Dub of the late ’70′s variety. By when Dub had evolved in many different directions. Lee Perry and King Perry were still evolving dub (which they’d effectively invented earlier in the ’70′s) into what I suppose could be called ‘classic’ dub – percussion and bass-heavy with a focus on hypnotic grooves (see ABON 0014). Meanwhile producers like Joe Gibbs (with his engineer and mixer Errol Thompson) and Scientist were creating a different dub style. Maybe best described as Dub-with-everything-and-the-kitchen-sink-thrown-in.

With far less emphasis on the bass and rhythm it left room for a more tuneful sound with bucketfuls of sound effects and samples thrown in – from strange blips and burps to doorbells, phones and computer game soundtracks to cowbells, animals and toy instruments.

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A vocal track-only version of ABON 0043. Made possible by Lee Perry releasing the track in basic 2-channel format, which means that you can (almost) isolate the vocals from the rhythm track by turning one speaker off.

Listening to Bob Marley singing his vocals in isolation is such a spine-chilling experience that I’ve posted the vocal-only version as well.

Recorded 1969.

The sessions are available on many compilations. However the only one I know for sure that exists in the original 2-channel format is the 2 CD set ‘Soul Revolution Volumes 1 and 2′ which I think is not currently available new: Amazon. And the version on this post only exists when you turn the left speaker off – a trick I was first introduced to by my Reggae-loving friend, Luc Basier.

There are two things that make this track special.

First of all, it was in the sessions that created ‘Don’t Rock My Boat’ that the Reggae Beat of the ’70′s was effectively created.
Although they had released many singles since their first in 1963, it wasn’t until 1969 that The Wailers first recorded with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry behind the controls of the mixing desk. The Perry-produced sessions were a revelation and a landmark. Rougher and less polished than the Wailers’ or Bob Marley’s later recordings for Island Record, they also have none of the Rock leanings (such as the lead guitar figures) of the later work. What they do have however is the first fully developed Reggae Beat. It feels like all the various, often wonderful, musical styles and experiments of Jamaican music in the ’60′s finally get distilled into the way forward that everyone been looking for all along. Delivered in beautifully pure unadulterated form. No need for superfluous effects or solos because they had discovered the rhythm. And in the first glow of discovery The Wailers (and even Lee Perry who would warp it to within an inch of its life over the next 10 years) decided to leave it in all its naked new-born glory.

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From the very late ’60′s to the very late ’70′s much of the most inventive and rhythmically exciting music came out of Jamaica. Dub was a vital part of this output. It had its origins in the Sound System – bass-heavy portable disco’s where in the late ’60′s DJ’s began to ‘toast’ live vocals over instrumental B-sides of 45′s. This in turn stimulated studio producers to start experimenting with these same instrumental B-sides to create a whole new genre called Dub.

By the time we get to 1973, the two most prominent Dub producers, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (leader/creator/producer of The Upsetters) and King Tubby, had turned it into a sublime art form capable of producing pieces of sound that contained equal measures of infectious drum and bass-heavy rhythm and unrestrained inventiveness. Even though many many Dubs would eventually emanate from literally the same original instrumental track, a master Dub mixer could produce a piece of music that was both unique and completely surprising through his or her use of echo, reverb, various other special effects (some usually of the herbal variety) and a dollop of unrestrained imagination.

Dub also introduced us to the concept of the producer/mixer/re-mixer/studio-technician as creative originator. Using the mixing desk as a musical instrument and existing instrumental tracks as musical elements to be bent, reshaped and remixed into completely new songs. Post-modernism before anyone this side of the Atlantic (except possibly in Germany – see ABON 0003) had even heard the phrase. And of course one of its greatest legacies is the cult of the remix in the music scene of today.

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The first of many reggae tracks from the golden period of Jamaican reggae, the 1970′s, that will appear on ABON.
By 1978 Culture had already recorded one of the most influential reggae albums of all time, 1976′s ‘Two Sevens Clash’. That album inspired the reggae loving Clash to name themselves, er, The Clash. It was also one of those very rare events in the 1970′s Britain – a genuine Jamaican-produced roots reggae album that sold in numbers to a white audience. Admittedly most were Punks who took the lead from the Clash or John Peel, but it was also because of the sublime harmonies and wonderful tunes.
It was in some ways a weird success story. Punk was championing unpolished rawer sounds in rock and ridiculing over-production. Culture’s first album was layered with production, was highly polished and very glossy. In particular, the heavy rhythms of the best Jamaican reggae – with the bass featuring more as a physical phenomenon rather than just a musical instrument – was missing from the Joe Gibbs-produced ‘Two Sevens Clash’. It was – God forbid – quite trebly. Punks didn’t seem to mind, although when DJ Don Letts played ‘Two Sevens Clash’ at the punk venue The Roxy, as far as I can tell he always seemed to play it through a graphic equaliser with the bass turned to max.

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