Monday, 26 July 2021

Jah Wobble's 10 Commandments of Dub Mix

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1 KING TUBBY MEETS ROCKERS UPTOWN Augustus Pablo
I first heard this as a pre-release in 1976. Love the sound of Augustus Pablo's melodica; I am also kinky for the sound of the dubbed-up timbale drums that feature on this recording. King Tubby was the king of pure, heavy-duty dub at that time. It was released in this country on Island Records. Hearing 'King Tubby' for the first time had a profound effect on me: it was like hearing music from another cosmos. There are any number of good King Tubby compilations now around - Trojan Records and the Blood & Fire label are good places to look.
2 CONCRETE DUB Bob Marley
I no longer have this record... in fact, I have not heard it for probably 25 years, so I hope it does really exist and is not a figment of my imagination. If memory serves me well, it was the dub version B-side of an Island 7" single; probably of the track called 'Concrete Jungle', from the Catch a Fire album. It must have been one of the first ever domestically released dub singles. It was great to hear a dub version of a Marley track - I nearly always preferred the dub version of a tune. There was more space, and the bass and drums were pushed to the fore.
3 MARCUS GARVEY (DUB VERSION) Burning Spear
One of the very first dub versions I ever heard. I heard it in 1975 on a Friday night on the Capital Radio reggae show. I used to listen to that show religiously - Tommy Vance was the DJ. I now occasionally hear him DJing on heavy-rock stations as I channel-hop.
4 PROMISE IS A COMFORT TO A FOOL Trinity/Yabby You
A classic bassline, with a beautiful vocal refrain, and DJ chat. There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them. This is one of them. Other examples are Roy Budd's bass line to the title track of Mike Hodges Get Carter, and Cecil McBee's line on Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions' are two that come immediately to mind. The crediting of reggae musicians is notoriously lax. There are three possible players, re this particular tune. All giants of the bass - Robbie Shakespeare, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Clinton Fearon. If I had to put money down on who it is on this track, I would say it was Mr Fearon.
5 TWO SEVENS CLASH Culture
For a while back in 1977, you could not get away from this tune. It still sounds heavenly. It reminds me of walking back from a party in Hackney on a Sunday morning as the sun was coming up. I couldn't get the tune out of my head.
6 JUJU MUSIC King Sunny Ade
There was a little-known dub version of this classic album, mixed by an engineer that I worked with, called Groucho. What he did was devastating. I would love to hear it again. It was on Island (again!) and was released around 1982.
7 ROWING Dennis Bovell
One of the great musicians of his generation. I used to watch him perform this with his band Matumbi. As with "Juju Music", I hankered after hearing it again. I'm pleased to say that the label Pressure Sounds has released a compilation of Dennis's dub stuff, which includes this track.
8 THE SAME SONG Israel Vibration
Similar to our own late, and very great Ian Dury, 'Skeleton,' 'Apple' and 'Wiss' [Israel Vibration's three members] were stricken by polio in the fifties. This blend of their vocals within a dub context is wonderful. Yet again, there is a great compilation on Pressure Sounds.
9 CONSCIOUS MAN DUB Lee Perry and the Jolly Brothers
You could not have a dub selection without Lee "Scratch" Perry appearing. This is a great example of his idiosyncratic style.
10 SMILING STRANGER John Martyn
This is taken from his 1980 album One World. It was one of the first records outside reggae to utilise dub techniques. Superb.

Notes: 
A 'Baker's Dozen' out of Wobble's top ten dub tracks. I have included the vocal versions of the Culture & Israel Vibration songs and two versions of 'Concrete Jungle'. There was 'Concrete' on the B side of the 'Jah Live' single in 1975 and also an erlier version produced by Lee Perry. Regarding the King Sunny Adé Remix album. I think that may have been a perk of him being signed to Island Records at the time as to my knowledge the only dub cut to have been released was this version of 'Ja Funmi'. Lastly John Martyn spent a long time in Jamaica back around 1976 and also played on some Lee Perry & Burning Spear sessions amongst others. 'Big Muff' from 'One World' was co-written with Lee Perry and Perry's 'underwater swirling' effects are all over the album. The mix has also been tweaked with (hopefully improved) since last posting
 

Friday, 23 July 2021

Let's talk about 'discrimination' Crapton shall we?


