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The
Roots of Dub (Abraham/Clocktower, 1975)
*GUEST
REVIEW*
It
annoys when you hear some dub albums but can't work out exactly what the original
riddims are. The obvious solution is to look at the sleeve notes. However, sleeve
note compilers seem to assume perfect consumer knowledge, just like the
introductory textbooks in Economics. Roots of Dub has 12 tracks on my slab
of Clocktower vinyl. King Tubby (AKA Osborne Ruddock) arranged the tracks here,
while The Aggrovators provided the backing. If you are after vocals, toasting or
chanting, then look elsewhere. King Tubby has a great name in dub, but this album
is not his best. The blame may of course lay with the re-issuers.
It's just not
that hi-fi, and it feels like it has been mastered from vinyl somewhere along the
line. The sound quality is just lacking. This is a shame, since the album
contains a few gems. The rest of the album seems a little forced, repetitive and
is generally not an easy listen. Even the sleeve does not fulfill its potential.
-
ragudave
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1. Roots of Dub 2. Dub You Can Feel 3. Loving Dub 4. The Immortal Dub 5. Dread Locks Dub 6. Rocking Dub 7. Natty Dub 8. Dub Magnificient 9. A First Class Dub 10. The Stepping Dub 11. Rude Boy Dub |
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King Tubby's Special: 1973-1976 (Trojan, 1989) A highly regarded set for old school dub fans in general and King Tubby fans in particular, King Tubby's Special is a 2-CD set, the first being a re-release of a 1975 Niney the Observer album (name withheld due to the fact that I don't know it) mixed by Tubby and the second a collection of Bunny Lee productions from 1974 to 1976. The first disc features as its core dubs a few tunes from Dennis Brown, with whom Niney forged his most successful partnership. "Cassandra," "No More Will I Roam," and "Silver Words" (technically, the liner notes say that this is the Ken Boothe version) are familiar and likeable (partly because they're familiar), but little else struck me -- "Sir Niney's Rock" and "Corn Man" being the best of the rest. Disc 2 features stars like Delroy Wilson, Cornell Campbell, Linval Thompson, and Jackie Edwards, the latter voicing remakes of 2 classics, John Holt's "Ali Baba" (on "I Trim the Barber") and Burning Spear's "Invasion" ("A Rougher Version"). As nice as these tracks are, it would've been nicer to have dubs of the originals. A dub of Horace Andy's "Skylarking" makes up for that a bit (even though this is a dub of his 1976 recording and not the 1970 original). Cornell Campbell provides a couple of the best tracks, with "More Warning," a dub of "Queen of the Minstrels," and especially "Straight to Trojan Head," a dub of the haunting "We Shall Not Be Moved." Dubs of Campbell's "Dance in a Greenwich Farm," "Conquering Gorgon," and "Gorgon Speaks" aren't quite so interesting, however, largely because I don't care for the original songs very much. This, of course, points out the limitations of even the great King Tubby: You can throw in all the audio effects you want and mix the hell out of a song, but if you don't like the original product, chances are you won't care for the dub. The songs featured on King Tubby's Special just aren't, well, special. Dull tunes like "Ride On Dreadlocks," "Money," and "Cool Down Your Temper," all from the oft-dull Linval Thompson, can't be helped by Tubby's wizardry. As a wise man once said, no matter how hard you scrub, you can't make doo-doo shine. Although I'm no King Tubby expert, I get the sense that his genius came as much from his inventiveness -- he essentially created the dub sub-genre with now-common techniques -- as his ability to craft great music. |
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Dub Like Dirt (Blood & Fire, 1999)
*GUEST
REVIEW*
There are rather a lot of bogus Lee Perry and King Tubby collections on sale.
You know the sort. The packaging screams of never-before-released, rare dubs or newly unearthed versions.
What you actually get is an album of material that’s never been near a dub master or some offcuts that deserve burial.
Arguments about which master invented dub or who has the best output are a bit academic, really.
The Perry compilations on Pressure Sounds and the Tubby albums on Blood & Fire show that both produced amazing music from so little.
Dub Like Dirt recalls some of the best dubs that escaped from 18 Dormilly Avenue, Kinston 11 between 1975 and 1977.
You get versions of Horace Andy, Cornell
Campbell, Johnny Clarke, and the result is a great
"dummies guide to dub." Most dub fans tend to get a bit narrow-minded after a time.
It would be a shame if they become too parochial to give this a proper listen.
Mick Hucknell from Simply Red wants a statue erected in honour of Tubby in JA.
I don’t really like Hucknell’s music or his hairstyle, but he may just have a point.
- ragudave
| Track Listing 1. Tubby Get Smart 2. Guidance Dub 3. Chapter Of Money 4. Bag A Wire Dub 5. Dub Ites Green & Gold 6. Stealing Version 7. Beat Them in Dub 8. Thunder Rock 9. How Long Dub 10. Dub Investigation 11. Sly Want Dub 12. Everybody Needs Dub 13. Horn For I 14. Six Million Dollar Version 15. Dub Is My Occupation 16. Fatter Dub |
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