Reggae / Dub

Due to high demand of dubplates, the "Bush Tea" is finally released in vinyl 7"!

We take the same and start again A winter week at One Buck studio, 4 musicians. Ocman Dread and Ras Salam once again call on Jolly Joseph and Dr Charty to accompany them on guitar, bass, keyboards... The recordings of this session do not suggest the negative temperatures and the frost outside, the riddims are sunny and sound warm. Pinnacle Sound's 5th album is in the wake of the previous ones, roots that make you smile. Breath is life The rest takes place at the Bat Records studio. The Dub Shepherds refine these takes where breath and grain mingle, in search of the authenticity that has made Pinnacle Sound special since its beginnings. With the help of vintage machines and magnetic tapes, the album takes shape and begins to take shape. Many guests Another Pinnacle Sound trademark, numerous guests behind the microphone are present on this disc as on the previous ones. We find the essentials: Marcus I and Jolly Joseph, to which are added new voices, like Payoh SoulRebel who opens the album with the unequivocal “Downpressure”: we are here to have a good time! Big news on this album, the presence of female voices! The trio The Steadies delivers the brilliant “Thank You”, and Nina Murple signs the ballad “By The Train”. You will have understood, Pinnacle Sound unveils a rich and generous new album, 10 tracks from the most kitsch to the most profound, which will leave no one indifferent.

The Time is Now was recorded in 2023, during Max Romeo Tour, before his concert in Compiègne France.

This 4th chapter of the Dubatriation Dubplate Style series presents Philosofy, an epic melodica instrumental crafted by Italian producer Crazy Hertz in a combination with his mentors and UK dub legends Alpha & Omega. While most of the lead instruments have been played by A&O, bass, drums and soundscapes have been provided by Crazy Hertz who also showed his terrific mixing skills on both sides, delivering an immersive dub on the flip.

"Dub & Fire" is a collaborative album by Ashanti Selah, a leading force in the next generation of UK dub, and Hark, a producer known for his soundsystem-ready riddims. Building on their previous release, "Smoke & Fire," the album deconstructs and reshapes those tracks into a tighter, heavy-hitting dub counterpart built straight for the dancefloor

Even in these most turbulent of times, dub musician and fatigued onlooker Elijah Minnelli remains an inexplicable stalwart on the lower rungs of the Breadminster County Council.

His latest record ‘Clams As A Main Meal’ continues his astute siphoning of council funds, this time with help from the Breadminster Board of Abstinence. As a further mark of respect, the original head of the Board, Dr. K'houldoux, graces the cover art in his infamous ‘Looming Moon of Desire’ guise.*

As fine a backdrop as any for Minneli’s off-brand dub experiments, and ‘Clams…’ is the truest representation of his varied wheelhouse yet…

We find vocal appearances from dub goliath Dennis Bovell and Welsh-language singer Carwyn Ellis. A pair of tracks which build on 2024’s acclaimed ‘Perpetual Musket’, a collection of folk songs reworked alongside reggae vocalists, released by FatCat Records. It garnered glowing reviews, with nods from The Guardian and The Quietus concluding with prominent appearances on their respective yearly round-up lists.

Elsewhere, the album finds Minnelli in a more experimental mode, all wheezing contraptions and cockeyed bass, creaking with the weight of creation, a satisfying tactility laid seam-side up.

As well as ‘Perpetual Musket’, the new album follows years of sold out 7" singles, handmade and self-released. Online, the tracks have amassed global streams numbering in the millions. His tracks have found play across an eclectic range of radio mixes and dance floors, most notably the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Batu, Optimo and Zakia Sewell (BBC6Music).

It is perhaps worth mentioning that this everbuilding interest in his work is at great odds with the growing suspicions amongst his fellow townsfolk, who see his Breadminster County Council Music Initiative as nothing more than an empty cash-grab.

*For further reading on the Breadminster Board of Abstinence, please see below.

Further Reading on the Breadminster Board of Abstinence

In the late 70s, Breadminster was awash with the last vestiges of the hippy era. Though the flared silhouette of the lower leg remained, the utopian ideals that had once flowed merrily around the youth's shaded ankles had begun to wane. LSD and free love had led to a sharp spike in population and a generation of children raised by air-headed psychonauts unprepared for the bleary-eyed strictures of parenthood.

Aware of the crisis, the County Council entrusted Dr. Paulinque K'houldoux to spearhead a pushback, and it was his pro-abstinence movement - a mixture of education initiatives and radical renutrition campaigns - that came to impact Breadminster's census deep into the new millennium.

