Dub / Reggae: An Idiot's Guide

longer version of same Pablo footage iwth live concert footage. great find :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piyxGr53lIo

I lol'd

http://www.whydoyoulikeit.com/2017/10/reggae-albums-that-look-like-heavy.html?m=1

hah, i bought Blackheart Man back in the day especially because I liked the metalness of the cover

solid album

blackheart man is excellent, i tend to go to that one more than the actual wailers albums

the Wailers' collective discography (early rocksteady stuff, Lee Perry era, the two with Bob, and then Bob, Peter and Bunny's solo albums) represents a pretty weird cross-section of reggae when you think about it. I'm not sure what I like the best, but it's probably Catch a Fire and Burnin'.

god i love that Massive Dread sleeve

I've never heard/seen that one!

not dub-related per se but since this seems to be the general vintage reggae repository thread of late, I just got this book: https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/dancehall-book-the-rise-of-jamaican-dancehall-culture which is p fantastic. (I have the comp too, which is a p good general overview of the biggest/canonical stuff)

was reminded of marcos' interest in that early dancehall/Roots Radics sorta sound but I can't remember if that was mentioned on this thread or some other one. anyway... good stuff!

this album's pretty great, super-spacey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP0eOtZ0Q9M

xp that's definitely a blind spot for me. would love to know more about 80s dancehall

that book looks rad xp

and yea that sound has continued to be really intriguing to me

i love the vocals on that sister spliff tune!

there's an intermediary period between '79, when the roots and heavy dub stuff starts to get less popular, and the release of Under Mi Sleng Teng. So like from '80 - '85 or so you have the stirrings of dancehall but the deejays are still backed by bands like the Radics, with this real tight, dry sound. Then once Sleng Teng hits sounds change dramatically.

guys like General Echo, Lone Ranger, Trinity, Sugar Minott, and esp Barrington Levy are all at their peak around that time

the Beth Lesser book is fantastic. tbh I don't remember the writing particularly well (a lot of that history would have been pretty familiar to me by the time I read that), but even apart from that it works as a thick coffeetable book with amazing photography.

that pre-Sleng Teng era is indeed great. Shakey is otm and I'd add Yellowman and Eek-a-Mouse too.
dog latin, the Greensleeves 12" Rulers comp for Junjo Lawes could be a nice place to start listening (79-83).

That’s a great recommendation. The run of Scientist Dub LPs off that era of Junjo rhythms are some of the best too (think the recent expanded versions give some good context with added vocal / DJ versions but I haven’t picked any up yet).

I wasn't sure which thread to revive! Anyway...

Warding off the end of summer listening to a) lots of Blood and Fire (Horace Andy In The Light/In the Light Dub, Darker than Blue, Glen Brown, Impact All Stars) and, most recently, the Noel Ellis album, which is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxXRQgCoz9s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptW6foThQrw&start_radio=1&list=RDptW6foThQrw

Last embed: Noel Ellis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbjizpAR6QM

Noel Ellis is dope, that one's new to me!

yea that noel ellis tune really is. he had that reissue release on light in the attic a while back, maybe 10 or 12 years ago? it's all good but that one is probably the best on it. iirc he was a toronto dude?

Alton Ellis' son? Was previously unaware of him.

Yes. Really good LP, a highpoint of Canadian reggae!

I've been listening obsessively to side 2 of "Bobby Bobylon" as usual.

xp yea his son!

Bobby Bobylon is so good! Maybe it just fell thru the cracks for me personally, but I wasn't even aware of it until like after 10+ yrs of heavy digging into reggae. It should get more mentions as one of the best.

wait which Noel Ellis album are we talking about?

is there more than one?

https://www.discogs.com/Noel-Ellis-Pre-Release/master/175484

yeah I couple others came up when I searched. But I just dl'd that one cause the others had more "modern" production.

huh I don't have that McGregor album either, although I do have some "Showcase" LP of his from around the same time.

