Dub

Niney The Observer Presents Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner – The Observer Singles 1973 – 1975

Posted on by jbass508

Niney The Observer Presents Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner – The Observer Singles 1973 – 1975

Doctor Bird Records

2CD/DL

Released 15 March 2024

2CD set compiling the production work Winston “Niney” Holness released on his Observer label’s 7 inch 45s from 1973 to 1975. Among the artists featured artists are U-Roy, Horace Andy, Junior Byles and Delroy Wilson. Ian Canty writes…

Niney The Observer had firmly established himself among the elite of Jamaican production by the time this new set Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner documents, after making his breakthrough with the Blood & Fire single in 1971. On his work he could draw on some of the island’s great vocal talents and backed them up with the instrumental nous of Tommy McCook, Chinna Smith, Val Bennett and others luminaries. His star was definitely on the rise at the same time the Roots influence came to prominence, which means some of his best work is here.

A silky gem in Ken Boothe’s Silver Words sets Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner going nicely. This compilation picks up the story from where the previous entry in The Observer Singles series Lightning & Thunder (read here) left off. On that collection, the fact that Niney liked to get the most out of a successful rhythm was made overt. This is soon underlined by Rasta No Born Ya by Sang Hugh, which is immediately followed by its thudding version The Bold One credited to Niney’s studio band The Observers. Hugh returns soon afterwards for No Portion A Gal, this time set at a swaying Rocksteady tempo.

Keyboard whizz Winston Wright supplies deep tones on a fast-moving Salt & Pepper, with Hubert Lee spinning out Hey Little Girl over a reassuringly knotty beat. Have Some Mercy, a touching R&B-tinged offering, lets Delroy Wilson show the touching vulnerability he could naturally evoke in his singing and next Different Fashion starts off as its mirror image, before becoming a smartly subtle Dub. Later Delroy offers a neat stepper in Half Way Up The Stairs and his easy going cover of Soul standard Sugar Pie (I Can’t Help Myself) swings on the back of some fine brass.

Niney himself cuts a dash with Hail I and Theophilus Beckford’s nephew Keeling does well on the coolly-voiced, self-penned Let Your Love Come (Tumbling Down On Me). Astley Bennett, which may have been a pseudonym for Roy Shirley, gives us the dread Children Of The Ghetto that The Observers Dub up in organ instro style next. He also has the other side of that single, a well-accomplished Leggo The Wrong, featured on disc two. Durable vocal trio The Mediators dig deep into the Roots sound for King Rasta and The Observers chip in via a great sound in New Style.

A chance to toast on Dennis Brown’s hit Westbound Train is DJ legend Big Youth’s cue for an ebullient Wild Goose Chase and its flipside/part 2 Ride On Ride On is also present. Again stressing Niney’s knack for repurposing of a popular rhythm, Ansel Collins’ keyboard skills are pressed into service on another version of it straight after titled Inbound Train, sax maestro Tommy McCook reuses it for for a One Train Load Of Collie and U Roy does a further talkover cut Train From The West. This disc concludes with Niney’s hypnotic scat singing gem Pressure Locks.

Over on disc two of Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner, Niney breaks the ice himself with dread duo Ital Correction and Selassie Ship. Then Clifton Howell and Albert Bailey aka Earth & Stone yield a class Roots goodie in the guise of Babylonian and The Reggae Crusaders, a short-lived band formed by Dennis Brown and Niney under his George Boswell alias, post the smart duet sound Bring The Couchie Come. The sturdy Blood & Fire was clearly an indestructible rhythm and comes in handy again for Big Youth’s pair Fire Bunn and Mr Finnigan here.

David “Natty Chase The Barber” Jahson’s For I is an odd but pleasing combination of Roots with 60s style Ska and prolific vocalist Roman Stewart, who got his start during the latter stages of the Rocksteady era, demonstrates his clear-voiced smarts on a Pop Reggae nugget called In The Morning. Delroy Wilson returns for the chiding False Rasta and the smooth and satisfying title track comes from a pre-Black Uhuru Michael Rose, who also features with a cool Clap The Ba Ba aka Clap The Barber.

The laidback African Train by Errol “Flabba” Holt is a treat and the stars keep coming with Max Romeo and Junior Byles showing up and showing out on an elegant Push De Broom and the sorrowful Bur O Boy respectively. Horace Andy ably demonstrates his singing skills on a very danceable Nice & Easy, which is accompanied by The Observers’ Dub Nice Version and Junior Delgado’s dread credentials are clearly evident on the classic Every Natty Wants To Go Home. Glasford/Glassford Manning, who also sang with The Jewels, scores with the very catchy Prophecy Call and Tommy McCook’s epic brass rhythm Zorro end up this set.

Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner does a creditable job in following up the previous Observer Singles set Lightning & Thunder. By 1975 the first experiments with 12 inch Reggae singles weren’t far off, but in the early part of the decade the 7″ format still ruled. Niney would be ready for that development, because as Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner proves time and again, he was at the cutting edge of Reggae from 1973 to 1975.

Lay your hands on Niney The Observer Presents Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner – The Observer Singles 1973 – 1975 by clicking here

Dennis Bovell – The 4th Street Orchestra Collection

Posted on by jbass508

Dennis Bovell – The 4th Street Orchestra Collection

Doctor Bird

2CD

Out now

2CD set which brings together all four of The 4th Street Orchestra albums released between 1976 and 1978, which were helmed by the multi-talented Dennis “Blackbeard” Bovell. Ian Canty writes…

It is difficult if not impossible to imagine the development of UK-based Reggae in the 1970s without the blazing inspiration and sheer talent that Dennis Bovell brought with him. As a musician, singer, DJ and producer he seemed to be everywhere. By the middle of the decade was a key member of popular Reggae band Matumbi and worked as a DJ on the Jah Sufferer sound system. Soon he would play a crucial role in the development of Lover’s Rock.

But he also felt a sense of frustration in the way that many Reggae fans tended to look down on the recordings produced in the UK as in some way unauthentic. This drove Den to craft some offerings that could stand shoulder to shoulder with JA’s finest in the realms of Roots and Dub, the state of the art sounds in Reggae at the time. Minimal information accompanied the discs he put together, so no-one could really tell where these items originated from. People would have to judge the records by their contents alone, which was of course the main aim of the project.

