Dub / Reggae: An Idiot's Guide

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

i have the basic channel reissue of that record and i have literally never played that side of it

but i have played the other side too many times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytax95DanA

listening to joe higgs' "life of contradiction" right now and it's very good.

https://imgur.com/a/OeYFlie

Was behind this work of genius the other morning. Caption needed. Current thinking 'under heavy spanners' or 'call Jah for joists and joints'.

Well, that's irritating.

https://imgur.com/a/OeYFlie

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.