That punk rock, it was all
shouty noise and noisy shouting wasn’t it?
Ah, now you see one of the
great stereotypes of our times; that punk was just about making a racket. Well,
it wasn’t jazz but there was far more to the genre than a lot of people think.
Back in 1976, punk and
reggae seemed intertwined; at the punk clubs, reggae was played by Don Letts
and other DJs as there were so few punk records to actually play. Bob Marley
& The Wailers got in on the act with 1977’s ‘Punky Reggae Party’ … “The
Wailers will be there/ The Damned, The Jam, The Clash/ Maytals will be there/
Dr Feelgood too.”
And punk bands found dub
reggae to their liking.
That produced the cracking
records from punk and post-punk outfits. Like these …..
The Ruts: Jah War (1979)
Hit singles such as ‘Staring
at the Rude Boys’ and ‘Babylon’s Burning’ tick all the requisite punk purity
boxes. But The Ruts were far more diverse than many of their peers, which can
partly be attributed to being late starters and hearing more than the early
punk rockers. ‘Jah War’ appeared on the classic 1979 debut The Crack. It has a
heavy roots-reggae feel and is also political, tackling the violence
perpetrated by the London Police’s controversial SPG (Special Patrol Group)
during trouble in the ethnically-diverse suburb of Southall in 1979.
Released as the third
single from The Crack, the BBC banned it for its message.
The Clash: One More Dub (1980)
The Clash laid their love
of reggae and dub to the mast early on: a cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police and
Thieves’ was released as a single in 1977. A year later they released ‘White
Man (In Hammersmith Palais)’ which namechecked a litany of reggae stars to a
Jamaican vibe backdrop.
‘One More Dub’ followed on
from ‘One More Time’ at the end of side two of the triple album meisterwerk
Sandinista. The standard track is about poverty and its effects in so-called
ghetto towns; ‘One More Dub’ strips the lyrics down, more or less to the
chorus: “One more time in the ghetto/ One more time if you please/ One more
time for the dying man/ One more time if you please.”
Generation X: Wild Dub (1978)
Generation X’s second 45,
glam-punk stomper ‘Wild Youth’ was paired with ‘Wild Dub’ which revealed the
band’s reggae influences with singer Billy Idol toasting at the end, “Heavy,
heavy dub/Punk rockers!”. The single was produced by Phil Wainman in late 1977,
and while neither track were included on the self-titled debut album, they were
both part of the much-changed US version.
Stiff Little Fingers: Johnny Was (1979)
A cover of a Bob Marley
& The Wailers song, the Irishmen’s version revamped the lyrics to reflect
the violence of the time in Northern Ireland. While both songs convey the
horror of a mother who’s son has been killed by a stray bullet, the Wailers
made it non-geographical while SLF’s take added the following line to make
clear where the incident occurred: “A single shot rings out in a Belfast night
and I said oh Johnny was a good man.”
Steel An' Skin - Afro
Punk Reggae (Dub) (1979)
Steel An' Skin were a
British-based group who came from West Africa, the Caribbean and the UK.
Reggae, post-punk and Caribbean steel drums are all prevalent on this 12-inch
record. Perhaps the punk link in the title was somewhat tenuous but there’s no
doubting that some of the influences could have been from Bristol’s The Pop
Group or London all-girl four-piece The Slits.
Alternative TV: Life After Dub (1978)
A-side ‘Life After Life’,
B-side ‘Life After Dub’. The A-side was a clear nod to Jamaica, with vocals
from Sniffin’ Glue editor Mark Perry, sounding positively positive. The B-side
was a straight-through dub version with echoes and clipped lyrics. One of the
band’s finest moments.
Bad Brains: Bad Brains LP (1982)
American band Bad Brains
were out on their own, with many of their songs actively fusing hardcore punk
and roots reggae. They were that rarity of being a black punk band. They were
also followers of the Rastafari movement, so the reggae/dub side came easily to
them. The first five tracks of
this debut LP are pure hardcore (with noticeable nods to reggae) then track
six, ‘Jah Calling’, is akin to a dub interlude. ‘Leaving Babylon’ is another
track that is 100 percent reggae and the shift in moods works perfectly, though
it does seem at times that there are two bands at play on the same record.
Public Image Ltd: Metal Box (1979)
After the punk wave
disintegrated by the beginning of 1978, post-punk came into play. The Sex
Pistols’ Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name John Lydon and formed PiL
which threw out the three cord thrash and explored a buffet of divergent
genres.Jah Wobble’s booming bassline
sounded like it was torn directly from dub plates. Same for the band’s
production, especially on the second LP, the much-lauded and pioneering Metal
Box.
Gang of Four: I Love A Man In Uniform (Dub version)
(1982)
Way before the Gang’s
finest hour, the Leeds disruptors were well versed in the art of reggae and dub
with the band’s discordant basslines clearly being influenced by Kingston
producers. This version of the group’s biggest hit single only initially
appeared on US and Canadian 12-inch releases. It helped the single become a big
hit in American clubs and on the dance charts.
Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi’s Dead (1979)
Bauhaus are often unfairly
labelled as a Goth band, so many people will be surprised to learn that they
highly influenced by dub, with bass player, David J saying that their signature
song "was our interpretation of dub". Several singles contained
dub-tinged versions.
I had no idea what to expect when I
rocked up to Meow on Saturday night for the Dennis Bovell gig. Would it be a simple
DJ set, or a performance set from the prolific UK dub producer? I was not
fussed either way, and as it happened, it turned out to be a little bit of
both.
