/release/527989

or maybe it isn't on that?? confusing it w/a diff comp I guess.

Must've been confusing it with this comp:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Trojan-Dancehall-Roots-Box-Set/release/639850

Which is good too. All those 3 disc Trojan comps are good, if not the best sound quality.

yeah those were a real gateway drug for me

wish I had the cash to scoop up more of them when they were being released

I need a proper run at some Dancehall stuff - feels like a hole I need to fill.

Meanwhile, these Strangeness of dub Morley Radio shows look pretty killer: https://www.morleyradio.co.uk/programmes/the-strangeness-of-dub-ep1/
Midway through episode 1 and there's a *monstrous* Count Ossie nyabinghi jam.

i was not familiar with ranking ann until hearing her on this recent nts special - https://www.nts.live/shows/in-focus/episodes/in-focus-ranking-ann-21st-january-2019 - enjoy for a perfect mix of early dancehall, dub, 80s roots

?! nice find

this Errol Sly & Ranking Ann "Love In Your Heart / Moonlight Lover" track is dope

Digging this. Those crazy delay feedback chops on the second track <3 (I forget how to characterize that exact effect where the delay is feeding back on itself and you get these detuned pitch sweeps, but it's what the Crystallizer plugin is emulating, probably some Eventide thing originally?).

Topical, and cool to actually see a dub mix go down in real time (Scientist):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA8OBQMt9WY

WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHT

banger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD3ihdZFZiM

otm. The rest of that comp is dope too iirc

dang that's a good song
thank you for posting! i am a dub/reggae idiot

it's a great comp, stuff was all new to me, had been previously unaware of the Jamaican expat reggae scene in Vancouver (iirc?)

That sounds great. All I know about Summer records is the Noel Ellis LP, which is really good. Alton's lad - I thought that was Toronto-based but I could well be wrong.

Yeah its Toronto, my bad

This isn’t as good plus a lot of it’s more (eccentric) soul than reggae but if you’re curious about the TO history: https://lightintheattic.net/releases/45-jamaica-to-toronto-soul-funk-reggae-1967-1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlL0q6Uv8Ls

New Zion Trio (Jamie Saft, Hamid Drake, Brad Jones), ДОМ, 05.02.20

saft's beard is positively brahmsian

Here's an unremarkable slice of lovers that turned out to be precisely what I wanted to listen to this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOb1OuDt1w

I was looking through some records earlier and pulled this out; my copy has even less information on it than the copy photographed for Youtube! It just has "James" hand-written on the label. Thought I'd look up the catalogue number on discogs and here it is. Derrick Lara's one of those names that I feel I've always known was good but I've never really dug into. I wish I'd been more into lovers in the 80s when this stuff was really, really cheap.

"Even if a fish'd keep his mouth shut, he wouldn't get caught..."

I love this Johnny Osbourne tune, "Fish Mouth" (Techniques production) (NB the "Come Back Darling" LP is one of those that's more of a Techniques comp than an Osbourne LP but it is brilliant all the way through and if you can lay hands on the 2-CD trojan version from a while back it's 5o tracks of this stuff and fantastic):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhKJ5tintQs

Today I learned of this I-Roy version on it, what a treat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ast5PlbNSg

When he starts the second verse with his regular "keep on coming through the door" business but he's just warming up and he starts absolutely blazing, I love I-Roy so much.

Just came across that Ernest Ranglin NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert curmudgeon posted upthread. Fun stuff.

Every time I listen to some Delroy Wilson I wonder why I bother listening to anything else

Love that Summer Records comp mentioned above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nh5CapYICg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5OqFSlMTKc

I've given up on ever getting a copy of Jesus Dread but this will help: Pressure Sounds have re-pressed Yabby You's Conquering Lion.

https://pressuresounds.bandcamp.com/album/conquering-lion-expanded

Don’t give up! I found the LP box set in my local shop for $65. The lid had some issues but the vinyl was in great shape.

I've been immersed in these Cry Tuff Dub Encounter LPs by Prince Far I, they sound so finely balanced and precise. Exemplary. Also some of Adrian Sherwood's earliest big outings?

I think the 1st one was Sherwood and the 2nd Prince Jammy. And then 3 is Sherwood again, i think. Not 100% sure on that one. Such a great series.

So solid. According to discogs Sherwood mixed all four.

odd. i have vol 2 on Virgin's Front Line label and it says mixed by Prince Jammy.

but, i see discogs says All versions mixed and overseen by Adrian Sherwood (Uncredited)

Good stuff for dubheads posted this past week: https://dubreggae.tumblr.com/post/673948657498849280/one-of-historys-best-music-lists-better-than

One of history’s best music lists – better than Pitchfork’s, Rolling Stone’s, or Elvis Costello’s – was made by a teenager named Snoopy in the summer of 1977. In the London music newspaper Black Echoes, he published his 125 favorite albums from the golden age of dub reggae. Forty-four years later, thanks to a lucky break, I found him.

An interview with Snoopy (Paul Nagle) follows. Here's the list as it was published.

https://imgur.com/a/MdNsaAK

And here's a 77-hour Spotify playlist from the list, compiled by Max Abelson, the writer of the tumblr post.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/01EoObotBce4Bww4oWwFB2?si=96945d98a11e4f88