This he managed to do over the course of four albums recorded between 1976 and 1978. He credited these LPs to The 4th Street Orchestra, one of the many pseudonyms he used. Employing a squad of singers and players that included at times Nick “A Walk In The Park” Straker, trombone maestro Rico Rodriguez and drummer Lloyd Donaldson, The 4th Street Orchestra spun out totally authentic Roots/Dub Reggae. Without much information bar the band name and titles, many thought they must have emerged from Kingston. The ruse lasted until 1978, when a journo erroneously ratted them out as the work of Matumbi.

Coming in a bare-bones sleeve with the title Ah Who Seh? Go-Deh! the only other clue to the contents, The 4th Street Orchestra’s debut album came out on the Rama label during 1976. This set contained 10 items which ran the gamut of Reggae Music during the time, beginning with the warm, brass-led meander of the instrumental near-title track. A more uptight groove in the cool Roots of vocal number Za-Ion then follows on well. Neither of these first two efforts are really Dubs as such, but Jah Chase Dem is much more in that form, being smartly enhanced with the sparing use of echo effects. Run Dem Out provided the source material and crops up in its original version not much later on the LP.

Half Way To Za-Ion takes track two and sends it into space in a Dubwise fashion, with next Out-A-Order highlighting an engaging guitar sound. In contrast Sing-A-Man sets itself up with an organ line straight out of the Skinhead Reggae days, before going onto forming itself into a chilled Dub outing. Go-Deh takes Ah Who Seh’s sunny vibe and reshapes it, with prime Roots vocal cut Rite Dem and dub version Raw Kut finishing off the album in style. There’s certainly enough on Ah Who Seh! Go-Deh to compete with what was going on in Jamaica in the middle of the 1970s and more than that, it hangs together as a long player in its own right really well.

The album was greeted with a positive reception, so a second collection entitled Ah-Fi-We-Dis was issued later in the same year. Back-Weh-Babylon, a sweetly sung Roots Reggae nugget, sets the ball rolling for the album. The steady rhythm of Wells Street Skank is a fine sound, with Rico’s trombone to the fore and taking a leaf out of Augustus Pablo’s book, Dennis’ melodica charts the way on None Ah Jah Children. The first real Dub action of this set comes on the pared-down drum and bass of Skatter Skatter, with the pace of Uganda Crisis next being languid but purposeful.

A bass-heavy Sure Shot is endows a deep Rocksteady feel similar to the dips into the Treasure Isle archive that powered many Dubs from Jamaica and Younger Generation brings the melodica back into play with a flourish. Bounty Hunter (Sign Off) comes with a bouncy beat and passionate vocals and Rico blows some choice trombone upon the tight rhythm of North Parade (A Summer Place), which brings down the curtain on the lp. The stately tempo and dreamy brass of the latter tune took its base from the hoary Theme From A Summer Place. The 4th Street Orchestra showed no signs of running out of steam on Ah-Fie-We-Dis, an album that is as satisfying as it is cool-sounding.

The first disc of this set includes four bonuses recorded by Dennis under more of his aliases. Run Rasta Run and its version were credited to African Stone and in both forms what is presented is a convincing Roots item. The way the drop out to just the vocal is used is a great effect. Dennis Curtis was the name picked by DB for Come With Me and its instrumental cut, with the vocal mix achieving the status of a fine sufferer’s lament.

1977 saw the advent of third 4th Street selection box Scientific & Higher Ranking Dubb. This compendium gets underway with the simple but pleasing groove of Higher Ranking, with Noel Salmon’s organ swirls standing out. One Life To Live is an update of the oldie that gave Phyllis Dillon the title of her 1972 LP and Still In Dub takes Marcia Aitken’s I’m Still In Love With You remake as a template to be radically remodelled. This number has future Soul II Soul vocalist Caron Wheeler singing on it and she also is present on Scientific (Hurting Dub), a deep ride through percussive echo terrain. Next Highking Ranher is the icy Dub equivalent of the first tune on the album.

One Life To Live (Hosaso) takes the original cut down to watery rhythm essentials, with Rainy then picking an organ instro path. Hurting Me (Give It Up) has Den providing a very high vocal well and Jazz standard Take Five gets a Dub going over. Even George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord is instrumentally versioned here, before the LP concludes with Exodus. It’s not a take of the Bob Marley number as one might suspect, actually this track was the theme of a 1960 Otto Preminger film which The Skatalites had repurposed during the Ska years.

Final 4th Street Orchestra album Yu Learn arrived in 1978. The eight tunes on the album commence with The Grunwick Affair, the title of which referenced a union struggle for rights that became a national issue in the 1970s. This instrumental is suitable dramatic and moving and is followed by Rowing Down The River, an excellent Roots offering which showed Dennis’ strength and commanding presence as a lead vocalist and also has some lovely Dub moves. Mid-paced instrumental Did You Get The Message weaves a route via memorable guitar playing and ancient Rodgers & Hart tune Blue Moon gets a brassy Reggae makeover.

On the other side of the vinyl LP Front Line moves with a smooth purpose and then Don’t Boost Dem Up rallies against dance crashers. Forever Missing You goes back to the organ instro sound and finally New Kent Road ends things in a hugely endearing way. Yu Learn is perhaps a little more song-based than the other 4th Street Orchestra records, but still rang absolutely true as 70’s Reggae of the first order. On this disc we also get three bonus items. The lovely, spiritual sound of Blood Ah Go Run/Blood Dem was issued under the giveaway name of Dennis Matumbi, but this was a great 45 nonetheless. The superb Dub Reggae Pop of Raindrops puts the finishing touching to a highly impressive set

Soon after all this activity Dennis Bovell scored a massive hit with the Silly Games single sung by Janet Kay and he honed his production skills with a host of artists including The Pop Group, The Slits, Fela Kuti and Orange Juice. But before he crossed over into the Post Punk world, he had already been a pivotal figure in British-based Reggae circles and the UK music scene as a whole – the proof is all here. Though the 4th Street Orchestra Collection only represents a small selection of his vital work, it easily holds its own against Dub from Kingston from the same timeframe, putting UK Reggae firmly on the map. Dennis Bovell has kept going forward right up to today. This collection is a testament to his imagination, verve and craft and fine listening to boot.