The truth is, as an MBE-toting
70-year-old master of his craft, Bovell can do whatever the hell he wants. He
has nothing left to prove. The man’s a legend within dub and reggae circles,
and the vast majority of us present - the venue was around seventy percent full
- were there simply to share the same rarified air as Dennis Bovell. To be in
the same room. And to bask in the privilege of it.
So we got Bovell the selecta, Bovell the
toaster, Bovell the performer, and morsels of Bovell the man, especially on
those almost stream-of-consciousness moments when - often mid-track - he decided
to share a short anecdote or memory with us. Which was more than occasional,
and this gig was easily one of the more artist-chat-friendly interactive sets I’ve
attended.
Musically it was mostly about Bovell
playing selected tracks he’s been associated with across his long and fruitful
career. Whether that involvement was as a vocalist, as a guitarist/musician, or
more commonly, as a producer. He’d play those tracks, toast over the top, freestyling
along, spontaneously singing the intro to one tune, or joining in on another
song mid-chorus or part way through. It appeared random and unplanned, carefree
and unproduced, which very much added to its charm.
As a selector, Bovell has impeccable
taste. A taste honed by years of grassroots involvement with his genre of
choice. His set was a hybrid concoction of reggae, rocksteady, ska, soul, and
dub.
You know the drill: a selection of big
bottom-heavy bass-driven tunes that at times had the venue shaking at its structural
core. The best of which, for me, included tunes from Toots, Sly & Robbie,
Gregory Isaacs, and Dennis Brown. But there was plenty for everyone.
There was a cool story about how Bovell
had beefed up and reggae-fied a Sade track from the artist’s Soldier of Love
album, after Sade herself had requested it upon sending Bovell the vocal stems.
And there was some high praise for a kindred spirit of sorts, Linton
Kwesi-Johnson, when offering up an LKJ gem he’d collaborated on.
We even got the odd Matumbi track,
with Matumbi of course being the UK-based 1970s reggae act which gave Bovell his initial exposure.
The dub production and technical side
of Bovell’s wider skillset was far less obvious - mostly only identifiable with the odd tempo or pitch change, and there wasn’t much in the way of the extra
effects or wizardry Bovell would otherwise have at his fingertip disposal inside
a studio.
I was later informed Bovell played for
“three hours” or more, but my own lethargy and relative sobriety meant I managed
only around two hours of the set, happy enough just to have experienced Bovell
up close and personal, even if only briefly.
Dub Empire’s
Beyond High is yet another great release from the Original Dub Gathering
digital platform - a browsing destination which has become something of a “go
to” for me when seeking out fresh dub flavours. It’s a five track EP from a
Belgian production duo I otherwise know very little about, but it's the sort of
impressive sampler that has convinced me to dig deeper and explore further. Not
to be confused with Dub Empire Sound, which from all accounts is an entirely different production outfit, despite possessing a very similar MO.
Beyond High is a
bassy excursion into state-of-the-art electro dub, drenched with higher-bpm
techno sensibilities and Eastern/world music vibes. The title track is
absolutely the jewel here and we get two versions - the original mix which
opens proceedings, and the UZUL acid-fried remix which closes out the EP. They're the bookends, but everything sandwiched in the middle is not too shabby either. Grab a copy of
the album from Original Dub Gathering (here) or stream below.
Issued on the
Original Dub Gathering imprint, Polarity is another fine mini album or
EP-length release from French melodica maestro Art-X, and another collaboration
with the Roots Addict. It follows on from their equally impressive Under Mi Kulcha joint release of a few years back.
Polarity consists
of six tracks, all being instrumental (voiceover samples aside), and all being resplendent
in a skanky roots reggae style. Which means copious amounts of melodica, bass, vintage
keys, and earthy guitar tones.
The best tracks are opener 'Origin', plus 'The Smoke of Hell', and the super rootsy closer 'Moonlight', but they’re all decent, and you
can pick up a hard-to-resist free download direct from the Original Dub Gathering website (here).
Producer,
artist, and all-round reggae superstar Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry isn’t one to live on
his weighty legacy. Now well into his 80s, Perry has produced two studio albums
in less than two years as he continues his journey into the new sounds of
Jamaica. Craig Stephen takes a closer look: Rainford (2019)
Perry’s
umpteenth studio album was co-produced with dub reggae producer extraordinaire
Adrian Sherwood. Perry as ever provides the vocals, sounding, yes, like an
elderly man, but a man with fire still burning in his belly.
Some tracks
have a freestyle, go-with-the-flow format, with Biblical allusions that veer
into babbling chants, snarls and shrieks.
The final
track, perhaps ominously but appropriately, is ‘Autobiography of the Upsetter’,
and while I expect Perry to continue for a few more years yet there will
naturally be a point at which the book is closed. This feels like some sort of
career-capping memoir as Perry reminisces on his life in music.
Unfortunately,
the vocals ebb and flow and there are words that are hard to comprehend. He
begins by saying he was born Rainford Henry Perry in Jamaica in 1936, informing
the listener that his father was a freemason, his mother an Eto Queen (no, I
don’t know either) … “They shared a drink together, they then go on to make a
Godly being/ Just look at me.”
Among his
reminisces are how, he says, he made the Wailers, and in particular its
frontman:
“Bob Marley come to me saying ‘my cup is overflow, my cup is overflow,
and I don’t know what to do. Can you help Mister Perry?’ Yes I can, I give you
Punky Reggae Party.”
