MUSIC

Congo Natty is one man, a family, a movement. Mikail Tafari aka Rebel MC stands at the core, but as “Jungle Revolution” shows, he’s the lens that brings the whole into focus.

Ten tracks long, “Jungle Revolution” clearly lays out the way in which Tafari sees Jungle as a re-boot of roots reggae for a new century. Full of blood and fire, the sternum-buzz of sub-bass, rapid fire drum breaks, sweet hooks, righteous anger and professions of love, it’s the kind of passionate, committed, raw and spiritual, beautiful record that doesn’t come along that often. “The message of reggae is Ras Tafari and Ras Tafari is love,” he explains. “They sang about love but they was also prophesying and talking about the system, talking about things that were going on in the world. I saw Jungle as being that same music, where we were going to spread a message.”

That message is spread by a diverse cast of collaborators. The album was mixed with On-U legend Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald (whose career goes back as far as the Sugarhill Band) plays guitar and, on the deep dub of “Revolution,” melodica. Production smarts are martialled from Benny Page (on the straight up ragga-jungle of “UK Allstars”), Vital Elements (the 150bpm anthem “Jah Warriors” and “Jungle Is I and I”), Serial Killaz (the pure roots bounce and rinse out of “Get Ready”) and Boyson & Crooks (creeping technoid paranoia on “London Dungeons”). Vocalists, meanwhile, run a huge range. There’s a who’s who of UK soundsystem culture on “UK Allstars.” True Congo Natty family like Nanci & Phoebe (check out Phoebe “Iron Dread” Hibbert’s verse on “Microchip” and Nanci Correia’s contributions throughout the record) and La La & The Boo Yaa (“Jungle Souljah”) fill the album with sweet hooks and total commitment. Last, there are artists perhaps best known for their work with others, but drawing new sustenance from Congo Natty’s Rasta beliefs and political views. Lady Chann offers a scintillating contribution on “Jungle Is I and I” and Buggsy, best known for his work with Joker, makes a telling intervention.

That this all holds together into a coherent whole that nods back to the legacy of roots reggae and classic jungle without being in thrall to either is down to the clear-eyed vision of the pioneer behind it. That he could make a record so vital, so alive with love and anger and pure joy, shows that Congo Natty the man is more than just a legend. He’s a revolutionary. And that revolution is happening now. 
 

Reset, the acclaimed 2022 collaborative album from Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, has been reimagined by the legendary British dub producer Adrian Sherwood as Reset in Dub. Sherwood created his version of Reset at his On-U Sound Studios with a crew that included such storied musicians as Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald (Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five).

The first in a series of mini compilations exploring instrumental Dub versions of sought after and long out of print titles from the world of Reggae, Disco, Boogie and House. Many of these versions still contain vocals, snippets here and there drenched in delay or reverb, a style you’ll recognise from many of the Jura Soundsystem edits on the label. The late Glen Adams & Finesse open proceedings with their Island Disco cover of Marvin Gaye’s classic, followed on the A2 by a super rare UK Boogie/Brit Funk mix of Tippa Irie’s ‘Panic’ (shouts to Tippa for personally helping to push through the license) and the A side closes with the 80’s leaning ‘Yes I Do’ from Belgium’s Special Occasion. The first half of the B side comes from Carol Williams with the Special Club Dub mix of ‘Can’t Get Away’, originally a one sided promo only 10” from 1983 complete with spoken word intro from Carol thanking New York’s Metro DJs for their support of the song. The LP closes with a Jura Soundsystem Dubby Edit of La Palace De Beaute’s ‘Sin’ pulling back on the vocal and going heavy on the delay.