Being a pseudo-archipelago Breadminster has fundamentally limited resources, however deep-seated ties to distant coastal villages meant that oysters were a regular part of the local diet. K'houldoux pinpointed this as a factor in the town's overpopulation, and believed that simply replacing these with clams (a “lesser mollusk”) would help lower the erotic urges of the people. It was his “anti-aphrodesia” movement that first championed the idea of “Clams As A Main Meal,” and the slogan “Consider Abstinence” carried the message yet further.

The Breadminster Board of Abstinence soon became involved in all cultural happenings in the area, with K'houldoux MCing at prominent festivals and performances, sometimes dressed as the “Looming Moon of Desire” - an idea of his relating to the tide, seafood, menstrual cycles, and his privately held celestial predilections.

It was in 1981 that it was revealed Dr. K'houldoux had never fully qualified as a doctor and was seeking exile in Breadminster due to a series of botched bracelet heists in which he had previously been involved. K'houldoux was subsequently extradited to Basingstoke, where he served 3 of a 12-year sentence, owing to the lunar-oriented prisoner health campaigns he helped implement.

It has been a strange twist of bureaucratic fate that the Breadminster Board of Abstinence has never stopped receiving public funding, despite its lack of clear utility. And while its roots are tied to a rose-tinted past, the Board continues to sponsor cultural events and projects to this day.

An extract from: Eugeniq Schooner's article in Sydney Parishioner: “Clams, Breadminster and Countercultural Abstinence Trends” (2008)

"As if this Anglo-Brazilian duo´s debut album wasn´t impressive enough, its version arrives training a magnifying glass on the studio wizardry of Dubkasm. This dub is lean, stripping the original´s rich sound far down to the bone – ”Ta Gravando Agora` is empty streets and alleyways in which we catch glimpses of a lone, wandering melodica. Out from among the trees denuded of their leaves soars the lone sprial of a saxophone on ”Woodsman Dub”. Tena Stelin opens ”Play I Some Dub” strong and brash before slipping down the echo chamber to a fanfare of horns, after which the bass and drums are left to explore the chasm left open. Stelin attempts to regain a foothold in the song, but the edges of the bottomless pit are too slippery. And when Christine Miller´s beautiful voice rises with a single, "only so much to give", the entire less-is-more aesthetic is justified for all time. Not every track is boiled down to the skeleton. ”Beto´s Yard” is lush in detail and features the bounciest bassline on the entire album. And not every track reworks album material. ”Memories of Xylon”, for example, is a tribute to Lidj Xylon, a passionate, lion of a singer who recently passed away in Ethiopia. The partnership of DJ Stryda and Digistep, though stretching back to the mid-nineties, has certainly spilled forth delights in the past months from the horn of plenty which is the Transform I project. The trilogy was completed recently with a remix album featuring exciting and innovative names from the far reaches of the reggae diaspora." - Stephen Fruitman, Sonomu

Dubkasm teamed up with some of the top Dubstep producers from their home town, Bristol. Each producer was given a copy of their debut album 'Transform I' and asked to pick a favourite track to remix. Over time, the original LP was reinvented. The result is a highly varied ten-track set featuring a heavyweight selection of Bristol bass scientists. in 2011, the album was followed by a series of 12” vinyl discs.

Released by French reissue specialists Only Roots and Deep Roots, the Augustus Pablo vinyl LP, titled King Tubbys Meets Rockers At 5 Cardiff Crescent Washington Garden Kingston, compiles a treasure trove of mostly previously unreleased material licensed from the vaults of Augustus Pablo’s Rockers International. Recorded at Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark studio, mixed at King Tubby’s, and anchored by the Rockers All Stars’ timeless riddims, the album delivers dub versions of gems like The Immortals’ Why Keep A Good Man Down and A House Is Not A Home, Pablo’s own New Lots Express, Roman Stewart & Barrington Spence’s No Peace In The City, Ricky Grant’s Far Far Away, and Hugh Mundell’s defiant Run Revolution A Come. Of particular interest are two alternate cuts of Pablo’s Unfinished Melody, along with a rare partial vocal of Jacob Miller’s Stop Them Jah, voiced on the same classic riddim that underpins the iconic Who Say Jah No Dread. These tracks first appeared decades ago on a scarce 10-inch release and now makes a welcome return.

Money Maker is a rare 1978 release by the great Jamaican organ wizard Jackie Mittoo. A must have instrumental reggae classic which blends a series of killer-riddims originally laid down at Studio One and Mittoo's highly infectious gritty funk organ work.