He later reminds listeners of his work with Susan Cadogan, who had a
number of big reggae hits in the UK including the Perry-produced ‘Hurt So Good’.
A couple of
tracks, if we are honest, don’t quite continue the quality but ‘Makumba Rock’
partially makes up for such slackness – it is an unhinged jam where Perry
alternately cries like a baby, bleats like a goat, and whines “I want my mommy,
I want my daddy” as heraldic horns blast forth and a hardcore dub rhythm
transports the listener back to 1974 and near the end warns Britons: “Prince
Charles will not be King.”
Black Market is a US-based dub producer who caught my attention a few years back when he started releasing top notch name-your-price dub downloads on Bandcamp. I say he’s “US-based” because he’s more than a little mysterious and relatively low profile. His Twitter profile suggests he’s working out of Los Angeles, while his Bandcamp page suggests he’s based in that bastion of hardcore dub vibes, Nashville, Tennessee.
Let’s just say he flies well beneath the mainstream radar, and his location is probably not all that important anyway given that he’s easily enough found on the internet. In fact, you can find all of his Bandcamp releases here and his Facebook page here.
What’s most important is the music, with his latest work – Complete Clash – offering five dubby remixes of tunes by The Clash. What I like most about this one is the fact that we get less obvious Clash numbers, and these edits reek of someone who is a genuine fan of the band.
Being honest, I’ve been less impressed with his reworking of the Beach Boys and Michael Jackson, although his Bowie stuff stacks up well enough.
Best of all though are his themed releases on the X-Files, Twin Peaks, Star Trek, and the Twilight Zone, where he cuts up narrative from those shows to create whole new dimensions of his own.
Anyway, enough from me, this blurb from his Bandcamp page pretty much covers it:
What would happen if The Beach Boys had The Wailers as their backing band instead of The Wrecking Crew? What if David Bowie spent the summer of 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica with King Tubby instead of Philadelphia? Michael Jackson meets Lee Scratch Perry? These questions are the basic thesis of Black Market. Listen loud, dance, enjoy, and share. I make these albums for free but accept donations at blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com
I’ve got to be honest: I’m generally such a
committed fanboy of just about everything the On-U Sound label releases, I fear
I can’t really review this album objectively. I’m concerned that my love for
the work of (producer) Adrian Sherwood - across something close to four decades
now - will blind me to anything other than its most obvious flaws or
shortcomings. But I’ll do my best ... and if I can’t be totally objective, then at the
very least I can offer some information about what you can expect from Pay It
All Back Volume 7.
The main thing you need to know that it’s
the latest release in a long-running series of sampler compilations for the
On-U Sound label. It was released in late March, some 23 years after the
release of Pay It All Back Volume 6. Yet, even after such a lengthy period, many
of the same artists who graced the first six volumes - which covered work from
the early 80s to the mid 90s - feature again on Volume 7. See, for example,
offerings here from label stalwarts like African Head Charge, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry,
Mark Stewart, Little Axe, Doug Wimbish, and Sherwood himself. But it’s far from retro-centric; it’s not a
nostalgia document. It’s a sampler to showcase new, recent, or forthcoming On-U
Sound releases, Sherwood mixes of material not exclusive to the label, and/or
previously unreleased stuff that never found a home elsewhere. As such we get a genuine hybrid of musical
styles (except generic rock and pop) with the one common denominator being that
everything here has, to one degree or another, been touched by the hand of
Sherwood. That’s the glue that binds. Highlights include: the Play-Rub-A-Dub mix of Horace Andy’s classic ‘Mr
Bassie’, Neyssatou and Likkle Mai’s version of Bob Marley’s ‘War’ (see clip below), Denise
Sherwood’s ‘Ghost High’, Congo Natty’s ‘UK All
Stars in Dub’, Sherwood & Pinch’s ‘Fake Days’ (featuring LSK), Little Axe’s
‘Deep River’, Ghetto Priest’s ‘Slave State’, plus the Coldcut/Roots Manuva
collab, ‘Beat Your Chest’, which closes the album … and of course, there’s the
understated magnificence of ‘African Starship’, which is a typically eccentric
taster from the now 83-year-old Lee Perry’s 2019 album, Rainford ... climb
aboard with “Pilot Perry” if you dare! The aforementioned flaws and shortcomings
are few. Only a couple of tracks (of 18) leave me feeling a little cold, but I
guess that’s the nature of sampler compilations. And, in my experience, so far as
On-U Sound compilations are concerned, those tracks are just as likely the ones
I’ll be listening to most this time next year. My own purchase was a rare foray back into
the world of the compact disc - my OCD preventing me from deviating from the
format I collected the first six volumes in. The supplementary booklet not only
offers a plethora of information about the tracks included on the album, it
also provides a comprehensive year-by-year guide to the label’s entire back catalogue.
One of many
exceptional politically charged dub albums from Adrian Sherwood’s most
excellent On-U Sound stable of artists, End of The Century Party brings
together a wide and diverse array of talent. From the ex-Sugarhill house band
trio of bassist Doug Wimbish, guitarist Skip “Little Axe” McDonald, and the
beats programmer/multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Keith Le Blanc
(collectively aka Tackhead), to ex-PiLsters Jah Wobble and Keith Levene, to roots
merchants such as the late Bim Sherman and Style Scott’s Dub Syndicate, plus a
host of other label luminaries. Throw in an ex-roofer (allegedly) from Bristol
with a loud hailer voice, one Gary Clail, have Sherwood himself take care of
the mixing and production, and well … you’ve got an irresistibly potent brew.
