Reggae / Dub

Rare dubs, version excursions and unreleased tracks from the vault 1980 - 1983.

In the tradition of archival On-U Sound compilations of recent years such as the Return Of The Crocodile and Churchical Chant Of The Iyabinghi sets for African Head Charge; and the Displaced Masters LP of early Dub Synidcate rarities, we’ve gone through the tape vaults to put together this special record of unreleased versions and rarities from the white hot early days of the New Age Steppers, the group that launched the On-U Sound label by appearing on both the first single and album.

Highlights include a restored track from their infamous and long-lost 1983 John Peel session (an ebullient cover of Atlantic Starr’s “Send For Me” featuring a beautifully spirited vocal performance from the much-missed Ari Up), the Jah Woosh deejay cut of “Love Forever”, some rare dubs previously only available on Japanese import CDs, all bookended by two very different takes on Chaka Khan’s “Some Love”. An essential set for collectors of post-punk, dub and other outernational sounds.

Produced by Lee Perry, this release is in essence the Soul Rebels album first issued in 1970, omitting the instrumental track My Sympathy but adding two singles Mr. Brown and Duppy Conqueror.

Reissue on vinyl for this classic album originally released in 1982 on Daddy Kool Rec. Jah Thomas was an important figure on the Jamaican music scene during both the roots era of the '70s and the subsequent dancehall decade of the '80s. Besides releasing several DJ sides of his own in the latter half of the '70s, Thomas also came into his own as one of the island's top producers for both singers and DJs. Many of these sides found their way to the dub studios of King Tubby, who transformed a wealth of Thomas' rhythms into a some of the best dub tracks to emerge from Jamaica.

In 1981, Brenda Ray / Naffi Sandwich released the sweetly yearning “D’Ya Hear Me!”. The song is now considered a post-punk classic, and here we have a warm digi-reggae version sung by Kyoto composer/producer/vocalist NTsKI (“Natsuki”), with backing tracks performed, recorded and mixed by Osaka-based producer/guitarist 7FO (“nana f o”). Also on this release are a karaoke version, plus two remixes, the first a dancehall-flavoured version by Bim One Production, a Tokyo electro-reggae production duo. The second mix is from Nagoya-based electronic producer CVN, who provides a harder version. This revisioning of a much-loved classic is available on CD, 10-inch vinyl and digital.

Mastering: Takuto Kuratani (Ruv Bytes)
Special thanks: Brenda Ray, Hiroshi Takakura (Riddim Chango)

CD version: Gatefold cardboard case

TRACKS:
01. D’Ya Hear Me!
02. D’Ya Hear Me! (Karaoke)
03. D’Ya Hear Me! (Bim One Production Remix)
04. D’Ya Hear Me! (CVN Remix)

In 1981, Brenda Ray / Naffi Sandwich released the sweetly yearning “D’Ya Hear Me!”. The song is now considered a post-punk classic, and here we have a warm digi-reggae version sung by Kyoto composer/producer/vocalist NTsKI (“Natsuki”), with backing tracks performed, recorded and mixed by Osaka-based producer/guitarist 7FO (“nana f o”). Also on this release are a karaoke version, plus two remixes, the first a dancehall-flavoured version by Bim One Production, a Tokyo electro-reggae production duo. The second mix is from Nagoya-based electronic producer CVN, who provides a harder version. This revisioning of a much-loved classic is available on CD, 10-inch vinyl and digital.

Mastering: Takuto Kuratani (Ruv Bytes)
Special thanks: Brenda Ray, Hiroshi Takakura (Riddim Chango)

CD version: Gatefold cardboard case

TRACKS:
01. D’Ya Hear Me!
02. D’Ya Hear Me! (Karaoke)
03. D’Ya Hear Me! (Bim One Production Remix)
04. D’Ya Hear Me! (CVN Remix)

Brenda Ray, who became famous for the new roots rock reggae "Walatta" that became the best seller in the 2000s, has been active since the post-punk / New Wave era, and is based in Liverpool and Manchester, the Slits and pop groups. , New Age Steppers (who interacted with A. Sherwood), etc., played reggae / dub / punk / rock crossover cutting-edge music. She has an outstanding sense of POP, and in the mid-1980s she released her works as a solo in Virgin and other places in the UK. That "Walatta" was an album like Brenda's solo career collection "after".

This work "Duya Here Me! (Hearing !?) ”is a collection of early masterpieces before“ Walatta ”.

