ah ive been holding back but while were on a full on dub thread week i have
to mention the recently released "trojan dub box set" (yep, that's the
title) 3 cds of king tubby, lee perry, observers, g. isaacs, the
revolutionaries, and so on and so on. and i've been seeing 'em for a little
over $20 a shot which is kinda good for what is an excellent sampler to '70s
dub. great sound quality coming from trojan these days, their history in
this dept has been a little shaky in the past, "the upsetter box" & "king
tubby's special" were both disappointingly quiet and flat sounding. my only
criticism was that the 4 or 5 perry tracks were all from the same release
("build the ark") not certain about the others. the bad news is i've just
spied the "trojan ska box set", "trojan rocksteady box set" and "trojan
reggae box set" as well, and my wallet is cringing.
recent trojan, blood and fire and pressure sounds have all been releasing
some excellent '70s dub, some o' my own top choice dubs of this type are,
"open the gate" (trojan), "arkology" (island) - lee perry
"freedom sounds in dub" (blood and fire) - king tubby & soul syndicate
"scientist wins the world cup" (greensleeves) - scientist
"king tubby meets the rockers uptown" (shanachie, mine is anyway tho its
been out on about 200 labels) - augustus pablo
"cry tuff dub encounter" (virgin, see above) - prince far i & the arabs
"dubs on the wire pt 1." (c90 taped from radio lancashire's 'on the wire'
show) - various. this is my top, top dub fave ever, and i still don't know
what 1/2 the tracks are. it covered 2 tapes but the first one was a stunner.
well mixed, w/ samples breaking up the songs. if anyone can tell me the
track that begins w/ "hey echo y'mamma's callin you". "oh no". "not that
mama the foxy chick you were w/ last night" - sounds crap i know, but its an
instrumental from that point on, and i need to have it. also had the
definitive version of lee perry's "to be a lover" that i still haven't
found, despite owning at least 9 other versions. bah.
more electronically, on-u did also did some fine stuff, dub syndicate's
"tunes from the missing channel", "strike the balance" and "stoned
immaculate" being all 3d echo, crackle and whomp. and the non-reggae, but
proto-tr*p-h*p "mark stewart" is massive, particularly the dub of r.
sakamoto's "forbidden colours". more recent on-u is more patchy. bill
laswell has been associated w/ as much good dub as john denver.
oh, and "police and thieves" gets a v. appropriate airing during "lock,
stock and two smoking barrels". as the barmy army once said, "bite 'is ears
off, vinnie jones" (tyson was a copycat).
-martin