Who cares that
they decided to celebrate the end of the century a decade or so early?
Clail and Tackhead
had worked together before, most notably on an album called Tackhead Tape Time
(1987), but also when Clail was employed as a ranting/chanting/toasting MC with
a live/touring version of the band. On End of The Century Party however, it’s Clail
who takes centre stage, and this album to some extent acted as the launching
pad for an otherwise sporadic “solo” career which included four more
full-length releases – Emotional Hooligan (1991), Dreamstealers (1993), Keep
The Faith (1995), and Nail It To The Mast (2014). Rumour has it another one is
due in 2019, but I can’t be sure about that.
End of The Century
Party combines helpings of techno, dub, funk, sampling, and spoken word (though
not necessarily rap), with large chunks of social commentary and a set of
highly politicised lyrics. Themes include vegetarianism (on ‘Beef’), corporate
corruption (on ‘Two Thieves And A Liar’ – with specific targets being
Stockbrokers, Accountants, and Lawyers – you decide who’s what), dreaded
privatisation (on ‘Privatise The Air’ – parts 1 and 2), and of course, football
(a particular passion of Sherwood’s as expressed on ‘Leroy Leroy’).
‘Beef’, later
released as a single and given a bpm boost, and also included on Clail’s
Emotional Hooligan album, is probably the best known track for non-On-U Sound
devotees, but the rootsy dub of ‘Two Thieves’ and the quite phenomenal ‘A Man’s
Place On Earth’ are the stand-out moments for me.
If you’re a fan of
Adrian Sherwood and/or Gary Clail and/or Tackhead, or the On-U Sound label
itself, you’ll likely already have this album. If you’re not yet a convert, but
keen to learn what all the fuss was about, then this is a great place to start.
Blog regulars will know of my obsession with the melodica, and I’ve written a little bit in the past about the work of French dude Art-X, who has become rather prolific over the past few years when it comes to releasing music with melodica right at its core. His latest work, released earlier this month, is a nine-track album called Nomad, and it features a variety of guest collaborators. Once again, it’s blessed with a very rootsy vibe, and I reckon it might just about be his best work yet. It’s available as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp …
It’s fair to say
that one of my most anticipated album releases of early 2019 is the seventh
instalment in On-U Sound’s Pay It All Back series.
Earlier this
month, some 23 years after the release of the volume six, the label announced a
March 29 release date for the unveiling of a mouth-watering volume seven. Here’s
the blurb from the On-U Sound Bandcamp page (where you can also pre-order, here):
“An 18 track showcase of new Adrian
Sherwood productions featuring previews of several forthcoming On-U releases,
unique mixes, deep cuts, and unreleased tracks from Roots Manuva, Lee “Scratch”
Perry, Coldcut, Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band), Mark Stewart,
Horace Andy and more. The long-awaited latest instalment in the legendary On-U
sampler series that first emerged in 1984. In the classic tradition of the
series the tracks are stitched together with a number of special pirate radio
style segueways, making for a unique journey through the modern world of On-U
Sound! Both vinyl and CD editions come with a fully illustrated and annotated
On-U catalogue, track exclusive to physical formats and is presented in a
gorgeous colour-printed kraft board sleeve.”
The full Pay It
All Back set, volumes one through six, is the only long running compilation
series - on any label - I’ve managed collect in its entirety in the same format
… only on CD, sadly, although I had at least one, if not two, of the early
volumes on vinyl back in the day.
With the first six
volumes having provided an in-depth overview of the label’s first decade, and
nothing since 1996, volume seven is more than just a little overdue.
There have, of
course, been many other Adrian Sherwood and On-U compilation releases during that
period, but the Pay It All Back series remains the most definitive. Up until
1996, at least.
In anticipation of
the forthcoming addition, I’ve compiled a How to Buy On-U Sound (collections)
guide, and although every On-U devotee would add and delete as applicable to
create a completely different set of favourites, the ten releases listed below
all take pride of place in my own collection, roughly in order of preference.
How to Buy On-U
Sound …
15 Years in an
Open Boat (1997)
Although each Pay
It All Back volume comes with its own unique set of charms, 15 Years in an Open
Boat is perhaps the only collection to trump them all, and it currently ranks
as the most comprehensive On-U Sound overview to date, covering off the label’s
first - and surely most important - 15 year period. 29 tracks across two CDs
and/or LPs. As such, we get everything from Prince Far I’s seminal ‘Virgin’ (of
1982), through to Sherwood’s mid-90s work with the likes of Little Axe, Audio
Active, and 2 Badcard. It also ticks boxes for the hugely significant Tackhead
(‘What’s My Mission Now?’), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (‘Jungle’), Dub Syndicate (four
tracks), and many others along the way. 15 Years in an Open Boat is an absolute
essential for any self-respecting On-U collector.
Pay It All Back
Volume Three (1991)
My pick of the Pay
It All Back bunch. Just. It opens with Strange Parcels’ ‘Disconnection’ and it doesn’t
relent across 17 FX-drenched Sherwood masterpieces. Perry and Dub Syndicate again
feature, the latter with another three gems, but there’s also arguable career
highpoints on this one for key Sherwood sidekick Gary Clail with ‘False
Leader’, and the much loved Little Annie, aka Annie Anxiety, with ‘I Think of
You’. Naturally there’s some Barmy Army (two tracks), African Head Charge, Mark
Stewart, and the late, always missed, never forgotten, Bim Sherman, who closes
proceedings with ‘Nightmare’. This one is pretty much the equivalent of an On-U
“Who’s Who” of the label’s roster as things stood at the end of its first
decade.
