Augustus Pablo - King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown

This has to be one of my favourite releases ever, and the best thing is that it is completely out of the ballpark in regards to the music I usually find myself listening to. Despite my best efforts to listen to *everything*, and as much as I love dub reggae, it isn't something I find myself listening to all that often, anymore at least. This insanely legendary collaboration between a few greats of the genre; the band (Rockers Uptown in this case, one can only guess?), the producer King Tubby and the melodica playing shaman himself, Augustus Pablo, is surely one of the best places to start in the seemingly endless, incestuous world of dub reggae (let me dub that third hand remix in a rub-a-dub style, fam).

Everything I love about dub is evident here. Take reggae music and strip it to the core, and if possible, remove as many vocal lines as possible. The bass must be deep. The guitars must be spacey as fuck. And the drums...well this is where Mr. Tub-A-Wub-A-Dub-Dub (I'm so sorry) excels the most. It really has to be heard to be believed. For me, it takes me back to my first trip to Amsterdam as a 20 year old wastoid, and all the sights and sounds of the coffeeshop scene and the freedom of the people involved in such (before shops started getting shot up and closed down by the government).

It's hard to pick a stand out track because the whole thing kinda flows as one for me. It is music to get lost in, and often enough the entire record ends before you are anywhere near finished absorbing the vibe it gives. If I had to pick out favourites, I'd start with track 7, the title track, "Satta Dub" rounds the performance off with a bit of a menacing beat, and I guess I'd have to pick the opener too, "Keep On Dubbing" as it is the stuff of legend.

Bad Brains - Bad Brains

Bad Brains are nothing short of legendary so it's kinda hard to sum this up in two paragraphs or so. I have to admit that I am a recent convert to this group. I've always been a fan of dub reggae and the like but not so much hardcore punk, but as time is quickly ticking away the hours of my life I have grown something of an appreciation for the genre, and Bad Brains meld the two together almost perfectly on their 1982 self-titled debut.

A stand out track in the punk style would have to be "Attitude", or maybe "Fearless Vampire Killers", and for the reggae style stuff you literally cannot top "Leaving Babylon"; which for me is easily the best track on the entire record with it's woeful lyrics set to a strangely upbeat bass line.

If you are as late to the party as I am I implore you to give this a spin. 

Talisman - Dole Age

Totally and randomly got a bunch of reggae records for Christmas 2012, which is great because I love reggae but spend so much time on other types of music that I never get around to buying any. Talisman are from Bristol and play nice dubby reggae, with lots of original groove. The songs aren't dubbed as such (as far as I can tell), they just have a lot of characteristics of the dub reggae sound, rather than playing typical straight up (and sometimes boring) reggae.

 

There are only five songs here, the opener being rather lengthy and the tracks seemingly getting shorter as the record progresses. Side A dominates side B in my opinion, although both are great, relaxing music. Nothing brings the good vibes quite like a reggae record! There is a whole bunch of history written on the inner sleeve, mainly about Talisman as a band but it covers the entire Bristol scene briefly as well, which is nice. Out on Bristol Archive Records.

Little Roy - Battle For Seattle

So, Nirvana. A touchy subject. Well, not touchy but a hard one to define. Awful? Maybe. Terrible? Maybe. Over-rated as fuck? Definitely. The thing with Nirvana is that the songs were fantastic. The songwriting was spot on, it's just when the songs unfolded into real entities they were boring, nauseating grunge numbers. But, it would seem, a lot of people like Nirvana's music, and that includes dub legend Little Roy, who for some godforsaken reason decided it would be a good idea to record an album of Nirvana songs in a rub-a-dub style. Had I heard the idea before the finished product I would indeed be questioning if Little Roy had finally had one toke too many on the peace pipe.

 

But this record is absolutely fantastic, so keep on toking, little man! I won't beat around the bush; Nirvana songs have never sounded so good. They are stripped back and the rhythms are exposed in their true colours; the sub-sonic bass carrying the lazy and friendly tunes along at a relaxing pace. Guitars are utilized simply; mainly for the standard reggae chord strums, and organs, moogs and other instruments take the lead. The drums are simple and are for the most part no more than the beat-keeping hat ticks, but sometimes there are devastating bass hits drenched in dub-echo and now and then all the bongos in the world come in for a laugh. 

 

As with most records there are one or two stinkers but for the most part Little Roy has well and truly hit the nail on the head with this whole converting-Nirvana-into-dub-reggae thing. The fact that it really is better than any Nirvana recording is the icing on the cake for me and I want Little Roy to do more records like this. There is hope for awful music after all. Perhaps next he should try Anal Cunt. Out on Ark Recordings.

Dub War - Mental

 

Before there was Skindred there was Dub War. I was always attracted to this band because of their awesome name. A war of dub? Sounds like my kind of party. Unfortunately I found Dub War a bit wet, not too shabby but very disappointing considering what I built them up to be in my head. My love for them sadly does not extend any further than this cheeky little single pressed by Earache (when they went off the fuckin' dial with signing weird shit) in 1994 on CD, 7" and 12". This here is the 7". The CD and 12" both contain more remixes and a separate b-side track, whilst this 7" only contains the title track and one boring remix that doesn't actually sound that much different.

Anyhow, die hard fans of Skindred should enjoy Dub War, and I'm sure they probably do. The song "Mental" is just that, Benji shouting a chorus of (i think) "absolutely mental!" over and over in a Welsh accent is very very amusing. That's about it. The rap is pretty awesome too. You can currently get one of these for £1 on Discogs, so if you like odd shit, get in.