Search - Sly & Robbie, Mad Professor :: Dub Revolutionaries: Sly & Robbie Meet the Mad Professor

A Summit of Dub Reggae's Visionaries

Gavin B. | St. Louis MO | 02/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sly and Robbie, the riddim twins of reggae have done sessions with the Mad Professor in earlier years, but none are as close to perfect as this CD, "Dub Revolutionaries." Until the mid 1990s, Mad Professor was evolving into a cutting edge electronic sound similar to the style of scores of the newer reggae dub masters. With the debut of the "Black Liberation" series Mad Professor abandoned a lot of the high tech gimmickry and revisited his roots with a retro-sounding organic mixes of his pre-dancehall days in the late Seventies and early Eighties. He has developed a signature sound that is every bit as distinctive and as enduring as his guru, Lee "Scatch" Perry.



Sly and Robbie were once the young Turks who revolutionized reggae with their explosive one drop, bottom heavy drum and bass sound. They were pioneers of the second generation of dub reggae and their masterful Taxi productions attracted scores of roots reggae musicians to record with them. If roots reggae music has a cornerstone of development, it's Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare's riddims. There isn't a single great reggae singer that hasn't recorded with Sly and Robbie and their versatility extends the demand for their talents as both R&B and rock and roll session players. Even Bob Dylan has done an album with Sly and Robbie.



"Dub Revolutionaries" feels like going home to the early Eighties when Sly and Robbie were laying down the riddims to the steady stream of chartbusters by folks like Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and the sublime debut by the talented youth man, Ini Kamoze. It was the golden era of reggae before slackness,gangstas, sleng teng and the ubiquitous synthesized sound of the Casio midi took over reggae music. "Dub Revolutionaries" is the real sound of Jamaica and it's encouraging to see more and more artists returning to roots reggae. Hopefully reggae's new retro movement will depose the current crop of lightweight boasters who are simply pretenders to the throne.



The newest digital technology allows Mad Professor to add even more clarity and definition to his sound and his mix of every track on this album is a killer. "Dub Revolutionaries" was far and away my favorite dub album of 2004 and even the casual fan will this summit of dub reggae visionaries to be a revelation.

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The Rhythm Kings still Tuff!

TShaka Mayanja | Uganda | 06/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was at the 2003 Sly & Robbie Live concert featuring Mykal Rose. Awesome is all I can say. I did have a chat with Sly & Robbie backstage, nice gentlemen.
At the concert, Mad Professor who produced this album told me they'd spent all night laying these tracks. Apparently, 30 were recorded!! This is how Reggae should always sound.
Get this album. The LATEST live Sly & Robbie Reggae album after such a long time."

DUB essential

Yohanes Fikre-Selassie | 09/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Because I'm a very late comer to the DUB scene, the first Mad Professor I remember hearing was the 1989 "Mad Professor Meets Puls Der Zeit at Checkpoint Charlie" tape from ROIR. It rocked my rootsy world.



But "Dub Revolutionaries: Sly and Robbie Meet the Mad Professor" is much, much better. This is some brilliant DUB. It has a "cleaner," lighter, more synthesized sound than King Tubby's dubs, which won't be everyone's favorite sound, but I think all DUB lovers will appreciate its range. A surprisingly upbeat album.



An essential for any DUB or reggae collection."