The recorded song is a sound source of the band era that was active under the name of Naafi Sandwich / Naffi Sandwich or Naffi, and the release at that time was exclusively DIY cassette tape and 7 inches. They weren't formed as a live band, they were a unit that left the idea to record and produce their work.
In this comp, you can listen to another world of "Walatta", which has a strong influence of Jamaican music on rhythm and method, but "I didn't want to play reggae and wanted to" Dub-up "(= dub version). I wanted to do it) ”as their sound, playing reggae crossover.
The title song "D'ya Hear Me!" Is a POP tune of D.I.Y soul explosion recorded on a 4-tiger teleco using a rhythm box. Heavy and cute reggae crossover such as "Naffi Take Away" and "Krazee Music", de deep and dark roots reggae-style instrument "Spring Thing- Hippy Dread", "Walatta" popular song "Starlight" original song ( !) "Moon beams", Young Marble Giants-style "Everyday Just Another Dream", unreleased original long version, etc. Finally, a demo of "D'Ya Hear Me!" That she "excavated" this time is recorded. Highly recommended for post-punk / Neo Acoustic fans! !!

In the early 1980s, one London recording studio became the favoured hang out for visiting Jamaican producers and British reggae musicians alike. Easy Street Studios in Bethnal Green had humble beginnings, but was soon pouring out an impressive run of hit tunes by artists like Sugar Minott, Winston Reedy, Alton Ellis and Barrington Levy. Phil Pratt: “Well, Easy Street was a bit like a party place them times. There was a backroom where everybody can go round there and do what them want do, you understand me, it was nice man. Cos in those days everybody get tipsy and drink, cos it was like fun those times, and we get together and come up with some good things. Everybody who come from Jamaica would work at the studio cos it had the best sound, the bottom was superb, so 95% of the reggae tune made up here was made at Easy Street. It was a good sound and me met some good fellow out of it too.” Founded by Eddy ‘Eddyman’ Williams, the studio soon recruited a team of local East Enders, like Dean ‘Joe 90’ Richards, Mike Stephenson, Jeff Chandler and Stuart Breed, who became known as the Easy Street Crew. Stuart Breed: “I first met Eddyman when I was 16 in 1977, when he was in a band (The Foster Brothers) that was signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records, and they had one hit in the UK. Eddy took the money he got from the record deal and started a rehearsal room. The guy who’d signed them, Roger Bain, became head of A&R at Phonogram Records, and he used to send different bands down to Easy Street to do demos. Roger gave Eddy an advance to buy some recording equipment, so you had an environment that was like a rehearsal room plus a recording studio as well. And one of the bands sent down to record a demo at Easy Street was Black Slate, and Eddy was nuts about reggae at the time, so the band said we’ll bring some friends down. And then within a matter of months we were doing almost exclusively reggae acts.” Phil Pratt: “Everybody get along, black and white, and I remember Joe 90 used to joke say him have a black head too, but really him have a blackhead pimple on his arse! So we all live good together and every man get along, English and Jamaican.” Stuart Breed: “I was just a kid then, a hippy, 147 pounds with long blond hair. In the beginning it was strange having all these guys coming in from Jamaica, and it could be a bit overbearing for a kid of my age, but those guys were great and a lot of fun. The spliff smoking sometimes brought me to a complete standstill, cos really I preferred a beer, but I would have to say I spent most of my life at Easy Street on a contact high! I used to work with Errol Dunkley, Alton Ellis and Lloyd Coxsone a lot. Sugar Minott worked mostly with Eddy.” Phil Pratt had an illustrious career in Jamaica stretching back to the rocksteady years of the 60s, scoring huge hits such as ‘My Heart Is Gone’ and ‘Artibella’, but by the 80s was increasingly finishing his productions in London. Easy Street was a low budget studio with professional but fairly limited equipment – a Soundcraft TS24 mixing desk, a Roland RE301 Chorus Echo, an AKG BX5 reverb, and an MXR flanger/doubler – and a speedy way of working which suited the incoming rush of reggae producers. Stuart Breed: “We used to work really quickly in those days, because of budgets. People would walk in, say hello, spark up a spliff and hit the record button. We had everything always set up, like mics on the drum kit and guitar amps, so people could just start recording immediately. Sometimes people would come in and record an album in one session, lay some tracks, do some vocal overdubs, very minimal stuff, bang out the mix and done, all in six hours.” Phil Pratt: “I worked with Stuart a lot, and most of the things me do at Easy Street was with him. He was a great guy, and very helpful and creative. And Joe 90 also help a lot, ca him play