Vp Records
1977
African Dub Chapter 1
About This Album
The VP label's 17 North Parade imprint is devoted to reissues of classic roots reggae from the 1970s, which is generally regarded as the music's classical period. And of all the many reggae subgenres that have emerged since that time, none has been more influential or garnered more universal respect than dub -- a producer's art form that involves the drastic remixing of preexisting reggae tracks. Producer Joe Gibbs took the credit for the four discs released in the mid-'70s under the title African Dub All-Mighty, but the musicians were in reality a shifting aggregation of members of the Soul Syndicate, We the People, and Revolutionaries bands, and the man actually working the mixing board was famed sound engineer Errol Thompson. On this first installment in the four-volume series, the dub mixes are actually quite tame -- they're unfailingly pleasant, but there are none of the challenging sonic gestures that characterized the work of colleagues like King Tubby and (especially) Lee "Scratch" Perry during the same period. But as mood music, Chapter 1 is a fine listening experience -- note in particular "Campus Rock" (a dub version of Dennis Brown's "Let Me Live") and "Treasure Dub," which is a version of the Jamaicans' rocksteady classic "Ba Ba Boom." Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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