Freedom Sounds in Dub : King Tubby

I know that the number of King Tubby CD's out there is enormous.  Even for a reggae fan who holds the art of dub close to their hart, the Tubby library is endless.  So where do we find the best King Tubby discs or top notch compilations?  Blood & Fire, that's where.  Just like it's issuing counterpart Dub in the Roots Tradition : Scientist, Freedom Sounds in Dub is a great example of how this large available library of tunes can be condensed in to a stand out compilation.  Even if you only want a few pure dub cd's to anchor down your collection, this is a outstanding representation of Tubby.  Although I can really listen to this one over and over on repeat I'll still pick out a couple of my  favorites.  #1 (Ethiopian Version), #2 (Leaving Babylon Dub), and #11 (Tinson Pen Dub) are the top few of this 15 track set.  The recorded material is from the late seventies ('76-'79) and has the solid backing of the Soul Syndicate. 

Ten to One : Dillinger

This is a 2 Disc set with the second disc being the straight dub crossover of disc one. I'm reallly hooked on the dub set on disc 2 rather than the original vocal chant performance of Manchester, England's own Dillinger. This seems to be some sort of value pack offering from "Classic Reggae" by Secret Records in 2007. This set is produced by Niney the Observer and you can tell, the production work on the dub tracks is excellent. There are 14 tracks on each disc, I tend to favor the dub CD and my favorites on that one are: #5 (My Dub Leads the Way), #9 (Dub Jamboree), #13 (Foreign Dub), and #11 (Hurry Dub) which is a pretty tough "Stir It Up" version. The Bass is a clean and heavy as lead. This is great for the ride or the sound system. A lot of familiar beats including the stir it up version. Credits indicate this material was recorded at Channel One, Tuf Gun, and Joe Gibbs and engineered by the legendary Scientist & Errol Thompson. All tracks are backed by the Soul Syndicate band featuring Sly & Robbbie. Although I mainly talk about the dub set, some of the disc 1 vocal have killer lyrics. The best of CD 1 tracks are #2 (My Address) and # 5 (My Sound a Boom). You should be able to score this disc on the used internet market for less than $10 USD.

Triston Palma Show Case in a Roots Radics Drum and Bass

This is the most impressive works I've encountered from Triston Palmer and I'm more than happy to give a quick review. This disc has 12 Tracks total - Alternating original vocal and then the dub track to follow. It was recorded and mixed at both Channel One and King Tubby's. Produced by Jah Thomas and engineered by King Tubby, Scientist, Professor, and Barnabas. Just a ton legendary talent on the production side of this disc. My favorites on this disc are #3 (Give me a chance) & dub ; the other is #9 (Time so Hard) & dub. These are both crucial sets of roots reggae with outstanding not overshadowing dub mixes. This disc was released by the Abraham label out of Ontario, Canada - but I'm not sure what year. This disc went in my permanent listening rotation soon after I heard it for the first time and I highly recommend at least checking it out.

Up Tempo Collection Vol. 1 : The Posse

This CD features 22 tracks from various outstanding reggae artists such as: Don Carlos, Michael Palmer, Sugar Minott, and several others. Sugar Minott is also listed as an executive producer along with Steve King on this 2006 release. The Uptempo label is new to me, but Steve King started it in the early eighties. At that time he was a producer with Black Roots, working with talents such as Jah Shaka and Bim Sherman. The sound quality and track selection on this compilation are excellent - many thanks to JFC music label w/ Method Recordings. New beats and some fresh rhythms make this disc a rare musical and lyrical treat. My favorite tracks are #1 (I and I Time - Trevor Junior) and #2 (Too Much Sufferation - Anthony Johnson). These are two seriously crucial tracks and I hope to find more quality roots from other Uptempo compilations and upcoming re-issues. Thanks to Ernie B's on-line reggae store for pointing me in the right direction on this one.