guitar and piano good, so it was really like a team. I almost felt like one of Stuart’s students engineering-wise, cos while I showed him what I want the sound to be like, he was teaching me some things around the board. So me just watch and make him work, cos him very technical with sound and him know exactly where to put that and put this. He just a great, great engineer – trust me, I miss him now.” Hearing such praise, it’s no surprise that he asked Stuart Breed to mix ‘The War Is On Dub Style’, an album that typifies Phil’s working methods in those days, with the backing tracks recorded at Joe Gibbs’ Studio in Jamaica, and overdubs and mixing done in London. Phil Pratt: “‘The War Is On’ was the dubs to songs by Ronnie Davis, like ‘Black Cinderella’ and ‘Strange Things’, which were voiced in Jamaica. And the parts by Bobby Kalphat were all recorded in Jamaica. Bobby Kalphat just a great musician, my favourite keyboardist, so when we finish record the rhythm we go back and record solos and phrases, and make an instrumental on melodica. To be honest with you he was better than Augustus Pablo by far, but we have to give Pablo some credit cos he did start the melodica thing. Next I come to England with the multitrack tapes, the big 16 into 24 track tapes, and trust me, them tapes was real heavy to carry back! Then at Easy Street we voiced some Blackstones tracks and ‘Hear We Them A Say’ by Owen Grey. At Easy Street we paid by the hour, but when we mix this dub LP we go over it about three times. Cos me never like the first sound that we have, it was all right but it wasn’t sellable. So we did go over it again and again til we get what me want.” Stuart Breed: “We used to get a lot of multitrack tapes coming in from Jamaica, from Channel One and Tuff Gong studios especially. The Jamaican engineering was very different from what was popular with chart records in the UK at that time, but it had its own unique sound which I appreciated. I wasn’t really listening to King Tubby, I was mostly listening to Roxy Music and Japan and bands like that, so I tried to emulate that in my mixes, but a lot of the reggae artists would say no, and stop you from going too far in that direction. So I had to adjust to give them what they wanted.” Phil Pratt: “Yes, he’s telling the truth, Stuart was a rock man not a reggae man. So yes, I had to teach him the tone of the sound we want, and him make it marvellous. Some people would leave off from the record sleeve if it mixed in England, but that never occurred to me because I could get the sound from Jamaica which nobody else could a get. And the secret was all in the voltage: Jamaica was 110 volts and England was 220 volts, so Jamaica lower in the voltage, and people don’t know it but the voltage was part of the sound. So when I was in England me have a step down transformer that me work with, me have everything and me bring it to Easy Street and we switch the tape machine to 110 volts and then we get the sound. People didn’t believe it could a work cos it sound stupid, but it work and we get the Jamaican sound. We used to sell ten or twelve thousand of these dub albums easy.” By the mid 80s Easy Street was scoring further successes with homegrown lovers’ rock and deejay tunes, and to support their breakthrough acts the Easy Street Crew started to go out on the road and into concert venues and dancehalls. Stuart Breed: “Once we started doing the reggae stuff, Eddy invested in a decent sized PA system. And we went out doing gigs with the reggae bands, and also sound system clashes, so we’d be in these dancehalls and we’d be the Easy Street Sound playing against these other sound systems. So I learnt about live sound doing those reggae gigs, and then a few years later I found myself doing sound at the Albert Hall with Art Garfunkel – which was quite different from playing a dance in Brixton!” By the late 80s Phil Pratt was starting to ease up a bit on record production, concentrating more on running his restaurant business in London. And Stuart Breed had moved from Easy Street to George Martin’s Air Studios in Oxford Street, where he worked on various dance remixes before launching successfully into the mainstream, engineering for the likes of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Demis Roussos. Stuart now lives in Savannah, Georgia, and has been Art Garfunkel’s main vocal engineer for the last 29 years. Stuart Breed: “Mixing dub definitely set me up for doing remixes later on. We did a lot of experimental stuff, and the dub mixes I’d done at Easy Street set me in very good stead later when I was doing 12” dance remixes at Air, cos I wasn’t scared to try things. And with all that toasting stuff, we were really doing rap records before rap was even around. Easy Street was really a ground- breaking studio, a very prolific place, and a lot of people cut their teeth down there and went on to do some great things. For a little studio that started out with nothing, it managed to get some amazing results.” Diggory Kenrick