Dennis Bovell is on Facebook here

Get Dennis Bovell – The 4th Street Orchestra Collection here

Joe Gibbs And The Professionals – 100 Years Of Dub

Posted on by jbass508

Joe Gibbs And The Professionals – 100 Years Of Dub

IMAGE c STEVE CLARKE

Doctor Bird Records

2CD/DL

Out now

2CD set that collects 48 dub sides from the late 1970s that were credited to producer Gibbs and his studio band The Professionals or The Mighty Two (i.e. Joe and his expert engineer Errol “E.T.” Thompson). Ian Canty writes…

Following from The 1970s Dub Albums Collection (click here to read more), 100 Years Of Dub is an offering that broadens out the picture of the studio prowess of The Mighty Two Joe Gibbs and Errol “E.T.” Thompson. We should also note the impeccable work of their prime backing outfit The Professionals, that featured such luminaries as Bobby Ellis, Sly Dunbar and Lloyd Parks to only name a few. This set focuses on the years 1975 to 1978 and the Dub cut from their highly successful recordings of the era, with the various versions credited eithger to Gibbs & The Pros or The Mighty Two.

The title track is a hugely impressive way to get going, with the smooth brass of Jimmy London’s Am I That Easy To Forget providing the main thrust. Black September Version belies the link in the tune’s name to the terrorist group by sporting an attractive, easy-going sound and the bass on Sylford Walker’s Dread classic Burn Babylon gets turned right up on Burning Version. Not much later warm shards of organ sound are dropped in nicely on Far Land, cut on The Fantels’ Hooligan rhythm track.

I Stand Accused (Babylon Too Rough Version) comes over as everything one could wish for in the field of ice-cool Dub, with Jackie Brown’s romantic croon Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On being sliced down to a solid skank that is further enhanced with deep “depth charge” booms.

Leo Graham cut the mid-paced A Win Them for Gibbs in 1975 and the Dub of it here, entitled The Winner, makes smart use of repetition and the drop out technique. From 1976 comes the echo-laden bare essentials of Broom Stick and Dub Me No Crackers takes Glen Washington’s fine original Rockers Nu Crackers and skilfully reconstructs it.

Joe Gibbs And The Professionals’ State Of Emergency LP was of course a vital record of the era and the title track is versioned here, making a feature of the crack horn section that included the brilliant likes of Tommy McCook and Bobby Ellis. A thin but cutting guitar sound is in evidence on War (No Peace Dub) and Trinity’s Three Piece Suit rhythm gets reused again as part of Big Fat Thing, with ET throwing in a whole bag load of tricks of this one to great effect.

Commercial Business, drawn from the same DJ’s archive, makes a similarly cool impression and Culture’s mighty Two Sevens Clash is reworked by echoing into oblivion as Fulfilment. The rhythm also features on disc two as the literally named but twinkling Two Sevens Clash Version. This first disc ends with a watery sounding, expansive take of another Culture effort, Jah Jah See Them A Come, which is shaped into Informer Dub.

Keep On Dubbing, a cut on the rhythm of The Mighty Diamonds’ heavenly Keep On Moving, opens up disc two of 100 Years Of Dub. Legendary vocalist Alton Ellis provides a template in Why Birds Follow Spring, which is brilliantly versioned as No Bones For The Dogs by drawing out the ace trombone of Vin Gordon and the title of Roots Kunta Kinte plays on the popularity of the television dramatisation of Arthur Haley’s book back in 1977. The Rocksteady rhythm to this one is spun out alongside highlighting the brass section and also a bubbling sound effect is ably deployed.

Nagga Morris’ Roots anthem Su Su Pon Rasta is delicately crafted into Su Su Version with the tasteful keyboard work shining through and Bubbler In Money draws its origin from Dennis Brown’s international hit Money In My Pocket, which is also the case for Natural Feeling later on this second disc. The Echoes, a pseudonym for chart conquerors Althea & Donna, have their Problems Of Being Dread subtly dubbed up as Dread Problems and Left With A Broken Heart by The Paragons gets a lively makeover as Heartbreaker.

The treatment of the horns on Holiday Style Version and the gently eked out beat is to die for, with the Blues piano on Trinity’s Starsky And Hutch being made the defining feature of its version Reincarnation. Prince Allah’s Naw Go A Them Burial retains its vocal refrain in Six Foot Six and another disc of wonder ends with Throw A Stone, a stunningly realised repositioning of Marcia Griffiths’ I’m Not A Queen.

This is top class set of Dubs from The Mighty Two, I will put it as simply as that. They may have been slightly more celebrated for their more traditional productions, but Gibbs and Thompson in particular had the knack for knowing what is just right for this kind of thing and a real will to experiment too. The whole running time of this set I found it so enjoyable, but it is pretty accessible for the newcomer or dabbler in Dub too. The Mighty Two really could not miss at this time and 100 Years Of Dub isn’t an exception to that rule.

Get an earful of Joe Gibbs And The Professionals – 100 Years Of Dub by clicking here

The Joe Gibbs DJ Albums Collection 1977 – 1980

Posted on by jbass508

The Joe Gibbs DJ Albums Collection 1977 – 1980

Doctor Bird

2CD/DL

Released 14th July 2023

Four classic DJ albums from Trinity, Prince Far I, Ranking Joe and Prince Mohammed, all drawn from the Joe Gibbs archive and released in 1977 and 1980. Ian Canty writes…

Although the DJ style of whipping up a crowd over the discs played had been a staple of the sound systems in Kingston from the late 1950s onwards, it was a long time until anyone had the notion of recording it. King Stitt and his single Fire Corner led the way for toasting to take centre stage in 1969 and then U Roy’s tremendous success as the 1970s dawned underlined its prominence. Though that boom bottomed out after a couple of years, DJ recordings remained popular. When Dub opened up big spaces for their chatter to explore in the latter half of the decade and Roots pushed the dread message, the floodgates were opened.