Originally recorded in 1978 (following the recording of Dub from Creation), the mighty Starship Africa was already envisioned as the debut album by one DJ Superstar, toasting over a series of rhythms performed by the basic Creation Rebel unit, with Misty in Roots' Tony Henry on superbly melodic bass. These original tapes have long since vanished - the project was cancelled and it would be another two years before Adrian Sherwood returned to them, while casting around for the maiden release by a new label he was involved with, 4D Rhythms. Remixing and re-recording the rhythms saw Jamaican drummer Style Scott recruited to play live over Charlie Eskimo Fox's original tapes (played backwards through the desk!); an additional half a dozen percussionists, drawn from whoever happened to be in the studio at the time, were also overdubbed. Rumoured to be the planned soundtrack of a Don Letts-directed film about ‘alien dreads from beyond the stars’ (!) it’s mixture of interplanetary sound effects and heavy, heavy bass pressure still has the ability to astonish.

We're turning up the gold again for Death Is Not The End sub-label 333, with this repro of the much in-demand Flames cut of Nairobi Sisters' Promised Land. Sampled by Q-Tip for "Whateva Will Be" (appearing on ATCQ's final long-player) and on a range of earlier 90s boom-bap era productions, it is not at all hard to figure out why it's a coveted record. That break is as low-slung and funky as it gets, and best showcased on the superbly stripped-back dub on the flip. The Nairobi Sisters were singers Terrie Nairobi and Judy Mowatt (later of the I-Threes, alongside Rita Marley & Marcia Griffiths). Promised Land was originally recorded together with The Gaytones for Sonia Pottinger's Gay Feet label, with this later version cut for Winston Jones' Brooklyn-based Flames Records. It is issued here under license from producer and songwriter Jones - the original singer and composer of Stop That Train (later made world-famous by Keith & Tex's version) with his Spanishtonians in the early 1960s - who later moved from JA to NYC where he established and ran the Flames label, a core imprint in Brooklyn's reggae scene, from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. We've licensed a range of Flames-era productions from the now Texas-based Jones, so keep and eye out for more as it comes... but for now, jump on this before it's gone!

A rare early album by Creation Rebel back in print for the first time since 1979. Rebel Vibrations was originally issued by the pre-On-U Sound label Hitrun. The rhythms stem from one of the first recording sessions organised by maverick producer Adrian Sherwood, taking advantage of ace Jamaican drummer Lincoln “Style” Scott, sticksman for the Roots Radics, visiting the UK for the first time.

Pairing him up with UK-based players such as Crucial Tony, Lizard Logan, Doctor Pablo and Clifton Morrison, the result is a set of tough and uncompromising dub tunes, or as Sherwood describes it: “a structure of suppressed rhythms and unique possibilities in sonic space.”

Original Rockers is a compilation of singles, all recorded between 1972 and 1975. It was originally released in 1979 on Greensleeves Records and was compiled by journalist and photographer Dave Hendley. It features Robbie Shakespeare and Aston Barrett on bass guitar, Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar and guest vocals from Dillinger on the track 'Brace a Boy'. It was recorded at Channel One Studios and Dynamic Sounds in Kingston, Jamaica and mixed by legendary dub producer King Tubby.

Two lost & found lofi nuggets from the Jahtari vault, appearing on 7" floppy disc for the very first time. "Arcade Addict" is the original Dub cut of Mikey Murka's "Sensi Addict", a version of the sweet Ujama classic that came out as a Jahtari Net-7" in 2006. Sprinkled with field recordings from early 80s Arcade Halls (done by kids with a walkman) this little oddity never made it to vinyl until now. "Proper Tings" on B is taken from a home made video from 2012, originally made to show the capabilities of a DIY Synth project using a Commodore C64 home computer sound chip, the growly SID synth. Sounds are made from scratch, sequenced out on a MPC - and the ensuing Dub jam turned out to be a lucky shot, eventually shaping up as Paul St. Hilaire's "Who Goes There". There's a raw, beautiful 8bit magic to this Dub, finally making it to wax for the first time. Check the video above to see how it was made.