Finally, the classic "Dub Prophecy" album that has been talked about for over 40 years!
A masterpiece of delicate and clever dub by Pat Kelly!

The masterpiece of dub "King Tubby's Prophecies Of Dub" (1976) has finally been reissued from the prestigious Pressure Sounds, which is known for archival reissues of precious and high-quality reggae/dub recordings! This album is produced by Yabby You and Bunny Lee, and recorded by Pat Kelly, a student of King Tubby, at King Tubby's studio. This is a valuable piece of dub recording.

Pat Kelly was a singer in the 1960's, and later a dub mixer and recording engineer who King Tubby trusted very much. This album includes a dub of Linval Thompson's "Long Long Dreadlocks," a dub of Jonny Clark's cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Ten To One," and dubs of Horace Andy and Delroy Wilson.

A1. RAIN DUB (feat. KAZUFUMI KODAMA)
A2. NON STOPPA DUB (feat.MISS RED)

B1. DIVISION OF THE WORLD DUB (feat. ADDIS PABLO)
B2. SHINE DUB (feat. HOLLIE COOK)

Additional Production and Remixed by MAD PROFESSOR@ARIWA SOUNDS STUDIO, LONDON

The ‘3000 Volts of Holt’ album was the third in a series of records that launched John Holt into the UK charts in the 1970’s. To say that every home had a copy of a 1000 Volts and many 2000 Volts of Holt might be an overstatement but it certainly felt that way, as all good radio stations and parties seemed to have these tracks on permanent rotation.’3000 Volts of Holt’ was the more roots sounding of the three albums but still carried that sweetened string sound that set these recordings together.

Radiation Roots continues its exploration of Jah Thomas' Midnight Rock label with the releases of this sought after and rare early dancehall album. Recorded at the legendary Channel One Studio, Osbourne and Palmer are two sublime vocalists and they are backed here by The Roots Radics, with Scientist on the mix.

Reissue on vinyl for this classic album originally released in 1978 on Carib Gems. Arranged and produced by Bunny Lee. Delroy Wilson was one of Jamaica's most soulful vocalists, and over a 40-year career the singer unleashed a flood of hits and a multitude of masterpieces. Born in the Kingston neighborhood of Trenchtown, Wilson's phenomenal talent would be his ticket out of the ghetto, and his discovery by producer Coxsone Dodd in 1962 would change the path of Jamaican music.

Budapest, Hungary-based producer Laurine Frost, popular for his series of works based on the story of his imaginary daughter's life, has released her latest album under the name Haramia Tapes for the first time in four years! A dope blend of dub, broken beats, and jungle. 7 groovy, cleverly stripped down, hypnotic tracks. Mastering and cutting at by Helmut Erler. Limited to 300 copies.

Deadstock. A must-have masterpiece for fans of Basic Channel and Huerco S. German electro heavyweight Burnt Friedman, who also collaborated with German rock giant Jaki Liebezeit of CAN, released this masterpiece in 2016 as the only single in the Risque catalog, a sub-label of his Nonplace label. Two abstract minimal dub pieces of nearly 10 minutes each are included on each side. Mastered at Dubplates & Mastering to Rashad Becker's specifications, the quality of the vinyl is flawless!

Arguably one of the highpoints from both these UK sonic pioneers (John Bolotten aka The Rootmsan and Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze). This is the first vinyl issue of original material previously published in 1997 on CD by Third Eye Music (Rootsman’s own CD imprint). Another collaboration between Muslimgauze and The Rootsman following the Amahar release.

Classic Wailers recordings done with Lee Perry early 70s. Tuff roots rhythms with early stripped down versions to later well known tracks such as "Sun Is Shining" "African Herbsman" "Keep On Moving" and many more.

‘Conquering Lion’ stands as one of the few truly essential albums of the roots era. As devotional as anything by Burning Spear, as polemical as Bob Marley, and as militant as the Mighty Diamonds, the album also communicates a haunting spiritual quality that is uniquely its own. Amazingly, for such a coherent work, the tracks were recorded over a period of at least four years, yet come together to present a single coherent vision. The album was first issued in Jamaica by Micron, and in the UK with a different tracklisting as ‘Ram-A-Dam’ on the Lucky label in 1976. Here the album is presented for the first time in expanded form, together with its dub counterpart.

Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson is often portrayed as a strange, otherworldly figure. Yet his life was filled with two opposing forces, the spiritual and the earthly. Even as Yabby was yearning for a higher plane of existence, he was scratching out a difficult living in the ghetto. Whilst warning of sinful secular behaviour, he was working at the race track taking bets. As well as creating some of the most powerful and heartfelt music to come out of Jamaica, Yabby was busy cutting deals with studios and musicians, and hustling round the record shops to sell his products. And these contradictions seem to have fuelled some of his best music, pushing him into places that other artists shied away from. When I had a couple of lengthy phone conversations with Yabby shortly before his death, his religious musings were frequently interrupted by the loud squawking of the chickens in his yard. If the theology he espoused seems stern and prescriptive, he could also be charming and generous in conversation.

‘You have the rasta business, like the rastamen believe Emperor Haile Selassie is the creator who create people. I used to try to show them he is just another man like anyone of we. I show them Jesus Christ is recorded in history as a great individual and him also great. So with God now: I was trying fe educate them and I feel like if I use music I will be able to spread out all over the world, spread out and reach those type of people, for them have a zeal for godliness.’

So Yabby’s religious views put him immediately at odds with rasta orthodoxy, and he often wore his belief as a shield against the world, certainly against the more ruthless side of the record business. Indeed Yabby’s personal dogma was sometimes deployed as a tactic to clinch a negotiation, by wearing down his ‘less godly’ opponent to the point of compromise. And the unshakeable strength of his beliefs gave rise to some of the deepest of roots music.