Joe Gibbs was of course firmly established as one of Jamaica’s top producers by the late 1970s, along with talented engineer Errol E.T. Thompson making up The Mighty Two. They realised the importance and popularity of DJ versions, with the added advantage that they also got yet more use out of previous taped rhythms. The Mighty Two thus featured many of them on their recordings. Though some DJs just copied the prevailing style, many put their own unique slant on things. Four of the more distinct characters, Trinity, Prince Far I, Ranking Joe and Prince Mohammmed, are put under the microscope on The Joe Gibbs DJ Albums Collection.

It is an irony that Trinity aka Wade Brammer is best known by an answer record to the title track of his LP that is featured here Three Piece Suit. Althea Forrest and Donna Reid’s feminist riposte Uptown Top Ranking was cut over the same rhythm track and became a massive hit single in the UK. Trinity’s record unfortunately didn’t have a fraction of its success in the UK, but was a good seller in Jamaica. He had recorded for Yabby You and Joseph Hoo Kim before cutting Three Piece Suit for Gibbs, with the toast hung upon a re-recording of Alton Ellis’ Rocksteady classic I’m Still In Love With You.

His second solo album, titled after the aforementioned 45, was also overseen by Joe and Errol and makes up the first 10 tracks of this set. Song Of The Midnight Hour opens the LP as an introduction to his assured but occasionally highly emotional style. Dennis Brown’s cover of The Techniques’ Rocksteady-era monster Queen Majesty is then repositioned for an ebullient toast and The Wailing Wailers’ Hypocrites is well used on John Saw Them Coming. Strickly Cash, on the Ba Ba Boom rhythm, is bathed in echo with brass bought in expertly and then Rasta Dub goes right down to the bare basics of percussion and bass.

Mr Bassie is another pared-back sound and the title track’s qualities are already pretty well known, with Trinity duetting off the female vocal on the rhythm and the delivery seems to even pre-empt Hip Hop. He is successful in giving most pieces on Three Piece Suite a focus and momentum through his toasting skills. The exception would be the Pinky & Perky voices on Mohammed Ali, cut on a Burning Spear track. This does bring home that novelty held a place in Kingston’s musical tastes for some reason, but provides a bit of duff end to what on the whole is a convincing and diverting record.

Prince Far I’s sonorous tones and stately tempo made him consider himself more of a chanter rather than a toaster. This style also made him the perfect vessel to voice the concerns of the turbulent and hard times in the Jamaica of the 1970s. Under Heavy Manners is an album that captures 1977 in the locality of the performer as well as any Punk band. It starts with Rain A Fall’s simple request to be fed that portrayed the single biggest issue in Kingston’s shanty towns and after that Big Fight is that Jamaican Music staple, a musical sporting commentary where Babylon is overcome by Dreadlocks.

Shine Eye Girl is based around the Jah Stitch/Horace Andy number Greedy Girl. It is a wee bit of its time lyrical, but Andy’s velvety vocals work well with Far I’s gruffer intonations. Culture’s Joseph Hill pops up on Under Heavy Manners the album to give a further stamp of authenticity, with Show Me Mine Enemy’s biblical quotation talk-over style coming over some neat Dub effects.

Deck Of Cards was Prince’s first waxing for Gibbs on The Abyssinians’ Satta rhythm and was an ideal calling card for him. Heavy Manners itself ends the album in dramatic full and near-instrumental reprise forms, a prime piece of “on the spot” social comment. This is simply a top quality DJ long player, loaded with significance and marked by authenticity that makes it still stand up today. This disc is completed by Prince Far I’s cool Zion Call from 1976.

Natty Superstar, a 1980 LP by Joseph “Ranking Joe” Jackson, starts off the second disc of this set. Sound systems were a family business for the Jackson family, with Joe’s dad running his own set up. This gave Joe ample opportunity to hone his craft and after winning a talent show, he became a regular on the Kingston sound system scene. He recorded initially as Little Joe, until when working with Prince Tony he was persuaded to change his on-stage moniker to Ranking Joe. In 1980 he teamed up with The Mighty Two for the Natty Superstar collection.

Joe tends towards an accessible “singjay” style on Natty Superstar, which kicks into gear with a sunny Pork In the Corner. Sister Pam uses the rhythm of Big Wille’s College Rock and there are some great Dub moves to treasure on the nursery rhyme skank of Jump The Fence. Ranking Joe provides a dynamic presence here, bringing personality, quick wordplay and a certain cheekiness to the dance. Horace Andy’s Something On My Mind gets redone in a steady stepping mode then and the title track mines Earl Rowe’s Roots tune Tribal War to fine “ghost dance” effect.

A stripped down See A Girls Face finds Joe in tongue-twisting quickfire form and Leave Fi Me Gal Arlene uses the popular Bobby Babylon rhythm to present a mid-paced toasting nugget that goes down well. The Natty Superstar LP may be slight in terms of tracks and minutes, but in all other ways it is pretty satisfying.

Finally we have the multi-talented George Nooks, who differentiated between his singing and DJ careers by using the pseudonym of Prince Mohammed for the latter at the suggestion of Gibbs and Thompson. On the Inna Him Head album, he commences with a toast on the Satta rhythm (with touches of Dennis Brown’s Money In My Pocket too) called Money Man The Gal Want. George’s style here sits midway between Prince Far I and Ranking Joe roughly speaking, being a little more relaxed than RJs speedy delivery but faster than Far I’s sedate pacing.

Forty Leg (Dread) is placed atop Culture’s Zion Gate, anticipating the coming Dancehall style and next Some Like It Hot is an attractive start/stop effort. Sip-Sail Sail Fast gets a charming melodica intro, with Holligan Stop A While taking a Paragons’ rhythm as a jumping off point on what is an update of the Anti-Rude Boy songs that were a mark of the Rocksteady era. The charming beat and flow of George’s vocals make Bubbling Love a highlight and brings to mind The Specials musically. A tune called The Capitols brings down the curtain on Inna Him Head LP, a very smart and likeable collection. The three bonus Prince Mohammed tracks here include Cool Runnings, which was the DJ version of Money In My Pocket and One Time Daughter, a lovely laidback sound.

