Black Uhuru's Love & Aswad's New Chapter of...DUB!!!
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...I've said that the Wailers bassist Aston "Familyman" Barrett with his brother Carlton on the traps are the reigning drum-and-bass team, but I failed to mention that if caught in a clutch you can't go wrong with Black Uhuru's rhythm section, Sly Dunbar (drums) and Robbie Shakespeare (bass) or "Sly and Robbie" as they are known in the world of Roots Reggae-- let me remedy that little omission with a proper post based on what took place last week when I uncovered two of my favorite Dub reggae LP's, Black Uhuru's Love Dub and Aswad's New Chapter of Dub (in that order because one reminded me of the other)....
...Love Dub features Sly and Robbie thowing down on tracks for Black Uhuru tunes sans vox, the whole set is worth buying but if you want to jump to the prime cuts skip to "Out of the Sixteen Dub" and "Sorry for the Dub" which touch on everything that makes a great dub cut what it is: there's tasteful reverbs, driving rim-shots and big bottom bass lines that bunny-hop right up in your face while the organist's right hand bubbles the hell out of the low-end side of the keyboard...other bright moments on Love Dub include "African Dub" (taken from BU's "African Love") and "Willow Weep Dub" if you snag these four cuts alone, you're good to go but, again, the whole set kind of grows on you, especially if you bought the vinyl first like yours truly..too, if you can vibe on Love Dub, then you're more than ready to move on to Sly & Robbies work on the Positive Dub and Dub Factor albums...
...on the same day that I copped the first vinyl copy of Love Dub I found Aswad's A New Chapter of Dub which is the best album the British Reggae Rockers ever released. Produced by Michael "Mikey Dread" Campbell, A New Chapter features "the dread at the controls" (utilizing effects that he'd employ on his dub meister template African Anthem and also Dubwise)...this is another great coast to coast listen for dyed-in-the-wool dubheads like myself but whenever I introduce this album to the uninitiated I start with these cuts and in this order "Flikaflame" , "Bammie Blow" (rockin' sax licks, son), "Tuffist", "Shining Dub" (spacy-wacy verb fading), "Zion I" (fly fluting, yo) and "Natural Aggression" afterwards, I circle back and replay the whole album so that everything can be absorbed in context...amazingly both of these albums are on iTunes if you want to check the tracks mentioned above but I highly recommend listening to them in the biggest speakers that you can find..side note: when these albums first dropped in the states, reggae was still a coastal thing and a grip of people here hadn't even heard of it yet...Luckily Bill Cosby, of all people, had a hit show which helped pump tunes out to where the buses don't run...one particular episode, specifically comes to mind, it features a teenage Lisa Bonet just before she let Mr. Romeo Blue (now Lenny Kravitz) get his hands in the cookie jar and although some of it's God-awful to look at now, when it first aired, reggae was still considered "too-edgy-for- TV"...whatever's clever...segments like the one below helped introduce reggae music to a grip of people who wouldn't know the Sons of Negus from Shinola...and the cut was the Black Uhuru jam "Sponji Reggae"...
...Love Dub features Sly and Robbie thowing down on tracks for Black Uhuru tunes sans vox, the whole set is worth buying but if you want to jump to the prime cuts skip to "Out of the Sixteen Dub" and "Sorry for the Dub" which touch on everything that makes a great dub cut what it is: there's tasteful reverbs, driving rim-shots and big bottom bass lines that bunny-hop right up in your face while the organist's right hand bubbles the hell out of the low-end side of the keyboard...other bright moments on Love Dub include "African Dub" (taken from BU's "African Love") and "Willow Weep Dub" if you snag these four cuts alone, you're good to go but, again, the whole set kind of grows on you, especially if you bought the vinyl first like yours truly..too, if you can vibe on Love Dub, then you're more than ready to move on to Sly & Robbies work on the Positive Dub and Dub Factor albums......on the same day that I copped the first vinyl copy of Love Dub I found Aswad's A New Chapter of Dub which is the best album the British Reggae Rockers ever released. Produced by Michael "Mikey Dread" Campbell, A New Chapter features "the dread at the controls" (utilizing effects that he'd employ on his dub meister template African Anthem and also Dubwise)...this is another great coast to coast listen for dyed-in-the-wool dubheads like myself but whenever I introduce this album to the uninitiated I start with these cuts and in this order "Flikaflame" , "Bammie Blow" (rockin' sax licks, son), "Tuffist", "Shining Dub" (spacy-wacy verb fading), "Zion I" (fly fluting, yo) and "Natural Aggression" afterwards, I circle back and replay the whole album so that everything can be absorbed in context...amazingly both of these albums are on iTunes if you want to check the tracks mentioned above but I highly recommend listening to them in the biggest speakers that you can find..side note: when these albums first dropped in the states, reggae was still a coastal thing and a grip of people here hadn't even heard of it yet...Luckily Bill Cosby, of all people, had a hit show which helped pump tunes out to where the buses don't run...one particular episode, specifically comes to mind, it features a teenage Lisa Bonet just before she let Mr. Romeo Blue (now Lenny Kravitz) get his hands in the cookie jar and although some of it's God-awful to look at now, when it first aired, reggae was still considered "too-edgy-for- TV"...whatever's clever...segments like the one below helped introduce reggae music to a grip of people who wouldn't know the Sons of Negus from Shinola...and the cut was the Black Uhuru jam "Sponji Reggae"...
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