Pay It All Back
Volume Two (1988)
Where it all
started for me, on vinyl, and while the On-U Bandcamp page appears to insist that
Volume Two is short and sweet at just nine tracks in length, the album in hard
copy form (CD) consists of 16 tracks, most showcasing Sherwood’s love of reggae
at the rootsy end of the spectrum; opening with Perry & Dub Syndicate’s
‘Train To Doomsville’, and closing with Dr Pablo’s melodica-driven ‘Red Sea’. Everything
in between is a genuine On-U classic. Highlights include two Bim Sherman
collaborations, with Singers & Players on ‘Run Them Away’, and Dub
Syndicate on ‘Haunting Ground’. Singers & Players back Prince Far I on two
tracks, and Far I’s own, immortal, ‘Bedward The Flying Preacher’ is another obvious
stand-out. There’s two great contributions from African Head Charge, and three
Mark Stewart/Maffia offerings across the second half.
Sherwood At The
Controls Volume 2 1985-1990 (2016)
A recent raiding
of the On-U archives from just a couple of years back. I thought the most
important aspect of the two recent Sherwood At The Controls releases - will
there be more in this series? - was the way each one highlighted the label’s evolution
from its earliest post-punk roots, and this volume serves to showcase
Sherwood’s early forays into a fledgling form of industrial EDM with tracks
from the likes of Mark Stewart (with ‘Hypnotized 12 Mix’), Tackhead (‘Mind at
the End of the Tether’), Keith Le Blanc (‘These Sounds’), Ministry (‘All Day
Remix’), and KMFDM (‘Don’t Blow Your Top’). But the dub/reggae staples - Perry,
Dub Syndicate, Sherman, and AHC - also feature prominently enough, and At The
Controls Volume 2 at its best presents a hybrid mix of all of the genres Sherwood
found himself tinkering with across the late 80s. Which means this one is
perhaps the most eclectic of all the albums featured on this list.
Pay It All Back
Volume Four (1993)
The importance to
Sherwood and On-U Sound over the years of key individuals like bassist Doug
Wimbish and guitarist Skip McDonald can never be overstated, and their
omnipresence is the most immediately obvious thing about the material found on
Volume Four: collectively, individually, or as key members of Strange Parcels -
effectively Tackhead in disguise - with that collective contributing five out
of the 14 tracks on offer. Elsewhere, we get McDonald, aka Little Axe, in a
“solo” guise with ‘Hammerhead’, and in partnership with Wimbish on ‘Stop The
Clock Part 2’ ... all of that before we even start on the duo’s involvement
with various other On-U projects - see Barmy Army, Dub Syndicate etc. And
McDonald is credited with co-production on ten tracks here. Curiously enough
though, my choice cut from Volume Four has to be the Norman Grant-produced
Twinkle Brothers dub-with-strings extravaganza that is ‘Don’t Betray Me’. A
shout out, also, to the mournful social commentary of Jalal’s ‘Mankind’.
On-U Sound - Dub
Xperience: The Dread Operators (1996)
Given that it was
released on Cleopatra Records, and includes material lifted from the Cherry Red
imprint, pesky purists might insist this one’s not authentic to the On-U label,
but one quick glance at the track-list should be enough to quell the concern of
any sceptic; things don’t get much more early On-U Sound than Creation Rebel - Eskimo
Fox, Style Scott, Sherwood, et al - with five tracks, including two co-credits with
New Age Steppers, or Singers & Players, with four tracks, including ‘Autobiography
(Dread Operator)’, which serves as an opener and title track. Prince Far I
features with ‘Quante Jubila’, and Voice of Authority, effectively Sherwood
himself, is there with ‘Middle East Power Station’. However you wish to frame
it, Dub Xperience: The Dread Operators, is pure foundation-era On-U Sound, and
a few years after its release as a standalone document, compiler Matt Green saw
fit to include it as one third of a wider On-U Sound box set, also released on
Cleopatra.
Pay It All Back
Volume One (1985)
The first release
in the Pay It All Back series, yet one I was forced to work my way back to
after buying all the rest, given its relatively rare status for the decade or
so after its release (here in New Zealand, pre-internet, at least). A couple of
tracks featuring here would resurface again on Volume Two - it probably depends
on what release/version/format is being discussed - but obviously Volume One was
crucial in that it meticulously covered off the label’s earliest output. Which
means it contains some of Sherwood’s most rudimentary and experimental
production work. The sort of stuff fans of the label would later come to know
(and love) as easily identifiable signature moments - his explorative use of space,
echo FX, and sampling, being at its most raw and cutting edge during this
phase. Highlights include Dub Syndicate’s ‘Must Be Dreaming’, and African Head
Charge’s ‘Timbuktu Express’, but there’s state-of-the-art work too from Singers
& Players, New Age Steppers, and Mark Stewart’s Maffia.
Sherwood At The
Controls Volume 1 1979-1984 (2015)
At The Controls
Volume 1 was all about excavating some of the super early Sherwood stuff that
might otherwise have been forgotten about. Again, as with the template or
formula explored further on Volume 2, it brings into sharp focus Sherwood’s
links with punk, new wave, and post-punk; bands like The Fall (with ‘Middle
Mass’), The Slits (‘Man Next Door’), and Shriekback (‘Mistah Linn He Dead’)
take pride of place, all blending seamlessly with the obligatory portions of
dub on offer here - see work offered by the usual suspects, Prince Far I,
Singers & Players, and African Head Charge. Naturally, Mark Stewart’s
seminal ‘Learning to Cope with Cowardice’ is right at home, and Vivien
Goldman’s album closer, ‘Private Armies Dub’, will doubtlessly be of some interest
to trainspotter types. For my money, this one is not quite as listenable as
Volume 2, but it’s a hugely important document all the same.