Definitely ahead of its time, Black Jade approach was very sophisticated, creating more than a serious cult in downtown London. While their debut ‘Contempo’ was a ‘religious’ dub affair, their sophomore album showcased a more rootsy direction. Published as a mere private press in the second half of the seventies, the album is finally available in a long overdue re-issue.

Radiation Roots present a reissue of Jackie Mittoo's The Keyboard King, originally released in 1976. Jackie Mittoo's contribution to reggae music is immeasurable. Of mixed Indian and African-Jamaican heritage, the man born Donat Roy Mittoo was a gifted musician that played piano in The Skatalites at the age of 16. He was a very important part of reggae's evolution, having been a crucial member of the Studio One house band from its very foundation, being employed as the main keyboardist and musical arranger for an extended period, working closely there with Lee 'Scratch' Perry and countless other important figures, as well as relegating Leroy Sibbles to the bass. Although Mittoo migrated to Canada in the late 1960s, he frequently returned to Jamaica to record, maintaining his Studio One connection, and also issuing a sublime series of albums for Bunny Lee in the mid-1970s. The Keyboard King was first issued on Third World in 1976, and features Mr. Mittoo's delightful organ workouts, completely reconfiguring hits by John Holt, Johnny Clarke, Cornell Campbell, and Bunny & Skully, among others.

Scientist's name can be found all over any dub record collection; he was a protégé of King Tubby, and many would say that when dub fell on quieter times it was Scientist who breathed new life into it. His pared-down mixing style suited the dancehall reggae sound that arrived as the '70s rolled into the '80s. This 1982 album includes the priceless dub of Johnny Osbourne's classic "Give a Little Love," as well as further cuts of the likes of Hugh Mundell and Wayne Jarrett. Scientist is always in control.

Scientist was only 20 years old when, working with fellow producer "Junjo" Lawes, he came up with this 1980 stunner, a sinuous groove party with cartoonlike special effects (a lot of bongs and boings like pans hitting one another, blips and squeals that sound like a Pac-Man game). All the "song" titles are references to boxing (a motif that Scientist was obviously mining for all it was worth), and all are great individual bits of dub sound that cohere into a meaningful whole. As it says on the jacket, "This ya a youthful sound fe come mash y'down."

Hopeton Brown, better known as Scientist, has been a pioneering figure in the world of dub for 40 years. His early love of electronics proved fruitful when (still a teenager) he was hired at King Tubby's studio in Kingston. Brown quickly ascended the ranks and became heir to Tubby's throne, producing imaginative and technically impressive mixes that solidified his forward-looking nickname.

Originally released in 1981, In The Kingdom Of Dub remains one of the best early LPs in Scientist's long career. Produced by Roy Cousins at Channel One and featuring Sly & Robbie along with members of The Revolutionaries, The Aggrovators and The Soul Syndicate, the album offers a wide range of arresting rhythms, bold effect drops and exquisitely melodic bass. From "18 Drumalie Avenue Dub" (a reference to King Tubby's address) to "Burning Sun Dub," Scientist lays down a veritable roadmap of dub – filled with disintegrating echoes of satiny organ and textural guitar – firmly cementing his place as one of the true innovators in Jamaican popular music.

Dark, hypnotic, tripping nyabinghi from 1974. Led by Ras Michael over four extended excursions, the music is organic, sublime and expansive, grounation-drums and bass heavy (with no rhythm guitar, rather Willie Lindo brilliantly improvising a kind of dazed, harmolodic blues). Lloyd Charmers and Federal engineer George Raymond stayed up all night after the session, to mix the recording, opening out the enraptured mood into echoing space, adding sparse, startling effects to the keyboards. At no cost to its deep spirituality, this is the closest reggae comes to psychedelia. Lovingly returned to its original, singular glory, restored at Abbey Road, with superfly vinyl in old-school, hand-assembled sleeves.

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1997 as M-Series by German Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2025.

Originally released in 1996 as the M series, Vainqueur's outstanding and universal masterpiece of minimal techno has been repressed in 2025 and includes a remix by Maurizio.

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1995 as M-Series by German Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2025.

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1995 as M-Series by Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2025.

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1995 as M-Series by German Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2023.

Originally released in 1993 as the M series, Vainqueur's outstanding and universal masterpiece of minimal techno has been repressed in 2025 and includes a remix by Maurizio.

unification of techno and dub reggae. An outstanding universal masterpiece of sound dub/minimal techno released in 1992 as M-Series by Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald's Basic Channel, repressed in 2025.

