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Freedom Sounds in Dub (Blood & Fire, 1996) Producer Bertram Brown doesn't get much publicity, but between 1975 and 1979, his Freedom Sounds label released some heavy, funky, classic roots reggae featuring singers like Prince Alla, Philip Frazer, Michael Prophet, Earl Zero, Rod Taylor, and Sammy Dread and backed by the mighty Soul Syndicate band. Although you don't get the original songs here, Freedom Sounds in Dub collects the dubs of 15 of Brown's best productions, mixed by the ubiquitous King Tubby. When you think of the classic dub sound, this is what you should envision hearing. The driving bass lines, funky rhythm guitars, soaring horns, and echoed, ethereal vocal fragments all come together to form a textbook for how dub is done. Rod Taylor particularly stands out, with the inclusion of dubs of two of his biggest hits (relatively speaking), "Ethiopian Kings" ("Ethiopian Version") and "In the Right Way" ("Dub the Right Way"). But Prince Alla is the dominant sound here, with dubs of no less than 6 of his songs featured, including 3 classics from Blood & Fire's Only Love Can Conquer compilation: "Lot's Wife" ("Satly Dub"), "Stone" ("Great Stone"), and "Bucket Bottom" ("Empty Vessel Dub"). Earl Zero's "Tinson Pen Dub" ("Blackbird") likewise excels and is the best of his 3 tracks on Freedom Sounds in Dub. It's a shame, however, that Bertram Brown -- due, I'm sure, to his less-than-household name -- doesn't get a share of the top billing alongside King Tubby and Soul Syndicate. Freedom Sounds, after all, was his label. It's cases like this that make me tend to feel a little backlash against "mixers" like Tubby and Scientist, who sometimes get a little too much credit for other people's music. |
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