Search - Dubmasters :: X-Ray Music

All the Heavyweights

joker | Northern California | 04/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm hardly an expert on Reggae or Dub music in particular, but for the last 3 years or so I've been gradually expanding my knowledge of the genre. I only came across this recently and decided to pick it up because I needed something cheap to get super saver shipping. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I definitely got more than my money's worth.



This is an *excellent* introduction to the major dub producers of the 70's. There's enough of a snapshot presented by the tracks here that you can start to get a sense of the different styles that each producer brings to their dub composition.



The disc leans heavily on King Tubby and his apprentices (Scientist & Jammy), which makes a certain kind of sense considering Tubby is effectively the greatest pioneer of the form. Lee Perry is also an obvious inclusion. The real treat is the more obscure producers--Clive Chin isn't a name that gets circulated like others, but he was arguably the third of the three major roots reggae producers--he "discovered" Augustus Pablo (who is curiously absent from this collection), among many other notable achievements.



One of the great things about this collection is that I only had two of the tracks--Noah Sugar Pan off of the Heart of the Congos deluxe cd and Dub There from Horace Andy's In the Light Dub. My reggae collection is however heavily skewed towards Lee Perry, so I don't know how the track listing holds up against someone who has a lot of Tubby's compilations.



This is revolutionary music that has left a lasting influence not only on the music of Jamaica, but music all across the world. All in all, this is probably the best single disc compilation of Dub that is available. I'd highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the popular music of Jamaica. Also a great primer to those who want to go deeper into Dub specifically and don't know where to start. The liner notes are almost non-existent, but there is at least a listing of the albums each track comes from."