Pretty Sneaky, the anonymous project that has been quietly hiding behind a banana peel logo and self released white label 12” EPs, present their dilated and slomo sub laden atmospheres, this time for Marionette - following elusive outings for label favorites Mana and Meakusma. After being introduced to PS through a common connection back in 2016, a year before their very first self published white label release, it was only in 2021 that we reconnected to discuss an album for the label. Maintaining anonymity all these years is something to admire and respect, and PS is a reminder that the music itself and the imagination of it is compelling enough without the need to attach the name, face, or any context to the listening experience - going against the grain of trends. Koldd (aka Norman Levy), is a longtime friend and collaborator of Pretty Sneaky, and while Norman has played instruments on two previous cuts (Meakusma ‘track 1’ and PRSN4 ‘track 3’) - this is their very first collaborative release, where five of the recordings were produced at Levy’s studio in Marseille. The seven themes presented here lysergically weave field recordings of bird call and wind/water with pastoral synth lines and resonating modular patches that are on occasion sideswiped with a bass-heavy thump and stripped back percussion. This album is a mysterious offering for the heads out there looking to get transported to the macro space around us while reminiscing the dancefloor - the sort of thing you’d play for your friends after a night out that blows them to smithereens.

The debut solo album from Ronnie Lion, one half of Ambient Warrior, is a homage to Spanish Town the capital of St Catherine in Jamaica. As the title suggests the Spanish guitar features heavily from both Ronnie and lead guitarist Sean Wilkinson. The album has a reggae palette at its core with the rhythm section of Ronnie on Bass and Horseman on drums providing a rock solid foundation for the intricate and memorable hooks provided by Sean’s Spanish Guitar. The album’s fusion of Reggae with Bossa Nova & Flamenco Guitar creates another special album that will appeal to fans of Ambient Warrior and beyond. The LP is pressed on heavyweight 180 Gram Vinyl with full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton.

Riddim Chango Records is proud to present the first LP release, "KINTSUGI SOUL STEPPERS", a unique sonic patchwork from the Filipino Canadian collective seekersinternational and their fellow beat- maker juwanstockton. This album heralds a cultural fusion, connecting the heritage sounds of

Jamaican dub and the essence of American soul with the nostalgic ambience of 1980s Japan.
"KINTSUGI SOUL STEPPERS” embodies the spirit and art of Kintsugi — celebrating the beauty of piecing diverse fragments together and transforming them into a harmonious new whole.
With seekersinternational and juwanstockton at the helm, the LP celebrates the fusion of different sounds, cultures and identities to create new forms within contemporary music.

Record producer, composer, singer, and pioneer of the dub music genre Lee Scratch Perry passed away in August 2021. His influence over popular music since the 1970s is hugely significant, with artists including Bob Marley & The Wailers, The Clash, Beastie Boys, Max Romeo, Junior Murvin and The Orb all enriched by Perry’s legendary touch, innovative studio techniques and production style. Conceived, written and recorded during the COVID pandemic, ‘King Perry’ was produced by Daniel Boyle, and features guest performances from Greentea Peng, Shaun Ryder, Tricky, Marta, Rose Waite and Fifi Rong. Two tracks were also co-produced with Tricky, who releases Perry’s last recorded performances on his False Idols label. Over a career spanning six decades, Lee Scratch Perry left the music world with a huge catalogue of albums, productions and appearances that cannot be underestimated. Releases for Island Records, Trojan, Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound, Mad Professor’s Ariwa...the list goes on. It was in 2014 that Perry teamed up with UK producer Daniel Boyle, and from this collaboration came the Grammy nominated album ‘Back At The Controls’ and was followed up five years later with the ‘Black Album’. The ‘King Perry’ album was born out of a request from Perry that he “wanted to do something new, something different but still with a dub framework”. And so, armed with influences as diverse as synthwave, big beat, drum & bass and electronica, Boyle and Perry traded ideas, beats and lyrics in a project that continued to grow as its various guest performers were added, resulting in a kaleidoscopic and engaging melting pot of rhythms, melodies, and voices. Poignantly, closing track ‘Goodbye’ was Perry’s last ever recorded vocal performance.

TAIKOKISSIE & DUB PASSENGERS, Tokyo-based musician TAIKOKISSIE, whose previous album "SLOW DANCE IN SUBURBIA" was well received, presents their 2ND 10"! Hard jazz and improvisation are played with skillful technique and dubwise with deep effects that seem to dive close and deep.

