Dubwise & Otherwise: A Blood and Fire Audio Catalogue (Blood & Fire, 1997)

Whether you call it an "audio catalogue" or, like the rest of the world, a "sampler," this collection gathers some of the better tunes from British re-issue specialists Blood & Fire.  Since they're relatively young, Blood & Fire has a fairly limited amount of material from which to choose, but they nonetheless manage to scrape together an entertaining 17-track set, one song from each album they had out at the time of Dubwise's release.  The genius sound of King Tubby runs through no less than 7 of these tunes (and albums), giving this "catalogue" a unified sound.  Adding to this cohesiveness is the fact that Blood & Fire focuses on a specific sound: roots, dub, and toasting with laid-back '70s grooves that feature an edgy rootsiness with experimental echoes and digital effects, heavy bass, and hyper-kinetic drums.  Dub is the dominant sub-genre here, and this is the type of dub that I relish: '70s dub that is just a step away from roots, not the '90s stuff that is as much ambient music as it is anything else.