Run Come Rally + Rally Dub
The album opens with an immensely powerful call to turn away from the earthly wickedness of ‘the land of the sinking sand’ before the upcoming apocalypse. ‘The sun shall be darkened / And the moon shall be turned into blood / One of these days.’ ‘Run Come Rally’ was recorded by Lee Perry at his Black Ark Studios, and the dub contains typical disruptive Perry touches, like cutting in and out on isolated syllables of the voice.

Jah Vengeance + Tubby’s Vengeance
Amazingly the album’s second track intensifies the sentiments of the first: ‘Jah Vengeance surely will come down on anyone / Who still insists to stay in wicked Babylon’. Its release as a single was backed by a stark King Tubby’s dub which perfectly highlights the end of days sentiments of the vocal, but Yabby explained that the backing track was again recorded at the Black Ark: ‘Black Ark was a great studio and Lee Perry is really a great producer with a great sound. You know the tune named “Jah Vengeance” and the one named “Run Come Rally” and the first song Wayne Wade do named “Black Is Our Colour”? Well I did those three tunes at Black Ark. Them times there Bob Marley used to be up there. Lee Perry have a unique sound when you recording. Is a pity him turn to the mad business, but between me and you I don’t really think him mad, you know, him just turn to that business. Him had to keep off certain artists who come pressure him for money. But sometime me think him take it too far.’

Conquering Lion + Conquering Dub + Big Youth Fights Against Capitalist
One of the most devastating debut singles of all time, the vision recounted in ‘Conquering Lion’ gave the young Vivian Jackson his nickname of Yabby You. Yabby told me the history of how he created this classic, expanded here with two of its most imaginative versions, a mix from the ‘King Tubby’s Prophesy of Dub’ album, and the brilliantly named B-side of Big Youth’s ‘Yabby Youth’. ‘I recorded the riddim down at Dynamic – the drum, the bass, the riddim guitar and the organ. From the day it do at Dynamic everyone know say it going to be a hit. Waterhouse and Gullybank was an underworld place, where most of the sufferers come from, and they never expect someone from Gullybank would make that quality or make that type of riddim. So all of them things there add together a lickle bit. “Chinna” did play the guitar, Aston “Familyman” Barrett play the bass and Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace play the drum. I never have the experience to know say well I must get a 4 track tape so we just use 2 track tape. So after we put on the riddim pon one track, we only had one track left and “Familyman” dub the organ onto that second track. The rest of the instrument them me dub on afterwards at Tubby’s. We dub on the horns, the voices – like the lead and the two harmony. And then that inspired you as a singer now to sing pon it comfortable, you know.’

Covetous Men
A stinging denunciation of greed, Yabby’s lyrics here move from attacking avarice in general to exposing the exploitation of the poor, ‘The big fishes feeding on the small ones’. Sadly no dub version exists for this track, which balances its message of condemnation with the optimistic conclusion that ‘Just through our faith, that’s why we overcome’.

Anti Christ + Anti Christ Rock
Yabby rails against dissembling and hypocrisy on a track renamed ‘Dem-A-Wolf’ on the ‘Ram-A-Dam’ album. ‘See them there / Them favour Christ but them a Anti-Christ.’ The dub shows King Tubby masterfully emphasizing the ‘flyers’ drum pattern.

Carnal Mind
This is probably the closest Yabby ever came to invoking the sound of a Pentecostal church meeting, as verses from the Books of Romans and Psalms are quoted in an uplifting devotional. With no dub existing for this track, we can only speculate on how Tubby might have transformed it.

Jah Love + Jah Love Dub + Warning Version
Originally released as a single with the title ‘Warn The Nation’, the lyrics call for an escape from the mental chains of slavery: ‘No shackles on our feet, no whip on our back / Yet I and I must realize we are still being enslaved’. The two Tubby’s dubs bring out different nuances of the backing track, particularly the heavy one drop drums and their repeating hi-hat pattern.

Love Thy Neighbour + Love Thy Neighbour Version
Yabby casts himself as a preacher addressing his flock after a unique intro featuring Richard ‘Dirty Harry’ Hall playing the fife, a simplified flute that originated in medieval Europe, and in Jamaica is usually made from bamboo. ‘Me used the fife, and people always wonder where me get that sound. Well sometimes we used like three fifes, like lead, tenor and alto, and that fife thing was a unique special sound. Tommy McCook would play one fife and you had this brother named “Dirty Harry” who used to blow tenor sax too, and then me would dub back the third one on top. You see, horns take a lot of time and very expensive. And those days reggae music was very poor, and so most producers try fe avoid using horns.’

Love Of Jah + Love Of Jah Version
A simple song elevated by strong harmonies and a plaintive lead, the dub version is sparse and stripped down, highlighting the insistent percussion.