The Joe Gibbs DJ Albums Collection offers up four prime toasting compendiums for our delectation. The Dubs are as sharp and intuitive as you would expect from Errol E.T. Thompson and there is a good variety in the approaches of the DJs featured. If I had to pick one of the four as a favourite, I think I would go for Prince Mohammed, simply because it was so much fun, but having said that you don’t get much better than Under Heavy Manners where a DJ/Dub/Roots crossover is concerned. As they are both here, it doubles up the value and the other two long players aren’t just makeweights either. The Joe Gibbs DJ Albums Collection seeks to brings the sound system party right to your house and for the most part it succeeds.

More info on The Joe Gibbs DJ Albums Collection 1977 – 1980 here

King Tubby & The Observer All Stars – Dubbing With The Observer

Posted on by jbass508

King Tubby & The Observer All Stars – Dubbing With The Observer

Doctor Bird Records

2CD/DL

Out now

2CD set housing the classic 1975 Dub LP of Niney The Observer productions, with a welter of bonus tracks drawn from the same source. Ian Canty writes…

Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock’s repute as a visionary studio engineer seems to grow year on year, as a fresh band of listeners benefit from witnessing his extraordinary work. He got his start on Kingston’s sound systems in the late 1950s and thrived in this environment due to two talents – his aptitude for repairing electrical equipment and unerring instinct for knowing what was right in the sound mix. He soon established his own set-up Hometown Hi-Fi, which quickly became wildly popular with the city’s dancers. From there he moved into working for Duke Reid in equipment maintenance. During his employment with Reid, he stumbled across the possibilities of Dub while witnessing versions of popular tunes having the vocal removed for sound system DJs to chat over. By pushing the faders up and down, he found that one could virtually craft brand new tunes from the base material by “playing” the mixing desk.

In the early 1970s he purchased an old mixing desk from Byron Lee and set up his own recording facility at his home 18 Dromillie Avenue. King Tubby gradually built a system that could handle reverb, delays, echo and any other sound effect that he wished to conjure up in constructing his ground-breaking Dub plates. Tubby’s technical know-how put him ahead of the field in sound engineering and coupled with a bold imagination resulted in pioneering work. By the middle of the decade he was at the very forefront of Jamaican music after many fruitful collaborations with Kingston’s top producers. One of the many that sought out his services was George Boswell aka Winston “Niney The Observer” Holness…

Niney worked with Bunny Lee and Joe Gibbs before setting up on his own with much success, all starting with the famous Blood & Fire hit single/sensation. With The Soul Syndicate, who included George “Fully” Fulwood, Carl “Santa” Davis, Tony Chin and Earl “Chinna” Smith in their ranks, acting as his studio band The Observers, Niney was among the most successful of all Jamaican producers. Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs were just two of the top quality artists he recorded and given the strength of Niney’s production work, a link up with King Tubby for Dubs looked very much like a golden ticket.

It’s difficult to know what to say when faced with Dubbing The Observer to review. I know I’ve a tendency to be a little, shall we say, long winded, but do you really need to know any more than that this album is right up their where Dub recordings are concerned? From Rebel Dance’s echoed horns and skipping guitar inwards the LP is full of innovation. Casanova Dub is one of a number here that use Dennis Brown’s Cassandra as a jumping off point and Ken Boothe’s Silver Words gets a minimalist rejig as Silver Bullet.

Sang Hugh and The Lionelians’s Rasta No Born Yah becomes Rasta Locks, with the fast dance beats of Sir Niney’s Rock coming over a little like PIL three years early! Many Dub producers limited themselves to mostly dropping down to drums and bass, but Tubby opened up whole new vistas by highlighting the other instruments and this keeps the sounds fresh and distinctive. Another Dennis Brown tune I Am The Conqueror provides Youth Man Version with a structure that is gently teased out and My Mama Say is cut down on a racing rhythm as Corn Dub. The album ends with Rema Dub, originally another Brown tune Comma Comma. Here a deep, deep bass bounces of a piano and brass, putting the full stop on what is a triumph of a record with relish.

On this disc we get a further 12 Dubs from Niney productions of around the same time and unsurprisingly there is no real lapse in quality. Freedom Over Version is horn powered with sparkling echo and Tribute To Don Quarrie, credited to Bongo Herman & The Observer All Stars, presses Rasta No Born back into service with added percussion. Why Seek More is radically redone as Why Seek More Version, although Dennis Brown’s vocal occasionally comes to the front and is just about audible at the back of the mix for most of the way. The Soul Syndicate’s Dub Roots Of David is breath-taking and later on this disc they post another cut of Cassandra as Version 2.

Dennis’ Mount Zion is shot to the heavens with an effective use of drop out on Take A Dub and Grey Beard has a repeated vocal sample set on a tastefully cut back rhythm. Fire From The Corner, another Cassandra-based cut, has quite a lot of Brown’s singing treated with sound effects and the disc ends with Water Boiling, cut from the same rhythm and putting the spotlight on a wah wah guitar.

Entitled Dubbing With The Observer Chapter II, the second disc of the set acts as a follow up to the original album by collecting a further 25 Dubs. The familiar guitar intro to Cassandra sets the scene for Skatalites’ veteran Tommy McCook to blow some baleful sax on One Train Load Of Collie and Quiet’s vocal loops add to a cool drum and bass combo. Ras Bumper was the solid Dub flipside of Dennis Brown’s So Long that lets the original vocal float in and out and Straight To Bunny Lee Head aims it into jibe at a fellow producer on the back of Den’s hit Travelling Man.

A repeated guitar lick heralds Ad Dab, the B side reworking of Gregory Isaacs’ Bad Da, with Couchie Dub showing that Tubby was never afraid to start with just horns and build the thing from the ground up. Zinc Fence is a classic “Flying Cymbals” sound hewn from Cornel Campbell’s I Heart Is Clean and Rub Bald Head Dub moves at a dignified but cool pace. Special Dinner retains the Roots feel of the original and Dennis Brown gets a credit along with King Tubby & The Soul Syndicate on No Conscience, with his voice looming out of the mix in ghostly fashion.

