Quick apologies for the long in-between posts. I will reciprocate with musical love to the internet massive. One thing, there’s no such thing as ‘Dubday’. Although it’d be nice won’t it? People walking around humming and throwing a few licks into the air with their portable samplers and guitars. Instead of using verbal conversations, people would communicate with echoed out horns, piano licks, and Augustus Pablo-stylee melodica riffs. How awesome would that be?

So today is sunday (October 25th_10/25, 2009), and later this afternoon from 2pm to 7pm at 1836 East 4th St in Long Beach, Dj Fraze and I will be hosting our generic-named event called Reggae Sundays at The Pike. Generic only in name, but not in sound, which is the opposite if I may add. We think it’s important to keep it generic in that sense, because there’s so many different genres within reggae itself, that we can’t keep it tied down with a specific language. But I did title today’s blog post-promo with “Dubday”, because we’ve created a Top-5 selection podcast of classic reggae-dub music. Without further delay, (sorry I’m a bit chatty), here are some essential tunes from the producers in popular reggae-dub: (click for more track information)

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   Scientist - The Death of Mr. Spock [3:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (59)
  
  

   

   Augustus Pablo - Pablo in Dub [2:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (33)
  
  

   

   King Tubby - Real Gone Crazy [3:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (30)
  
  

   

   Burning Babylon - Roots Heavy [4:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (30)
  
  

   

   The Upsetters w/ Lee Perry - Groovy Dub [3:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (32)
  

1. Scientist - track: The Death of Mr. Spock
   » Scientist is the essential starting point for some hip-hop producers (ie. Madlib), as well as electronica, (particularly in Drum & Bass, Jungle, and now the fully-fledged Dubstep). Scientist injects those samples using tape-based loops and echoes. He was a pioneer in that regard, and set the foundation for truly pyschedelic-type, dub sessionists like The Roots Radics. I don’t know how the musical structure relates to the actual Mr. Spock but I loved the naming convention on the ‘Jammy Strikes Back’ album, referring to all things space-related. Ooh, spacey. Kevin Spacey should have a dub album, and it should be called…”The Usual Suspects, in Dub.” “The Spacey Dub Sessions,” would’ve been too obvious.
   
2. Augustus Pablo - track: Pablo in Dub
   » Riffed / echoed / delayed / tripped-out MELODICAS. ‘Nuff said.
3. King Tubby - track: Real Gone Crazy
   » Some producers in Jamaica used to show off their tunes in sound competitions called ‘Sound Clashes’. From hear-say, King Tubby ruled the land with his massive sound installations. He wasn’t named ‘King’ for no reason. He tweaked his bass cabinets so that the rumbles would be heard from miles away. Right now, the event here in Los Angeles called ‘Low End Theory’ would be sort-of a sound-system ‘king’, IMO. Their system could shatter one’s ear buds and prospective pregnancies if they didn’t watch out what was happening.
4. Burning Babylon - track: Roots Heavy
   » Burning Babylon is the contemporary version of vintage dub (heavily influenced by Scientist), and what country consistently respects its musical origins without commercial saturation? The U.K. MUCH RESPECT. U.K. reggae has been vital in implanting the principles into their own modern music: from two-tone ska, new wave, jungle, drum & bass, and dubstep, along with many other English-based musical forms. This tune is heavily tripped out in echoes and electric-piano melodies, so one might need ‘assistance’ in moving it along before it settles along your mind-state. And by ‘assistance’, I mean, with a piano, guitar, and/or the sound of your own voice.
5. The Upsetters (w/ Lee Perry) - bonus track: Groovy Dub
   » And what dubbed-out blog entry would be without the famous Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry? He led The Upsetters, the session band that was responsible for backing the early days of Bob Marley. As a producer, Lee Perry created himself a very prolific career in reggae music. Even through the early days of ska, rocksteady, dub, and roots, Lee Perry has hammered it all. He’s like the J.Dilla of reggae, with so many tunes under different artists, its almost hard to keep up where he has been. His Return of Django album (1969) under the Trojan label has to be the essential starting point of getting to know this wonderful, but weird eccentric man.
   

photo source: Reggae Scrapbook

- CLO