The Man Who Does The Work + Work Without Pay Version
Like ‘Love Thy Neighbour’, this version is mixed without clean drums and bass. Both versions are compelling nonetheless: here echoes on the organ catch the ear, and both versions show varying degrees of high pass filtering across the mix. ‘Tubby’s have that precise timing like with all the echo. And him have that high pass filter – him have that sound inside of the board, and him did arrange it. Him was one of the greatest engineer, and him was a technician too, and him develop the sounds, like all the bass – him have resistors and things there and him make it become more round.’

Yabby’s music is both intense and warmly human, both militant and yet strangely fragile, a quality it shares with some of the greatest instrumentals by Augustus Pablo, who appears here on piano. The songs are defiant and strong, but at times seem almost translucent, inviting the listener in to share the vision of their composer. With King Tubby’s dub mixes reassembling the songs into fascinating new patterns, ‘Conquering Lion’ is a timeless classic of Jamaican reggae.
Diggory Kenrick

First time ever on a 7' Jah Over i fits nicely into the best of Yabby You's roots recordings. Comes with a flute led instrumental by Tommy McCook backed by Sly and Robbie as The Prophets on the flipside. Roots music that soars above the Kingston haze!! Beautiful.

In the early 1970s the island of Jamaica, and in particular its reggae musicians, developed a love affair with small Japanese motor bikes. Honda bikes were eulogised in Big Youth’s ‘S90 Skank’ and Dillinger’s ‘CB200’, whilst their rival was lauded on Shorty The President’s ‘Yamaha Skank’, to name the most obvious examples.The plot of the film ‘Rockers’ revolved around how transformative a motorbike could be, providing a livelihood whilst projecting an image of success in the ghetto. 
Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson had been fiercely independent as a singer and producer, and the success of his early self-pressed productions, mostly on the Prophets or Vivian Jackson labels, had given him a sense of hard earned autonomy. A motorbike was one of the fruits of his labours, acquired as a way of zipping around the capital’s roads to deliver records and organise recording sessions. His wife Jean could often be see hanging on to the back. Twelve years after his death, she remembers various exploits on the pot-holed roads of Kingston. 
Jean Vencella Williams: ‘His first motorbike was a Honda 50 and then a 100, a Yamaha. I remember the Yamaha, it was a dark blue colour, it must have been from the mid 70s til the early 80s. I used to ride around on the back and we ride all over, like we go to the country cos his mother lived in Clarendon.And he had a little carrier thing for boxes of records, so we go to Mandeville in Manchester, sometimes to Spanish Town fe sell records. Most of the time he sell them to the shops, like Randys, and the people them buy it from there. He had pressing plants like Byron Lee and later Tuff Gong, so when the records pressed we find out the time when we get back the records, which usually was at least a couple of days or about a week.And later when we living in Clarendon we come into Kingston to pick them up at the pressing plant.And when he book the studio he might book two or three days and we come in and usually stay til late. 
‘He used to carry the records from the different pressing plants on the bike, but because of the rain and weather you know it not so good for the records, and also the sun beating down.Then Wayne Wade had an accident on the Yamaha, and he was hurt quite bad, and he had to go to the hospital for quite a while. Well Yabby didn’t ride it after that, cos it was getting dangerous with so many cars coming in. So he gave up the Yamaha and bought a Toyota Carina, and that car was very good to him.Then the Carina become a little shaky, so he got a Toyota Corolla which he drove until his death.’ 
This album presents a sample of the best of those ‘Dubs and Versions’ that Yabby was ferrying around town, whether rarities, B-sides or tracks culled from albums that showcase the breadth of Yabby’s productions between 1975 and 1982. 


Tribal War Dub and Creation Rock Version. 
We open with two make-overs of Studio One rhythms,‘Death In The Arena’ and ‘Rockfort Rock’.Yabby is rightly lauded for his well worked original rhythms, but the same care and attention is on display here.Slow and hypnotic,‘TribalWar Dub’ was recorded at the Black Ark but mixed and overlaid with syndrum sound effects at King Tubby’s. ‘Creation Rock Version’ was issued on 7-inch as the flip to a storming vocal by Michael Prophet: the dub is pounding and relentless, aimed straight at the sound system. 

United Africa Dub 
Tommy McCook’s delicate flute leads an instrumental dub of Yabby’s haunting song ‘Jah Over I’.The master saxophonist was a key collaborator with Yabby throughout the 70s, and often switched to flute or fife for atmospheric classics like the mighty ‘Death Trap’. Here his sublime melody floats over a solid steppers drum pattern from Sly Dunbar, with syncopated snare fills. 