DJ Clint Eastwood heads up a warm organ-led sound called Gate Number Version that stealthily warps out and 1/2 lb Drum & 1/4 lb Bass has an ominous sound to it and the drop out to just the voice is almost startling. Dubbing With The Observer finishes up with the brilliant echo overkill of I Soon Know and the dreamscape-style big horns and skank of Thinking Version.

Dubbing With The Observer is an effective and hugely enjoyable look at the work of King Tubby and Niney, where the talents of both are allowed to shine along with the musicians who played on the original discs. A bit more information about the Niney productions that provided the material for the Dubs in the liner notes would have been good, but I accept it was more important to shine the light on King Tubby. If you want to learn about Dub from a standing start, this is as good a place as any to commence your investigations.

More info on King Tubby & The Observer All Stars – Dubbing With The Observer can be gleaned here

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals – The 1970s Dub Albums Collection

Posted on by jbass508

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals – The 1970s Dub Albums Collection

Doctor Bird Records

4CD/DL

Released 21 April 2023

4CD set which brings together the seven classic Dub albums Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson masterminded during the 70s, including famous African Dub series and the State Of Emergency LP. Also present are a further dozen sides from the archive of The Mighty Two. Ian Canty writes.

Joe Gibbs & his crack studio outfit The Professionals may cop the performing credit on this set, but to be honest it is engineer Errol “E.T.” Thompson’s vision that is key. Part of The Mighty Two alongside Gibbs, he was the one in the studio applying the crucial touches with taste, economy and an unerring talent for knowing just what works in Dub. Classic Treasure Isle and Studio One Rocksteady sides provided much of the source material for the Gibbs/Thompson Dub plates, along with some more recent recordings of their own productions.

I don’t intend to shilly shally here – The 1970s Dub Albums Collection contains some of the top entries in the genre ever and you would have to go a long way to find seven better sets from the one source. Dub Serial from 1974 kicks off the selection, with a cut on the rhythm of The Abyssinians’ Santta Amassa Gana the first track. The point where the music drops out to just piano and then bass to reveal the musicianship of The Professionals at work is an early example of just why Gibbs and Thompson were at the top of the Dub tree. Then More Dub Versions One and Two tease out the slow-pace of the organ line and sinuous bass respectively. Turn Back The Hands Of Time Version uses a fair amount of Nicky Thomas’ original cut and the way during intro that the horns are bathed in echo is a touch of true class.

Dennis Brown’s Money In My Pocket is versioned to highlight the percussion and Without Love Version takes the base material of Ken Boothe’s song and delves deeply into the bass. The backwards tape trick that became a Dub identifier is utilised on Be The One Version and the LP ends with a quirky Dub of Burning Spear’s He Prayed.

Next we come to 1975’s African Dub – Almighty, the first in The Professionals’ African series. The Rocksteady classic Queen Majesty by The Techniques provides the rhythm for the first and last tracks on the album, with the title track opening up African Dub by having the full horns of the original playing off the bass and piano. Next Midnight Movie inventively mashes together I Don’t Know Why by Delroy Wilson and The Sound Dimension’s Drum Song.

By this stage Dennis Brown’s star was rising fast, so a number of his cuts form the basis for the versions here. Ghetto Skank strips down Dennis’ My Girl rhythm expertly and with refinement and Campus Rock’s ghostly bursts of organ were originally a minor detail of Den’s Let Me Live.

Away from the Brown material, Treasure Dub is an immense reworking of Ba Ba Boom, the Rocksteady favourite originally cut by The Jamaicans. Schooling The Beat, set to Bob Andy’s Unchained, highlights the guitar as a change of emphasis, with the steady bass drive of Half Ounce perhaps more typical of Dub at the time. Finishing off with the bright sound of Worrier and a trombone-driven East Africa, which as mentioned above also uses Queen Majesty, all of this makes African Dub – Almighty a coolly laidback Dub treasure Trove.

Disc two of this set is the pretty much unbeatable combination of African Dub Chapter Two and State Of Emergency. Both demonstrate the imagination and invention at work as Thompson was at the top of his game. The faithful Queen Majesty rhythm is used again on the very cool Chapter Two, which starts off ADC2. Then we have a playful take on The Paragons’ My Best Girl entitled Marijuana Affair and Angola Crisis, which takes Alton Ellis’ classic I’m Still In Love With You and focuses on the brass. This makes for a dazzling pair. A side note is that Alton’s rhythm would be used again soon by Gibbs and Co as the backing to the international smash hit Uptown Top Ranking.

The Melodians’ jolly Come On Little Girl acts as the background for Outrage, an offering that draws out the flute line and contrasts it to the bass nicely and spacy wah wah effects enliven Idlers Rest. The way the guitar skank is just frozen in the air on My Best Dub is masterful, with Heavy Duty Dub merging elements of Heptones and Alton Ellis tunes (indeed his voice singing the title of I’m Just A Guy is heard midway through) into a satisfying whole. The insistent sound of The Soul Brothers’ Sugar Cane powers Musical Arena, with a low slung and bassy Mackarus Serenade and the What Kind Of World-derived Jamaican Grass ending African Dub Chapter Two. It is as fresh sounding and beautifully realised the day it was originally released.

State Of Emergency’s title and sleeve art were a big influence on Punk and particularly The Clash circa White Riot. Although the iconography screams heavy manners, the sedate but infectious sound of Bounty Hunter and Rawhide Kid (on the Desperate Lover rhythm) give the album a hugely appealing start. A tribute to Jamaican sprinter Don Quarrie comes next, cut to John Holt’s Up Park Camp and is followed by the easy-going sound of High Noon, a Vin Gordon trombone number.

Sad, dignified brass mark Walls Of Jericho and Wicked And Dreadful, with Revenge’s sparkling musical palette sounding just dreamy. State Of Emergency concludes with Marcia Griffiths’ Melody Life dubbed and retitled I Shot The President and the title track, which uses Culture’s single See Them Come as a jumping off point. This album is a breeze from start to finish and is in my view still utterly brilliant.

