As promised, this proper 26-minute Sugar Minott tribute mix also includes original productions and riddims of Sly & Robbie, to re-connect the infamous drum & bass duo who also played at The Hollywood Bowl last weekend. As Sugar Minott who worked with the two, he was also a prolific producer, conducting musical force with Black Roots / Youth Man Promotions and many other outfits.

Check out that Buy Off The Bar album cover. Buying it off with Red Stripes. Ha! You know what I’m talking about!

Tracklist:

1. “Ghetto-ology” Lincoln “Sugar” Minott. Trojan LP 1979
2. “Hard Time Pressure” Black Roots LP
3. “Super Star” Ranking Dread - Lots Of Loving  LP - Jah Life  (”SUGAR”  Produced & Arranged).
4. “Black Roots” Black Roots LP
5. “Sufferer’s Choice” Black Roots LP Youth Man Promotions 1983
6. “Dancehall Stylee” Best Of Sugar LP VP Records
7. “Unite” Sweeter Than Sugar LP Sonic Sound Records
8. “Love Up Love Up” Show Down Vo.2 LP Channel 1 Records 1983
9. “The Youth Dem Gettin Bad” Sufferers Choice LP Youth Man Promotions 1983

So speaking of imminent death, there was in no way we were going to dismiss a legend in the reggae community. Sadly here in Los Angeles, a great musician by the name of Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott, died at a tender age of 54, Sunday July 10, 2010. His voice and the productions behind him launched a thousand dancehalls, along with a spectacular skill to write original lyrics, he was a triple-threatening creative force even under the dim times between 1979 and 1984. It makes sense that certain economic conditions can influence a musical movement especially when the early ’80s was financially-crap, world economics still suffered. Its effects trickled down to deejays in the J.A. to use more of the same records using versions and b-sides, and in combination of picking up the mic more often resulted in deejays dominating live situations (hello hip-hop). Yadda-yadda, dancehall was born. I’ll also spare a biography since he has been written up over and over again, even to a point where critics are disputing certain facts minutes after his passing. On top of being a musical innovator through deejaying, toasting, and putting a new genre on the musical map, he sang sweet and powerful lyrics (hence the name, “Sugar”) and launched several labels with productions under him that brought forth OTHER brilliant artists. We’ll just have to drop names to keep this short: AFRICAN BROTHERS, YOUTH PROMOTION, BLACK ROOTS, JAH STITCH, JUNIOR REID, RANKING JOE, RANKING DREAD is one of many musical rocks that set their own weight. And to cap it off, I chose my own personal top-5 Sugar tunes, some of them being:

1. Jam In The Street - Using the Under Me Sleng Teng riddim, proved to stray away from roots and right into positive vibes inna dancehall style. A classic in its own right.

2. Rub A Dub Style - Powered by Sly & Robbie, the intro already says uniqueness, (and the ’80s) with its delayed synth guitars and subtle use of synth leads. The “Rubbadub” sound is best heard really loud with the windows down, but not loud enough to bother that nice lady in the next lane.

3. Good Thing Going - This man can travel from dancehall, into roots, and even Lover’s Rock without actually going INTO a Lover’s Rock staple. Luckily, this cover of Michael Jackson’s 1972 b-side hit of “Got To Be There”, made it his own.

4. Keep On Loving You - I don’t know why I picked this as my top 5 Sugar Minott track, but I think its a theme many of us face. “Break up to make up, thats all we do”. Dark content to match with a dark, chilly bassline.

5. Love Gonna Pack Up - A Persuader’s original. Love packs up because it brings a light suitcase.

Side-note: this is only MY top 5. Fraze will put on a proper tribute mix inna bit. Rest in power, Big Sugar.

Cover image: Corio

- CLO

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)

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

We will point you to the OTHER Pike, the one that tries to live the spirit of the ORIGINAL Pike, by reminding each and every one of us that PBR is good, Sailor Jerry tattoos are awesome, and vintage SKA is good for sundays. Philip P. aka Selector Fraze, will be on the decks from 2pm-7pm today, so join us with some skanking goodness. If you’re around the north O.C. and Southbay areas, come around, chug a pound, and make love to tunes that are neat & dandy, sweet as candy.


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Download the tunes below to get a feel of what the vibe is like.

More info on the artists in this podcast: Desmond Dekker, Toots & The Maytals, The Specials, The English Beat

Mash up di town!

We’re doing this tonite.

CARBON @ 9300 Venice Blvd.
Culver City / West Los Angeles, CA
10p-1:30a. Free all night, TGP in the back.

Ride and glide.

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Let’s do the hump. Wednesday. Tonite. Its on.

Classic hip-hop, bass-huggin roots, dub, a bit of funk and soul, but overall, a cool, loungey-mellow vibe. Have a drink or two, and ride with us after. How about that?

“You can’t love them all”, says our man Dean Martin.

I’ve been wanting to do this not-so-heavy tribute for Mr. Isaacs “The Cool Ruler”, because he was not able to show up at the Hollywood Bowl’s annual Reggae Night festival this year due to sickness. Sometimes we have to recognize how hard it is to work as a musician, but even worse as a reggae musician, that they don’t necessarily get the same financial benefits as the American kind, know what I mean? That being said, Gregory Isaacs had been around for a LONG time, and to see him perform at this age has to be commendable, at least. In honor of the people who wanted to see and hear him play at the Bowl, I’ve compiled some B-sides of his to fill in that “missing gap”. If you’re a fan, I’m sure you already have his greatest hits, so why bother to post the tried-and-true? This is the man who practically created the ‘Lover’s Rock’ genre, and some of you love birds wouldn’t have been able to whisper sweet nothings to each other without his tunes playing in the background. The transition he’s gone through over the years has been amazing, literally not having skipped a beat…until now. Hence, the tribute. Cheers.

You can find some of these tunes on Mr. Isaacs’ 1998 compilation release, “Sinner Man” on Recall Records.

- CLO

Oi! Oi! Oi! We’re at the peak of the summer, and the heat rises everyday. Speaking of scorchers, if you’ve got an itch for boss tunes and early rocksteady fever, Fraze from our beloved Best Kept is spinning a set-load of fire-starters at the infamous Fais Do-Do in Mid-West LA. Joining him is our friends from Trojan Lounge, Bigger Boss (from Pama Int’l), Lady Busty Brown, and Soulsides/Trojan Lounge resident, the footballer Marv Mack (j/k, the guy is huge though).

Come on through, because the couches are soft, the drinks are cheap, there’s a cool & DARK patio in the back for extracurricular activities *hint-hint*. Besides, theres a nice collection of new and old Vespas that hang out front, making sure to induce drooling and double-takes on your checking account.

Check Fusicology and www.faisdodo.com for the event calendar.