Lord Of Lords Dub, Black Is Our Colour Dub, Now I Know Dub and Man Of The Living Dub 
Four dubs all taken from singles featuring the teenage singer Wayne Wade. Jean remembers Wayne Wade as ‘a very brilliant singer, really the first one that Yabby spend a lot of time on as he get more confident as a producer’.Wade recorded extensively for Yabby, and went on to cut the awesome ‘Poor And Humble’ for Linval Thompson and a couple of albums for Willie Lindo. ‘Lord of Lords’ is a reworking of Yabby’s signature tune ‘Conquering Lion’,‘Now I Know’ is a recut of Dennis Brown’s ‘Baby Don’t Do It’, and ‘Man Of The Living’ is one of the deepest tunes recorded by Yabby’s young protégé.The ‘Black Is Our Colour’ rhythm was recorded by Lee Perry at the Black Ark studio, with horns and flute by Tommy McCook added after the original release, as heard on this, the version side to Jah Stitch’s cut ‘African Queen’. 

Dub U So and Yabby U Sound 
Two tracks from an LP named ‘Yabby U Meets Sly and Robbie Along With Tommy McCook’ released in 1982, in which Yabby revisits some of his older rhythms with new dub mixes by Professor and Scientist.‘Dub U So’ focuses in on some stirring but plangent horn parts.An album track by Byron Otis of The Blackstones named ‘Set Me Free’ uses the same rhythm track, seemingly because its producer Jah Larry was living in Clarendon alongside Yabby. ‘Yabby U Sound’ is a minimalist remix of the anthemic ‘King Pharaoh’s Plague’, originally released five years earlier. 

Vengeance In Dub, Repatriation Rock and Warrior No Tarry Yah Version 
Three version sides to strong DJ records, with Ranking Trevor’s toast over a recut of ‘Jah Vengeance’, Jah Stitch’s DJ piece to ‘Zion Gate’ aka ‘Judgement On The Land’, and Tony Tuff ’s chant over his own ‘One Big Family’, riding the Paragons’ ‘Man Next Door’ rhythm.All were mixed at King Tubby’s, probably by Prince Jammy, and all three dubs show the standard Tubby’s practice of recording the DJ’s clean voice and the full dub mix onto separate adjacent tracks.This meant that the flip side of the record would not need to be mixed separately, the dub mix being the same as that behind the voice on the A side.You just pulled down the fader on the DJ’s vocal and your B-side dub was already mixed. Not a second was wasted in the studio! 

Heads A Roll Dub, Mash Down Rome Dub and Turn Me Loose Dub 
Michael Prophet was Yabby’s most successful and prolific artist. Jean remembers Michael’s recruitment:‘Michael Prophet came to him as part of a trio,andYabby liked Michael but for some reason he didn’t take the other two, and decide him better as a solo artist. So Michael was taught from scratch and him would come in the evening and practice and practice, until Yabby feel he was ready for the studio.’ These three tracks are from the confusingly named ‘Michael Prophet – Vocal and Dub LP’, which is actually a full dub album mixed by King Tubby, with extended vocal passages. It’s a very musical set that was obviously conceived as a coherent album, with new mixes to existing singles and subtle sound effects overlaid throughout. 

Dub U So and Yabby U Sound 
Two tracks from an LP named ‘Yabby U Meets Sly and Robbie Along With Tommy McCook’ released in 1982, in which Yabby revisits some of his older rhythms with new dub mixes by Professor and Scientist.‘Dub U So’ focuses in on some stirring but plangent horn parts.An album track by Byron Otis of The Blackstones named ‘Set Me Free’ uses the same rhythm track, seemingly because its producer Jah Larry was living in Clarendon alongside Yabby. ‘Yabby U Sound’ is a minimalist remix of the anthemic ‘King Pharaoh’s Plague’, originally released five years earlier. 

Vengeance In Dub, Repatriation Rock and Warrior No Tarry Yah Version 
Three version sides to strong DJ records, with Ranking Trevor’s toast over a recut of ‘Jah Vengeance’, Jah Stitch’s DJ piece to ‘Zion Gate’ aka ‘Judgement On The Land’, and Tony Tuff ’s chant over his own ‘One Big Family’, riding the Paragons’ ‘Man Next Door’ rhythm.All were mixed at King Tubby’s, probably by Prince Jammy, and all three dubs show the standard Tubby’s practice of recording the DJ’s clean voice and the full dub mix onto separate adjacent tracks.This meant that the flip side of the record would not need to be mixed separately, the dub mix being the same as that behind the voice on the A side.You just pulled down the fader on the DJ’s vocal and your B-side dub was already mixed. Not a second was wasted in the studio! 

Heads A Roll Dub, Mash Down Rome Dub and Turn Me Loose Dub 
Michael Prophet was Yabby’s most successful and prolific artist. Jean remembers Michael’s recruitment:‘Michael Prophet came to him as part of a trio,andYabby liked Michael but for some reason he didn’t take the other two, and decide him better as a solo artist. So Michael was taught from scratch and him would come in the evening and practice and practice, until Yabby feel he was ready for the studio.’ These three tracks are from the confusingly named ‘Michael Prophet – Vocal and Dub LP’, which is actually a full dub album mixed by King Tubby, with extended vocal passages. It’s a very musical set that was obviously conceived as a coherent album, with new mixes to existing singles and subtle sound effects overlaid throughout. 