Pay It All Back
Volume Six (1996)
From a personal
listening/consumer perspective, Volume Six was all too quickly overshadowed by
the release of the more expansive 15 Years in an Open Boat set (see above) the
following year. Had I known at the time that it would be the last Pay It All
Back release for nearly quarter of a century, I might have been inclined to
give it a little more ear/air time and love. I did, however, give Audio
Active’s ‘Paint Your Face Red’, and Bim Sherman’s ‘It Must Be A Dream’, plenty
of long-term love, and although it probably won’t be a universally popular
choice amongst hardcore On-U devotees, I think ‘Japanese Record’ is something
close to the best track Dub Syndicate ever recorded. They’re all highlights
here. At just 12 tracks, in relation to other releases in the series, Volume
Six was a relatively brief offering.
Pay It All Back
Volume Five (1995)
Hmmm. Keen
observers will note the album cover I’ve posted above is rather different to
the more widely recognised/official On-U cover for Volume Five. That’s because,
in order to stay true to my own collection, I’ve posted the Restless Records
(US) version. And while I’ve always been vaguely aware that my Restless Records
Pay It All Back was a black sheep in terms of sleeves, it was only in the
course of writing this blogpost that I became aware of the inconsistencies
within the track-listing for each version … I’m not sure of the issues
surrounding licensing, but the Restless Records release includes 2 Badcard’s
‘Rock To Sleep’ instead of ‘Weed Specialist’, Gary Clail’s ‘Another Hard Man’
instead of ‘One Flesh And Blood’, and Tackhead’s ‘Laws Of Repetition’ rather
than Doug Wimbish’s ‘Life In Arena (version 1)’ … all of that said, this
volume’s highlights come in the form of Dub Syndicate’s ‘Roots Commandment’,
and Bim Sherman’s ‘Can I Be Free (From Crying)’, which are among the ten (of
13) tracks included on both editions.
Of course, this is
a far from complete “how to buy On-U” guide, and with a focus only on
collections or compilation releases, I’ve ignored so many gems within the wider
catalogue - terrific albums released by Perry, Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, Audio
Active, African Head Charge, and Sherwood in a “solo” guise, to name just a few
- but I may yet cover off a few of those in a future blogpost … for now it’s all
about looking forward to Pay It All Back Volume Seven, and an appreciation of just
how we got here in the first place ...
The On-U Sound
vaults are vast and deep. We already know this. Over the years we’ve seen
dozens upon dozens of examples of those vaults being explored and excavated, be
it to remaster or reissue past work, or to exhume unheard or previously shelved
material in the name of a brand new album. Adrian Sherwood and his team are
masters in the art of digging deep into the label’s archives in order to access
the good stuff. And there’s an awful lot of good stuff. The sort of work that
many other labels would have been only too happy to release in its original
form years ago.
In the case of Dub
Syndicate’s Displaced Masters - released at the tail end of 2017 - it’s a case
of returning to the master tapes and out-takes of some of that collective’s
best known work. Releasing it here in all of its stripped, raw, and unfussy
glory. And of all the artists to grace On-U Sound across the decades, Dub
Syndicate are/were perhaps the most prolific, so if you’re a fan of the label,
you’ll likely have heard the enhanced (previously released) versions of most of
this album’s material before. What we get here are the alternate dubs and tunes
from the first four Dub Syndicate albums in their naked and purest forms. Tunes like
‘Haunted Ground’ which became ‘Haunting Ground’ upon its eventual release.
Featuring, of course, the late great Bim Sherman. Or ‘All Other Roads Are Shut
Off’, which morphed into ‘No Alternative (But To Fight)’, featuring Dr Pablo
(and Maggie Thatcher). Indeed, check out Dr Pablo’s ‘Red Sea Dub’, the stripped
back slice of melodica heaven which closes proceedings here - the finished product having
featured on his acclaimed 1984 collaborative effort with Dub Syndicate, North
of the River Thames. Displaced Masters
won’t appeal to all. It’s fascinating for fans of the label to hear these
tracks in their most rudimentary forms, great for fans of Dub Syndicate, and
Sherwood completists, but it will, by definition, hold less appeal for non
converts. That’s the nature of a beast like this. Some might even call it the
dreaded (no pun) acquired taste, given that most of it showcases Sherwood’s
production at its most experimental, and right at the very start of a steep
learning trajectory. Personally, I’m a
real sucker for this stuff, and Displaced Masters is yet another worthy
addition to my already rather extensive On-U Sound collection.
This is a not-particularly-complete review of Radikal Guru’s gig at Wellington’s Laundry last
Friday night as I missed (maybe) half of it, but I still want to share a few
words about the event given that I’d waited the best part of a decade to see
the artist perform live. With the last
train to the wilds of the Kapiti Coast locked in at just after 1am, and
with the only later option being a $150-odd taxi fare, I was desperate for the
main act to begin his set as soon as possible so I could make that train. That
meant sitting through three or four local DJs before Radikal Guru announced his
presence to a packed bar around midnight.