African Dub Chapter Three is next up. This long player commences with near title track Chapter Three itself, complete with a raft of loopy sound effects. The Melodians’ back catalogue is raided again for Rema Dub, which draws its structure from their single Everybody Bawlin’ and a lovely, lazy trombone part is given top billing on Tribesman Rockers. The classy Freedom Call draws from Ghetto Living by The Mighty Diamonds, with The Entebbe Affair in turn referencing Bob Marley’s Hypocrites.

A more contemporary source is used for Angolan Chant, where Dennis Brown’s Love Me Always is reworked and I found it near impossible to resist bathing in the beauty of the organ intro of Zion Gate. A doorbell and cuckoo clock-enhanced Dub Three ends a LP that is a wonderfully tasteful and intuitive Dub selection that, like most of the rest of this box, is right up there with the very best.

Chapter Four in the African Dub series, from 1979, was its final episode and closes out this disc. It starts with the bongo and bass runs of Crucial Attempt and from there Behind Iron Bars draws out lilting brass and piano on a recut of Dawn Penn’s You Don’t Love Me (No No No). The detailed liner notes that comes with release suggest Yard Music is a Gibbs/Thompson original and the more extensive use of sound samples here are an indication of the way Dub was developing at the time.

Iron Gate revisits The Heptones’ 1966 hit single Fattie Fattie and Horace Andy’s Something On My Mind provides the stripped-down template for Free The Children. Rhythm Tackle ensues with some spoken word from Black Echoes journalist Snoopy, before melodica, eerie bounce and horns break through on a solid bass and drums track. Finally the subtle drift of Sniper, set to the rhythm of Little Roy’s Tribal War, puts to bed another fab Dub compendium.

Moving onto disc four Majestic Dub, also issued in 1979, represents a twist in the formula. The Disco pulse of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love is a clue to the change, as it acts as the intro to the first effort Ten Commandments. When we get into the tune itself it is cut to a Dennis Brown rhythm track, with clattering percussion and bass added to with synthesiser. A warm Majestic Dub seems to have electronic water drops leaking out of it and Kings Of Dub’s endearing organ sound is a joy to behold.

The Disco motif returns with a vengeance on the pure Funk of Bionic Encounter, but synth washes give way to echoing Dub on Edward The Eight. Augustus Pablo’s charmer Skanking Easy is groovily redone as International Treaty and the easy rhythm of Martial Law is drawn from the same source. Nations Of Dub on The Sharks’ How Could I Leave and Embargo end Majestic Dub, a more gimmicky and slightly lesser selection than what has gone before certainly, but still good listening and great fun.

Lastly we have twelve bonus cuts also from 1979 that are bestowed the moniker More Majestic Dub. Earth Juice adeptly re-positions Sky Juice, the Dancehall monster by Kojak And Lisa and Jah Thomas’ DJ-style comes to the fore on the following number Hoarding. Talkover is also strongly in evidence on Let Go Mi Hand Babylon, a Melodians’ rhythm that Shorty used for Too Much Gal Out A Street. Keyboard wizard Jackie Mitto has his One Step Beyond metamorphized into the echo-drenched sax-led Arlene Dub and Jump In The Line snakes along swimmingly on the Party Line rhythm track.

Hey You Version has its roots in The Uniques’ song of a similar name and Marcia Aitken’s She Don’t Love You emerges here as the chilled Infatuation. Bringing the curtain down on More Majestic Dub we have Assigned To Love, picking out details from Dennis Brown’s Your Man expertly. This bonus dozen are of true value and hold their own against the Majestic Dub LP proper. This make what is already an appetising set even more so, which is what bonuses should be all about.

As I mentioned at the start, I’m not going to mess around here. This is simply a superb set featuring some of the best Dub every committed to vinyl and I expect it to figure strongly in the End of Year “Best Of” lists for 2023. Joe Gibbs played a part for sure, but chiefly Errol Thompson picked a path that perfectly balanced experimentation with the need to keep things accessible to the dancehalls. If you have any sort of liking for Dub, The 1970s Dub Albums Collection should send you direct to heaven.

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals – The 1970s Dub Albums Collection is available by clicking here

Soul Revivers – Grove Dub

Posted on by jbass508

Soul Revivers – Grove Dub

Acid Jazz

CD/DL

Out now

Eight track Dub companion piece to the well-received On The Grove album that was issued earlier on this year. Ian Canty writes…

Soul Revivers, a duo of producer David Hill and the multi-talented Nick “Manesseh” Raphael, released a corker of a record in the first few months of 2022 in the form of On The Grove. Put together with real care and an abiding love for 1970s Reggae, they managed to corral veterans like Ken Boothe, Devon Russell and Ernest Ranglin along with some great artists from the modern Jazz/Funk scene to produce what I consider a bit of modern Reggae gem.

I reviewed that On the Grove album here and after its success, it isn’t really much of a surprise that a Dub version follows swiftly in its wake under the title Grove Dub. Eight of the original album tracks have been radically remixed and that is what we need to get an earful of here. The rationale appears to be to reposition On The Grove by scaling back the instrumentation and vocals and thereby giving the album a marked change of emphasis. It is a method that served the originators in Dub well and the only real difference in approach Soul Revivers put into practice is the use of modern tech.

Meanwhile Shuffle from One The Grove is retooled as a dream-like, tense Meanwhile Dub to get the album moving. Henry Tenyue’s trombone, the star on the first version, is still present playing a crucial role. But here it acts as more of an echo-laden anchor, with the self-explanatory title of Harder Version coming next. The producers reuse Ernest Ranglin’s guitar skills in sparing fashion on this piece and the overall effect is sublimely satisfying.

Curits Mayfield’s The Underground, sung by Devon Russell, was for me one of the highlights of the original LP. Here its Dub equivalent has Devon’s soulful performance still semi-intact, if trimmed and sent downwards in the mix. His voice now cuts in and out very coolly indeed. Another fab vocal cut from On The Grove was Gone Are The Days. The Dub version Gone Clear uses brass very well and Alexia Coley’s fine original rendering is given a huge dose of chilly echo. The following Rocka Dub takes the low-key and mournful source material Cee Rocka and reshapes it adeptly into something that pares down the music even more, but also allows some moody Jazz elements in the horn section to flow through nicely.