Khadim is a stunning reconfiguration of the Ndagga Rhythm Force sound. The instrumentation is radically pared down. The guitar is gone; the concatenation of sabars; the drum-kit. Each of the four tracks hones in on just one or two drummers; otherwise the sole recorded element is the singing; everything else is programmed. Synths are dialogically locked into the drumming. Tellingly, Ernestus has reached for his beloved Prophet-5, a signature go-to since Basic Channel days, thirty years ago. Texturally, the sound is more dubwise; prickling with effects. There is a new spaciousness, announced at the start by the ambient sounds of Dakar street-life. At the microphone, Mbene Diatta Seck revels in this new openness: mbalax diva, she feelingly turns each of the four songs into a discrete dramatic episode, using different sets of rhetorical techniques. The music throughout is taut, grooving, complex, like before; but more volatile, intuitive and reaching, with turbulent emotional and spiritual expressivity.

Not that Khadim represents any kind of break. Its transformativeness is rooted in the hundreds upon hundreds of hours the Rhythm Force has played together. Nearly a decade has passed since Yermande, the unit’s previous album. Every year throughout that period — barring lockdowns — the group has toured extensively, in Europe, the US, and Japan. With improvisation at the core of its music-making, each performance has been evolutionary, as it turns out heading towards Khadim. “I didn’t want to simply continue with the same formula, says Ernestus. “I preferred to wait for a new approach. Playing live so many times, I wanted to capture some of the energy and freedom of those performances.” Though several members of the touring ensemble sit out this recording — sabar drummers, kit-drummer, synth-player — their presence abides in the structure and swing of the music here.

Lamp Fall is a homage to Cheikh Ibra Fall, founder of the Baye Fall spiritual community. The mosque in the city of Touba is known as Lamp Fall, because the main tower resembles a lantern. Soy duggu Touba, moom guey séen / When you enter Touba, he is the one who greets you. After a swift, incantatory start Mbene sings with reflective seriousness. Her voice swirls with reverb, over a tight, funky, propulsive interplay between synth and drums, threaded with one- two jabs of bass. Cheikh Ibra Fall mi may way, mo diayndiou ré, la mu jëndé ko taalibe… Cheikh Ibra Fall amo morome, aboridial / Cheikh Ibra Fall shows the way forward, he gives us strength, he gathers his disciples… Overflowing with grace, Cheikh Ibra Fall has no equal.

Interwoven with Wolof proverbs, Dieuw Bakhul is a recriminatory song about treachery, lies, and back-biting. Over moody, roiling synths and ominous, lean bass, Mbene throws out fluttering scraps of vocal, as if re-running old conversations in her head. The music shadows her despair to the verge of breakdown, at one moment seemingly so lost in thought and memories, that it threatens to disintegrate. Bayilene di wor seen xarit ak seen an da ndo… Dieuw bakhul, dieuw ñaw na / Stop judging your friends and companions… A lie is no good, a lie is ugly.

Khadim is a show-stopper; currently the centrepiece of Ndagga Rhythm Force live performances. The song is dedicated to Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, aka Khadim, founder of the Mouride Sufi order. Serigne Bamba mi may wayeu / Serigne Bamba is the one who makes me sing. The verses name-check revered members of his family and brotherhood, like Sokhna Diarra, Mame Thierno, and Serigne Bara. Though Islam has been practised in Senegal for a millennium, it wasn’t until the start of the twentieth century that it began to thoroughly permeate ordinary Senegalese society, hand-in-hand with anti-colonialism. The verses here recall Bamba’s banishment by the French to Gabon, and later to Mauritania, in those foundational times. During exile, his captors once introduced a lion to his cell: gaïnde gua waf, dieba lu ci Cheikhoul Khadim / the lion doesn’t budge, it gives itself over to Cheikh Khadim. Deep, surging bass, steady kick-drum, and simple, reverbed chords on the off-beat lend the feel and impetus of steppers reggae. A reed plays snatches of a traditional Baye Fall melody; the dazzling polyrhythmic drumming is by Serigne Mamoune Seck. Mbene compellingly blends percussive vocalese, narrative suspense, exultant praise, introspection, and grievance.

Nimzat is a devotional tribute to Cheikh Sadbou, a contemporary of Bamba, buried in a mausoleum in Nizmat, in southern Mauritania. Way nala, kagne nala… souma danana fata dale / I call upon you and wonder about you… If I am overwhelmed, come to my aid. The town holds special significance for Khadr Sufism. An annual pilgrimage there is conducted to this day. The rhythm is buoyantly funky; the mood is sombre, reined-in, foreboding. Punctuated by peals of thunder, Mbene sings with restrained, intense reverence; huskily confidential, steadfast. Nanu dem ba Nimzat, dé ba sali khina / Let us go to Nimzat, to seal our devotion.