The build up was
an enjoyable enough excursion into all facets of bass music - heavy dub, one
drop, glitchy dubstep, some higher bpm stuff - with Ras Stone’s set of mostly
rootsy material, plus some voiceover/toasting, being the best of a pretty good
support bunch. Radikal Guru
opened with a tribute to King Tubby, which seemed like an appropriate way to
kick off a set which was, for the not-quite-hour or so I was there, drenched in
the roots reggae flavours championed by the late great Jamaican producer. From there, non-original
material was mashed together with original Radikal Guru stuff, and tunes like
‘Warning’ (off his Subconscious album) went down a treat with a crowd that was
generally much younger than I had anticipated. You never know
quite what you’re going to get when it comes to DJ “gigs”, but the Polish
producer was in top form, which was an achievement in itself given his gruelling
touring schedule. It also won’t have been particularly easy translating a lot
of his original material into a live setting, especially at a small venue like
Laundry, reliant as that work surely is on exploring space and sonic
possibilities with all manner of in-house studio technology. But it was all too
brief, all over in a flash really, and the bar was absolutely heaving by the
time I was tasked with flying out the door to make that last god-forsaken
train. No complaints, at
just $10 on the door, as brief as it was, I felt a little humbled to be sharing
the same rarefied air as an artist I’ve long admired from a distance. Thanks to
Nice Up, Laundry, and the man himself.
We love us some dub vibes up here in the everythingsgonegreen tree hut, so just a quick post to highlight the release of yet another volume (or two) in the Dan Dada Records ‘Echo Chamber Around The World’ series of excellent compilation albums. We're up to volumes 9 and 10, featuring Aotearoa’s own Dub Terminator, plus 34 more top notch dub and roots reggae tracks from a wide range of artists. My own favourites here are tracks from Burning Babylon, Dubmatix (ft Earl Zero), Ras Bruno, Mystical Warrior, DU3normal, Mr Zebra & Rebel I, Dubalizer, Guidub, and Funk Dub Division, but there’s no real duds on this expansive globetrotting release. Released under an international Creative Commons license, free downloads don’t get much better than this … here’s the label’s blurb and a Bandcamp link:
For the last 22 years Dr. StrangeDub (Michael Rose) and DJ Baby Swiss (Elmar Romain) have been bringing dubwise sounds to the massive on their radio program the Echo Chamber. With the heaviest dubs, the most conscious roots, and the funkiest club beats from around the world, all chilled and expertly mixed into a subsonic stew, the Echo Chamber is always the hippest place to be every Wednesday morning (from 2:00 to 6:00 a.m US CST). The program airs on KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, MN (U.S.A.) at the 90.3 and 106.7 frequencies, and streams online at www.kfai.org. Find the playlists and two most recent programs in the KFAI-FM archive at: www.kfai.org/echochamber. Also check the two online archives of past shows: Mixcloud -- www.mixcloud.com/strangedub/
A typical show features a heavy dose of the latest roots & dub reggae and a potent shot of old school roots and dub. But dub just lays the foundation and holds the trip together: the DJ dub doctors cover the entire reggae rainbow, and they pull in the heaviest chilled beats from clubs around the world. For most shows, Dr. StrangeDub is at the controls for the first 2 hours, while DJ Baby Swiss "runs tings" in the second half of the show. For this compilation, the Echo Chamber has once again teamed up with Bandulu Dub and Dan Dada Records to present a worldwide trip into Dub. This collection represents a broad variety of musical styles... and spans the globe in doing so. This is very much in keeping with the eclectic "anything goes" format of the Echo Chamber radio program – where “dub” is as much an attitude or approach to music as it is a genre of music.
On behalf of Dan Dada Records, Dr. StrangeDub (Michael Rose) and DJ Baby Swiss (Elmar Romain) extend our undying gratitude to all the artists and record labels that agreed to be a part of this worldwide dubwise project!
Spreading the positive dubwise vibe to the world...
Reggae and Scotland haven’t had a great deal
of history together. Thankfully, the Glasgow-based Mungo’s Hi-Fi has been doing
its level-best to rectify that anomaly, on its own, and through the Scotch
Bonnet label.
