From martin burbridge Sent Tue, Mar 16th 1999, 21:33
ah ive been holding back but while were on a full on dub thread week i have to mention the recently released "trojan dub box set" (yep, that's the title) 3 cds of king tubby, lee perry, observers, g. isaacs, the revolutionaries, and so on and so on. and i've been seeing 'em for a little over $20 a shot which is kinda good for what is an excellent sampler to '70s dub. great sound quality coming from trojan these days, their history in this dept has been a little shaky in the past, "the upsetter box" & "king tubby's special" were both disappointingly quiet and flat sounding. my only criticism was that the 4 or 5 perry tracks were all from the same release ("build the ark") not certain about the others. the bad news is i've just spied the "trojan ska box set", "trojan rocksteady box set" and "trojan reggae box set" as well, and my wallet is cringing. recent trojan, blood and fire and pressure sounds have all been releasing some excellent '70s dub, some o' my own top choice dubs of this type are, "open the gate" (trojan), "arkology" (island) - lee perry "freedom sounds in dub" (blood and fire) - king tubby & soul syndicate "scientist wins the world cup" (greensleeves) - scientist "king tubby meets the rockers uptown" (shanachie, mine is anyway tho its been out on about 200 labels) - augustus pablo "cry tuff dub encounter" (virgin, see above) - prince far i & the arabs "dubs on the wire pt 1." (c90 taped from radio lancashire's 'on the wire' show) - various. this is my top, top dub fave ever, and i still don't know what 1/2 the tracks are. it covered 2 tapes but the first one was a stunner. well mixed, w/ samples breaking up the songs. if anyone can tell me the track that begins w/ "hey echo y'mamma's callin you". "oh no". "not that mama the foxy chick you were w/ last night" - sounds crap i know, but its an instrumental from that point on, and i need to have it. also had the definitive version of lee perry's "to be a lover" that i still haven't found, despite owning at least 9 other versions. bah. more electronically, on-u did also did some fine stuff, dub syndicate's "tunes from the missing channel", "strike the balance" and "stoned immaculate" being all 3d echo, crackle and whomp. and the non-reggae, but proto-tr*p-h*p "mark stewart" is massive, particularly the dub of r. sakamoto's "forbidden colours". more recent on-u is more patchy. bill laswell has been associated w/ as much good dub as john denver. oh, and "police and thieves" gets a v. appropriate airing during "lock, stock and two smoking barrels". as the barmy army once said, "bite 'is ears off, vinnie jones" (tyson was a copycat). -martin