African Head Charge return to On-U Sound with their first new album in twelve years. Titled A Trip To Bolgatanga, the recordings are led by founder member Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, with close friend and co-conspirator Adrian Sherwood once again at the controls. A Trip to Bolgatanga is a stunning return, bringing together the talents of two masters who, after a hiatus, have created a rich album brimming with ideas and executed with finesse.

A Trip To Bolgatanga is a musical journey to Bonjo’s current hometown in north Ghana. A psychedelic travelogue across the landscape featuring their trademark hand percussion and group chanting augmented with rumbling bass, mutated horns, dubbed out effects, wild wah-wah, haunted voodoo dancehall, synthetic swells, disco congas, tumbling layers of electronic effects, blues-inflected woodwind, and funky organ. As with every On-U Sound production, each repeated listen reveals fresh detail, and its power won’t be really understood until heard on a big system, when it’ll reduce all competition to rubble.

On August 11, 2023, Merge Records will release Happy Hour in Dub, a heavenly set of dub versions to pair with Hollie Cook's critically acclaimed 2022 album Happy Hour. Her first full dub record since 2012, Happy Hour in Dub was coaxed into being by close listening of the original album's modern lover's rock.Cook and Mckone explain: "The reason and inspiration for wanting to make the dub record is because Happy Hour, in its original form, has so many intricate musical details running throughout the songs—from the backing vocal and string arrangements to some far more subtle details. And during the mixing process, hearing some of these parts on their own over the drum and bass foundation, we felt there was so much left to explore and expose in the songs and take them to outer space."At the controls rejoining Hollie in exploring the space is Happy Hour producer Ben Mckone, who takes her soulful creations and stretches them to their sonic limits, with new vocal features by Josh Skints and Kiko Bun.

Welcome to ‘Instrumental Dubs #2’, a deep dive into the world of the Dub version and beyond. The A side has a distinct boogie feel, starting slow with a George Kerr produced cut from 1984 followed by a Brit Funk-esq instrumental from Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes originally released on the Philly World label (home to ‘Voice of Q’). The A side closes with the ‘Sweeter’ instrumental mix of Boogie bomb ‘Loving Sweet Devotion’ by Idiater Edwards. The B side opens with ‘H2S04’ from Mad Professor that defies categorisation, sitting somewhere between Reggae, Electro, Disco and Dub. Last but by no means least there’s an uptempo Dub mix of Rockers Hifi ‘Push Push’ making its first appearance on Vinyl having only been on the CD single release first time around. Pressed on 180g Heavyweight Vinyl with full sleeve jacket design by Bradley Pinkerton.

New compilation and long overdue next entry in the long running 'Jah Children Invasion' compilation series! This volume focuses on Wackies' foray into digital reggae, with a killer selection of tracks from the late '80s and early '90s. There are three previously unreleased tunes alongside seven others culled from prior rare and long out of print releases. In DKR style this comes in a 2 sided hand silkscreened jacket.

Based in Koza, Okinawa, producer/dub engineer HARIKUYAMAKU combines old Okinawan folk songs and dope, psychedelic DUB to create innovative music. He has received high acclaim from overseas as well, and has produced an album of DUB mixes of selected old Okinawan songs from the 16 LP-box "Okinawa Music Control" released in 1965. This one-of-a-kind music is a fusion of magical voices recorded about 60 years ago, live vibrations by Gintendan, and the mystical electro sounds of HARIKUYAMAKU.

Swaying & icy ELECTRONIC DUB compilation straight from DELODIO STUDIO SESSIONS. " An iceberg crusing the Jamaican coastline."

When dubwise music really started to come into its own in the early to mid 70s, it made overnight stars of backroom boys who had hitherto worked behind a mixing desk to serve those who were beginning to hoist reggae to an international stardom that it had long deserved, but that it had only achieved on short and non-sustained bursts until Chris Blackwell decided to throw a lot of promotion and money at the work of Bob Marley and his fellow Wailers in 1972. Of those men, there was no bigger star than the late Osbourne Ruddock, the great King Tubby’s and the man who, from a tiny home-made studio in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, Jamaica, did more than most to reposition the boundaries that production and mixing of Jamaican recordings.