Maybe we wll start with this...
Remember that? Onstage in Birmingham 1976? This racist tirade coming from a man who 'was inspired by' nah let's say 'ripped off' black music. We shall call a spade a spade eh Eric.
I could be wrong here Eric but it certainly wasn't fucking green people who came up with the blues was it? Nor indeed that reggae beat that had just given you a big hit single wth your cover of Marley's 'I Shot The Sheriff'. (Maybe you'd convinced yourself that it was Robert Nesta Marley's white half that had written the song eh?) 
It was that outburst that caused this letter to appear in the NME. 
I remember it well and as a sixteen year old in Glasgow I started getting involved in the setting up of the RAR chapter there. 
I, myself had a long, long battle with drugs and alcohol. Forty odd years actually and some of them very odd indeed but you know what? Not once did I come out with some racist crap. Crazy eh? 
And now this vax crap you are coming out with where you actually manage to get the word 'discrimination' in... You should get together with Van Morrison and Ian Brown and Richard Ashcroft and the other numpties and get a super (stupid) group together. Here's a song for you to cover. Written by a black guy but hey that's never stopped you before has it?



The year rock found the power to unite

John Grant - Boy from Michigan (6 Music Live Session)

Mary Anne Hobbs from BBC Radio 6 Music invited John Grant to the Radio Theatre for a very special live session. You can watch the full session on the BBC iPlayer HERE He performs 3 tracks from his new album Boy from Michigan plus tracks form his 2018 album Love Is Magic.

Dennis Cooper, Gisèle Vienne & KTL (Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg)

KTL (Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg) produced a number of works soundtracking Dennis Cooper and Gisèle Vienne's KINDERTOTENLIEDER which sadly has so far never made it to Australia

Peter Rehberg R.I.P.

Man...that is one hell of a shock to take in...

'Y' In Dub (Released October 29)

Info 
I've been waiting 40 and a bit years for this...

Exiled Global Mix One (2008)

Originally made and posted in the (very) early months of EXILE ON MOAN STREET back in 2008 
A mix of musical styles though predominantly North African. After opening aptly on this Sunday morning (sic) with Baaba Maal's 'Call to Prayer' we find ourselves 'tranceported' by music from both the mountains and medinas of Maroc, by the psychedelic sounds coming from the Congo in the mid seventies and by the present-time desert blues of Tinariwen and Group Inerane. From Algeria by way of Paris, London and New York to the Ju-Ju lands of Nigeria 
Tracklist: 
1. Baaba Maal - Call To Prayer 
2. African Head Charge - God Is Great 
3. Okay Temiz - East Breeze 
4. Material (with William Burroughs) - Ineffect 
5. The Invaders of The Heart - Bomba 
6. Rachid Taha - Barra Barra 
7. Group Inerane - Kuni Majagani 
8. Tinariwen - Cler Achel 
9. Joujouka with Ornette Coleman - Snippet #1 
10. Maleem Mahmoud Ghania w/ Pharaoh Sanders - Mahraba 
11. Gnawa Music of Marrakesh - Toura Toura Tour Kelilah No. 2 
12. Joujouka with Ornette Coleman - Snippet #2 
13. Udokotela Shange Namajah - Sobabamba (We Will Get Them) 
14. Le Super Borgou de Parakou - Congolaise Benin Ye 
15. King Sunny Ade - Ja Funmi 
16. Basokin ft. Mi Amor - Malume https://gfycat.com/ordinarycooperativeiberianemeraldlizard

If this mix doesn't want to make you dance barefoot under the sky then you are already dead

Thursday, 22 July 2021

Rickie Lee Jones remembers Chuck E. Weiss: ‘He was a Svengali to Tom Waits and everyone who knew him’

Don't forget to SWIPE

Bob Monkhouse and the 'subversive' peni (1949)

So I learnt from Joe the other day that when Bob Monkhouse worked as a comics artist early in his career; on one title, his superiors complained that he had made the lead female character a little too buxom. So in the next issue, the hero fought killer penises, entirely without editorial objection.

Keef Spaced Out

Low - Disappearing

The Taliban Are Breaking Bad

So I got asked to do a mix


It will be aired in about three weeks on Tales From The Dubside so I better keep the mix under wraps until then but here's a teaser of: Tim Intro/Space Oddity (LSK Sherwood Dub/Dubitron Melodica Version)

Basic Channel Tracks Arranged & Processed by Scion (Pete Kuschnereit aka Substance and Rene Löwe aka Vainqueur)