Why Dub, a version of the Ken Boothe track Tell Me Why, retains some parts of his excellent singing and ably highlights the guitar. Next Got To Dub has Got To Live’s deep Roots feel given a further notch of mellowness. Finishing off Grove Dub we have More Drama, which takes On the Grove’s opening track No More Drama right down to a drifting ghost dance, with Ranglin’s guitar flurries coasting along beautifully and acting as a vital reference point for the listener.

Grove Dub works excellently as the Dub alter-ego of On The Grove and also is a high-quality work in its own right. The whole album feels natural and authentic, not merely replicating how things were done in the 1970s but putting Soul Revivers’ own subtle spin on proceedings. The record largely succeeds if the aim was to construct something new and exciting out of On The Grove, which itself as a novel enough work to begin with. Grove Dub simply really works because of the talent and innovation involved.

Soul Revivers are on Facebook here and their Bandcamp site is here

You can track down Grove Dub here

The Heptones – Better Days & King Of My Town

Posted on by jbass508

The Heptones – Better Days & King Of My Town

Doctor Bird Records

2CD/DL

Out now

Two of the famed vocal trio’s well-received albums from the 1970s, with producer Niney The Observer’s Dub equivalent of Better Days Observation Of Life Dub among the bonuses included. Ian Canty writes…

Jamaica has thrown up many top-quality vocal groups over the years, but few can top The Heptones. They made their mark first at the height of Rocksteady, under the auspices of Coxsone Dood at Studio One. The original version of the band was made up of the talented lead singer and bass player Leroy Sibbles, plus back-up vocalists Barry Llewellyn and Earl Morgan. They enjoyed great success with Studio One and also later recorded for Chris Blackwell at Island and Lee Perry’s Black Ark.

Sibbles had departed for a solo career by the time of Better Days in 1978, being replaced by Naggo Morris and this new version of The Heptones hooked up with Winston “Niney The Observer” Holness at Channel One for this album. It leads off with an upbeat version of the Elvis Presley hit Suspicious Minds, which the band had already covered back in 1971 during their days with Coxsone. Another lively, Soul-tinged cover Crystal Blue Persuasion follows. Then we come to the first band original on the record in the form of a cool, lilting Land Of Love, with the tune being penned by Morgan, Llewellyn and the outgoing Sibbles.

No Bread On My Table aka Oh Jah shows The Heptones ably adjusting their stance for 1970s Roots, with deep vocals cast upon a sparkling and inventive musical backing. Niney’s production work really pays dividends here and then we come to the album’s title track Better Days, which again sounds thoroughly cutting edge for the time. It’s a great spiritual Reggae sound that is hugely impressive.

Both presenting an ideal showcase for The Heptones’ considerable vocals talents to shine are God Bless The Children and Ready Ready Baby, with the latter’s slow and steady beat being embellished by some well-deployed keyboard flourishes. These are essentially updates of Rocksteady, but work wonderfully. Every Day Life however has a different structure, relying heavily on percussion and bass in a way that mirrored Dub, while being its own thing. Mr. Do Over Man Song finds The Heptones journeying Roots-ward and Key To The Heart finishes the album with a mid-paced demonstration of their expert skills in reading a song.

On Better Days The Heptones shows no real signs of any complacency, coming over as being full of vitality and using modern techniques to bolster the core strengths of their vocals well. With Niney helming proceedings, it was natural that a Dub version of Better Days would emerge and this is what makes up the second half of the first disc. Starting off with a stripped-down Suspicious Minds retitled Mind Blowing Dub, Observation Of Life Dub hits just the right spot. Persuasion, a cut on Crystal Blue Persuasion, shows the sparing and well-judged use of piano on the original song brought to the fore.

Niney’s methods here are not as outlandish as some in Dub, but he conducts things with exquisite taste. He teases out guitar lines on Nuff Bread On Our Table expertly and with Jah’s Children In Style the organ is reduced to an eerie but memorable whisper. Finishing off by highlighting the delicate build and tight rhythm of Observer’s Style and the low-key bass adventure Lover’s Dub, Observation Of Life Dub makes a cracking companion piece to Better Days.

Better Days was followed up a year later in 1979 by King Of My Town, which kicks off with a Pop Reggae charmer entitled Watcha Gonna Do About It (not The Small Faces tune). They then cover The Mad Lads’ Boss Reggae number Losing You, with a horn section doing some fine work. Then Behold skanks along nicely before a dread Holy Mount Zion confirms that The Heptones had really made themselves at home in Roots. Earl Morgan’s song Motherless Child is full of Soul power, with Prisoner Girl picking a winding path in a cool vocal group style.

King Of My Town itself comes next, brassy and full of impact and African Child is a beautifully performed nugget of moody Roots Reggae. Trials And Tribulations and Which Side Are You come next and account themselves well in the same fashion. It is a shame that this smart album of wonderfully sung Roots ends with a rather gimmicky version of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night.

The final part of Better Days & King Of My Town is a series of seven 12 inch Disco mixes recorded with Niney. These extended versions were all the rage at the time, custom built for the dancefloor. They add value to the set immediately with the skipping, relentless beat of the mighty Through The Fire I Come. Its flipside Move On works well with some sharp Dub moves and a stylish Book Of Rules really stands out. As a conclusion we get four longer mixes of album tracks, with the versions of Crystal Blue Persuasion and Every Day Life coming right out of the top drawer.

This set comes complete with a detailed history of the band in the liner notes and the usual sharp Doctor Bird design work. It would have been nice to have a little more info on the albums themselves, but I suppose that The Heptones tell their own story through the music. Better Days & King Of My Town catch the band at the best of their post-Leroy Sibble incarnation, when along with Niney they adjusted their approach to fit naturally into the Roots Reggae era. There’s magic here.

Lay your hands on a copy of The Heptones, Better Days & King Of My Town here