The Keplar label presents the next instalment in a series of reissues from the catalogue of Sasu Ripatti’s seminal Vladislav Delay project. Originally released on Mille Plateaux, the vinyl edition of »Entain« from 2000 omitted two shorter tracks and included all others in an abridged form. With this reissue, the full album as it was pressed on CD is finally made available on vinyl. Besides a new remaster by Kassian Troyer, it was also given new cover artwork by Marc Hohmann that picks up on that of the »Whistleblower« reissue, released in early 2023 by Keplar. This serial visual approach highlights the conceptual continuity between those masterful explorations of the interplay between dub techniques, noise, and repetition.

Death Is Not The End sub-label 333 hits again with a reissue of a rarely encountered piece of prime UK digi, courtesy of Franklyn Bernard aka Frankie B - mixed at Fashion's A Class Studio in Clapham, and released on the Ital Stuff label in early 1986. Frankie B began his recording career with producer Bert Douglas, first releasing on his Reggae City label in 1984 with the No More Tears 7" under his birth name Franklyn Bernard. In 1985 he then linked up with Ital Stuff - a production team consisting of three brothers who also helmed the Sweet & Bitter Band. Operating a small eight track studio in the basement of their house in Balham, Ital Stuff had recently been responsible for putting together and laying down the backing track to Dixie Peach's classic Pure Worries, released on the Jah Tubbys label in 1985. Upon playing Pure Worries to Frankie he was immediately inspired to lay down his own vocal on the track, which too features Dixie Peach contributing vocal harmonies - it was recorded late 1985 and mixed down along with a ferocious dub side at South London's A Class Studio, eventually seeing release in early 1986.

Our fourth release comes in the form of a collection of rich, pulsating ambient/dub techno from Pan•American - the solo project of post-rock trio Ladbradford's front man Mark Nelson. Drawn to the incredible depth and texture of these tracks, we hope to shine a light on Mark's more exploratory electronic work, reminiscent of Jan Jelenik, Fennesz and Vladislav Delay. Through the Pan•American moniker, Mark has been able to embrace the possibilities of sampling and other musical technologies in order to exercise his interests in more remote genres like dub and techno. This collection comprises Mark's dreamiest, most sumptuous and blissed-out tracks taken from 3 obscure releases on labels traversing Zedelgem, Lon don and Portland - (K-RAA-K)³, Veritcal Form and BSI Records. Across these imprints, their output spans IDM, electronica, lo-fi, experimental dub and beyond and have been a music al home to the likes of Pub, Muslimguaze, and King Jammy and more. Mark's work sits at a confluence of these broad influences, shedding the sound of his post rock past for a more rhythmic, computer-based approach, which culminated in 2002's The River Made No Sound. As ever, the music is an emotional outpouring, progressing slowly through phases between stillness and movement, darkness and light. With a string of recent releases on Longform Editions and his long-term home Kranky, Mark continues to write and perform worldwide at festivals and prestigious venues such as London's Cafe Oto and Public Records in Brooklyn, NYC. The increasingly personal and reflect ive nature of his music has seen him come full circle to a more organic sound, as exempli fied by his latest LP, The Patience Fader.

In 1979 Suns of Arqa creator and mentor Michael Wadada set about recording the ground breaking Suns of Arqa album 'Revenge of the Mozabites' with his friend Adrian Sherwood. Together they formed the ‘4D Rhythm’ label – the world was not ready! Wadada retreated to the Pennine mountain range in Lancashire, Adrian Sherwood went on to create the formidable ‘On-U Sound’ label. Three years went by before a a very curious Peter Gabriel came across a rare copy of that first Suns of Arqa album; he was putting together the very first World of Music and Dance festival (WOMAD), and asked Suns of Arqa to come and perform. Revenge of the Mozabites is where it all started, this truly eclectic album of world-dub-east-west fusion from Suns of Arqa, ignited what would ultimately become the new World Beat Dub Dance genre which has influenced & inspired so many artists today.