Death To All Racist and Aggression Dub 
Yabby took a pretty relaxed attitude to naming tracks, especially on his dub albums, which today causes some confusion among the ranks of record collectors.These two neglected tracks are both from LPs with contradictory information.The various pressings of ‘Yabby You Meets Michael Prophet And Scientist At The Dub Station’ use the same track names for totally different dubs, but ‘Death To All Racist’ on the original 1981 release is the dub to Michael Prophet’s ‘Stop Throw Stones’. Meanwhile the tracklisting on ‘Michael Prophet – Stars In Disco Showcase’ does not match between the sleeve and the label, so ‘Aggression Dub’ may actually be named ‘Falkland Crisis Dub’. Whatever, it’s a great version, probably mixed at Channel One, although strangely the only known vocal on this rhythm, ‘Come Make We Rally’ by Willie Williams, was produced by Sugar Minott. 
Babylon A Fall Dub 
‘Babylon A Fall’ was released as a Discomix 12” on the Grove label, with the dub segueing from Yabby’s vocal. Here the dub is presented on its own, with instrumentation led by trombone and a slightly tentative flute, again probably mixed by Prince Jammy. 

Time Changing Dub and Chanting Version 
These are the version sides to singles by Samuel Patterson (‘Time Changing’) and Errol Alphonso (‘Chant Jah Victory’) respectively, two talented singers who sadly seem to have recorded only one or two tunes each, and exclusively for Yabby. Both dubs have the musical weight so typical of the music mixed at King Tubby’s. ‘Chanting Version’ has a great intro guitar lick, probably played by Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, and brilliant use of the famous hi pass filter to alter the whole perspective of the mix half way through. 

Although drawn from disparate sources, hopefully this collection presents a coherent overview of the drum and bass music produced byYabbyYou from the late 70s to the early 80s.As Jean remembers:‘Yabby really loved dubs, I think he put special care into them. And he loved what he did.’ 

Diggory Kenrick London UK 2022 

During the mid-1980s, Rhythmites used their music to break down racial, ethnic, and cultural barriers. Formed in the small Roman town of Bath in the west of England, Rhythmites issued a couple of tapes on UK peace punk pioneers Subhumans' label Bluurg before cutting debut LP Integration in 1989, by which time lead singer Angus Wright and bassist Clive ‘Flash’ Gordon were injecting the Jamaican sensibility atop the English core of keyboardist Rich Patterson, future Invisible System drummer Gary Woodhouse and future RDF guitarist Murph Murphy. It’s a compelling set of defiant roots with a touch of new wave, reminding of the vibrant hybrids conjured in the greater Bristol area, a worthy discovery for all fans of British reggae and rebellious late-80s post-punk.

Earlando Arrington Neil became Early B on the Jamaican sound system scene, working his way through Soul Imperial, King Majesty and other sets before coming to prominence in the early 1980s on Kilimajaro, where he became known as ‘The Doctor’ for unleashing his lyrical cures on the mic. Recording for various producers from 1981, Early B reached another level upon linking with deejay-turned-producer Jah Thomas in 1984, the humorous hit ‘Sunday Dish’ leading to this explosive LP of the same name, an enduring classic of early dancehall that also features the equally hilarious ‘Learn Fi Drive.’ All killer, no filler!

The latest single from Pretty Sneaky, rumored to be an alias of SHED, who is also known for his work on Ostgut Ton and Delsin, features four tracks of superb ambient/dub with a 90s electronica/IDM aesthetic. No digital, analog only.

This Heat's Charles Bullen started this project with his friend Julius Cornelius Samuel after the band broke up, and the result is Lifetones, an eclectic mix of dub, post-punk, and krautrock that combines ethnic exoticism with UK streetwise elegance. The band's only release, "For A Reason" from 1983, has been reissued for the first time!

The title track, with its dubby strings and catchy chorus, makes you squirm in agony at the distortion of the acoustics coming at you in the latter half of the song, as well as the lo-fi sound of the equipment used in the post-punk era. In addition to the remastered original tapes, the album comes with a booklet with valuable photos and liner notes, and a gatefold jacket. This is a definitive reissue that will bring tears to the eyes of old and new post-punk fans!

Incredible collection of rare King Tubby VS. Scientist tracks. These were some of the last ‘classical’ dub works created before dancehall ultimately mutated into a technologically-driven sound that largely did away with organic instruments and although these works already point in that direction, they still sound entirely fresh today because of the superb musicianship of the Roots Radics and the guiding hand of Jah Thomas in the producer’s chair, as well as Scientist and his cohorts, working their dub magic at King Tubby’s studio. Extensive liner notes by David Katz.