I'm only aware of the one Noel Ellis album - recorded in 1983 but has a 70s roots thing, Agree that's probably the best track. Killer. Quite the line up on there, too: Jackie Mittoo, Willie Williams, Johnnie Osbourne.

Bobby Bobylon is a stone classic! It's worth finding a reissue with the extended version of "Rastaman Camp" imo, one of my all-time favorite tunes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcMwwTZ1QW0

I don't need much convincing, love that era of Niney productions

this one's Studio One so no Niney, but it sounds amazing: about as deep roots they ever got

ah. yeah well Coxsone Dodd, I guess he's okay too :)

xp Yeah I love the Niney cut on “Rastaman Camp” as well. Would not like to choose between that one and the Studio 1 version.

oh is the extended version a Niney mix? my liner notes don't make that clear at all (my apologies, Οὖτις), but that makes sense

What a song indeed, rob (rastaman camp), didn't know it.
Reggae has some fascinating periods of transition between its subgenres. One I love is the meeting of roots, dub and deejay, that has produced incredibly deep music, often in 12'' singles. Where the song just posted absolutely belongs. We're pretty far from an idiot's guide, but it's also the style the first poster was sort of asking for.
Some favorites I have in that vein.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsE5ZhPmh74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBKG4ORSJWA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8xzqekt6eY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly-ALyrY1Zk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyP8bzhP6Y0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUBHkMQmzpI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_kldLmm2mo
and someone mentioned fancy dub vocals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IvAQRu17YY

For an idiot: Rhythm & Sound Showcase and the Basic Replay compilation.

lol I only know two of those (the Ras Michael and Prince Far I tracks)

sometimes it's comforting to think that I will never hear all the amazing reggae from the 70s and 80s, that it isn't humanly possible

No there are two very different Freddie McGregor cost on "Rastaman Camp": the Studio1 cut off "Bobby Bobylon" and remixed into avery murky brilliance in the youtube above, and a militant horn-driven Niney produced cut a few years later (that version's on a decidedly not-awful-but-not-amazing Observers LP called "Mr McGregor fwiw).

Cuts, not cost

Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss4TNbDZeQg

ah thanks Tim. that's quite nice; the muted trumpet is a nice touch, don't think I've heard that much in reggae (maybe? cue 10 amazing tracks I've never heard lol)

that Ijahman Levi song is a trip and of course "Plant Up" is a modernist masterpiece. I'll have to come back to Nabozo's others! Οὖτις otm regarding the bottomless volume of this stuff

bottomless volume from a poor country of 2 million people! (in 1975)
and it was pretty much like, what, 25 musicians and 10 producers

then the amount of truly great singers, sheeeesh

Most of that lot new to me! This mix of Rastaman Camp is magnificent.

Christ, this Silvertones track is immense. The first half is almost proto-Jungle!

I had found a lot of those tracks while searching for this Hitrun label, and following a few raters on RYM, most notably TheRevivalist.
A few more if you don't mind, in the vaguely defined deep roots / soulful vocals / spaced out prods.

Gregory Isaacs - Report to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkUY8jZFYNk

Broggs / Prince Far I - Higher Field Marshall / I and I the Chosen Ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjWtrEJvqaQ

Dr Alimantado - Born for a Purpose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6pIONWxTbs

Rhythm & Sound - Mash Down Babylon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Wkjy3UCIs

Danny Henry - African Gold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMg2taR8fLs

Love Joys - All I can say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nL_hx0Gezk

Ranking Dread - Shut me Mouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zceiA35_seY

And yes, it's endless. If we could also talk of early digital dancehall... another forgotten space diamond mine.
Just one very famous one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSVWJjDfUCI

Yeah Hitrun is always worth looking for - I have a copy of this CD comp (it’s an ahem “unofficial release” but the fellow who does them takes great pride in his remastering and does a good job):

https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Hit-Run-Singles-Collection-1978-79-Volume-1/release/7709902

My favourite Chosen Brothers/Rhythm & Sound is this monster (also featuring Bullwackie's All Stars):

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