The label is largely a vehicle for Mungo’s
but has also furnished a slew of choice reggae, dancehall and dub acts. Puffer’s Choice highlights many of those
releases. Being of Scottish stock myself, and a connoisseur
of sounds that have originated from Jamaica, this compilation was a natural
choice to buy from an Auckland store last year. There was a touch of the pot
luck about the purchase; I was only aware of some of the acts, but given the
roster it was clearly going to be a stab in the dark that hit the centre of the
heart. It begins with a rather unusual cover, Kraftwerk’s
potty electro hit, ‘The Model’,
performed by Prince Fatty; it’s the only track that doesn’t credit a sidekick,
though Hollie Cook is the one adding the feminine vocals in place of the
Teutonic timbre. This radically alters the nature of the original, making it
sound more human and reversing the lyrics from “she’s a model” to “I’m a
model”. You have to assume it met with the mercurial Germans’ approval, as
permission would have needed to be sought from the writers to change the
lyrics. Rolling back the vibes, The Hempolics’ ‘Love To Sing’ is reworked by Mungo’s Hi
Fi into a dancefloor heavyweight, with multiple verses from Solo Banton, complete
with an early reggae intro. Parly B’s contribution, with the assistance
of Viktorious, ‘What A Ting’, rails against
ethnic cleansing, calling out hypocrites and parasites alike, with a very 80s
dancehall background. There’s some booming bass and rapid-fire lyrics
on Zeb & Scotty’s joint effort with Disrupt on the excellent ‘Jah Run Tings’. The first side wraps up
with a remix of ‘Dub Invasion’ by the
Led Piperz. Keeping the horn sample lifted from the classic King Tubby/Niney
The Observer track, ‘Dubbing With the Observer’
which pilots the original version, this remix strips down the riddim to a
simpler shuffle. “I know the kind of music that you want us to play, I know the
kind of words you want me say… it’s a dub invasion, don’t take it lightly,”
sings Solo Banton. So far so good. The second half kicks off with a collaboration
between veterans Sugar Minott and Daddy Freddy for the appropriately-titled ‘Raggamuffin Rock’. The boys trade verses
and it comes out like a good cop/ bad cop interrogation; Minott’s lighter tones
make you feel at home, lying on a comfortable sofa with a glass of Islay single
malt to hand (or something a little mellower – Ed), but Freddy drags you out
into the rain-soaked alley and hits you where it hurts. Strangely, it works. ‘Golden
Rule’ gets together Naram behind the
boards and Tenor Youthman on vocal duties. It’s a retro-infused ragga cut with
a fat bass, and when Youthman sings “if you trouble trouble, trouble will
trouble you,” it invokes the genius of 1970s Jamaican star Linval Thompson, who,
to this writer, is up there with a certain Mr Marley. Mungo’s Hi Fi feature on one of the undoubted
standouts, ‘Give Thanks To Jah’ with Mr
Williamz spitting rhyme after rhyme on a song that fuses Smiley Culture with
Alexei Sayle: “whether you drive Mitsubishi or you drive Honda, whether
you drive Mercedes or you drive dem Beamer, and it don’t really matter you a
bus passenger, whether you work 9 to 5 or you an entertainer, whether you a MC
or selectah.” The album winds up with Bim One’s
collaboration with Macka B, ‘Don’t Stop
The Sound’ which uses a thick, wobbling future roots vibe over frantic,
auction-paced toasting, and the eerie ‘Dub
Controller’ by OBM, which isn’t for the feint-hearted. Puffer’s Choice is a neat compilation of
great dancehall, dub, ragga, old school reggae: and there’s not a bagpipe or
bodhran in earshot. Want more Porky? ... go here
Celt Islam is an
extraordinary artist. I’ve been following his work closely ever since being
blown away by an album called Baghdad, which was released online back in 2012.
His music fuses together a range of different genres and influences, and he’s
been fairly prolific over the past decade, releasing music under a number of
different guises, across multiple platforms, not the least of which is his own
Earth City Recordz label. During the same period, he’s also managed to
establish a reputation as a compelling live/soundsystem act at Festivals and
shows across the UK and Europe.
Thus far in 2017 we've had a couple of albums from Celt Islam, each one showcasing a specific strand or sub genre within the artist's wider musical repertoire. The first was a compilation album of older stuff, called Sufi Dub, which released back in
February. More recently, last month, a collection of new material called I
Am Electronic (or I Am Electronik, depending on where you look) surfaced on the
Urban Sedated imprint. I thought I’d offer a few words on each release …
Sufi Dub
Sufi Dub is
exactly as the title suggests it might be. 15 tracks of hybrid world
music/dub/reggae crossover fare, full of skanky FX-laden drops and spaced-out
atmospheric sticky goodness. It’s been a long time in the making, and the album
showcases a quality pick and mix selection from a variety of past releases,
including material from albums, EPs, and one-off releases. A sort of “best of”,
if you like. Sufi Dub features a number of collaborative tracks, including a
couple with like-minded regular co-conspirators such as Inder Goldfinger (on
‘Earth City Rockers’) and the Renegade Sufi (on ‘Fakir’ and ‘Mevlana’). As a
fan, I’m very familiar with a lot of it, and tracks such ‘Light Within Me’,
‘Lantern of the Path’, ‘Irfan’, and ‘Freedom’ have become firm favourites and
wider playlist highlights on my pod. I really love this blend, almost as much
as I love the Baghdad release, which is remarkable given that it’s been pooled
together from a wide range of original source material. I can thoroughly
recommend the hugely inclusive holistic energy of Sufi Dub as a wicked starting
point if you’re looking for an introduction to the music of Celt Islam.
The second, more
recent release, I suspect, is rather more niche and will perhaps be a little
less accessible in terms of the mainstream. If that’s even a consideration,
because this is unrepentant hard-edged industrial-strength electro/IDM of the
highest calibre, and the overwhelming sense is that these tracks have been
pieced together without any regard for compromise whatsoever. If Sufi Dub is
the work of a man seeking universal acceptance or appeal, which it may or may
not be, because I think his musical philosophy extends far beyond such
simplistic analysis, then I Am Electronic sets its stall out in an entirely
different stratosphere altogether … one where the listener is confronted by a
much more frightening vision of the planet we live on. And just quietly, it
probably presents a far more accurate assessment of where the world is at in
2017. Seldom can music without any form of what might be called “orthodox
vocals” or lyrics, portray so much. On one hand, this work is reminiscent
of a superb album called Worlds We Know, which was released by Celt Islam under
the guise of The Analogue Fakir a few years back, in that it combines
traditional (world music) instrumentation with much newer technologies, yet on
the other hand, I Am Electronic takes things to a whole new level entirely. I’m
not keen to single out favourite tracks, but if pushed, highlights here include
‘The Invisible Man’ and ‘Electro Dervish’.
