RhoDeo 1149 Roots

Hello, we're still on that island with a huge place in the global music catalog, Jamaica. A production hothouse and they say the Weed makes you slow and lazy-go figure. Without the ganja driven reggae music Jamaica would have remained a Caribbean backwater and dare i say would never have given us Bolt, the fastest man in the world.

Today in the spotlight one of the most influential and prolific producers in reggae history, Bunny "Striker" Lee pioneered the art of the dub -- expanding the parameters of studio technology like no Jamaican producer before him, he and his engineer, the equally legendary King Tubby, maximized the creative possibilities of each and every rhythm to generate a seemingly endless series of mixes spread across literally thousands of recordings.

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Edward O'Sullivan Lee was born in Jamaica on August 23, 1941; he entered the music industry in 1962 via his brother-in-law, the great reggae singer Derrick Morgan, landing a job as a record plugger for Duke Reid's famed Treasure Isle label. By the mid-'60s, Lee was working with Ken Lack's Caltone imprint, producing his first record, Lloyd Jackson & the Groovers' "Listen to the Beat," in 1967. His first significant hit, Roy Shirley's "Music Field," followed later that year on WIRL, and upon founding his own label, he reeled off a series of well-received sides including Morgan's "Hold You Jack," Slim Smith's "My Conversation," and Pat Kelly's "Little Boy Blue, , establishing him as one of Jamaica's top producers.[1] Between 1969 and 1972 he produced classic hits including Slim Smith's "Everybody Needs Love", Delroy Wilson's "Better Must Come", Eric Donaldson's "Cherry Oh Baby", and John Holt's "Stick By Me".

Meanwhile Lee was a pioneer of the United Kingdom reggae market, licensing his productions to the Palmer Brothers (Pama) and Trojan Records in the early 1970s. Lee was instrumental in producing early dub music, working with his friend and dub pioneer King Tubby in the early 1970s. Lee and Tubby were experimenting with new production techniques, which they called "Implements of sound." Working with equipment that today would be considered primitive and limiting, they produced tracks that consisted of mostly the rhythm parts mixed with distorted or altered versions of a song.

By 1971 he was working side by side with engineer King Tubby, who almost singlehandedly invented dub by taking existing master tapes and -- after cutting out vocals, bringing up the basslines, and adding and subtracting other instruments -- creating new rhythm tracks for sound system DJs to voice over. Later adding delays, fades, and phasing to his sonic arsenal, Tubby was already renowned throughout the Jamaican music industry by the time he began collaborating with Lee, but together, the duo produced the finest music of their respective careers -- unlike most of his producer peers, Lee recorded his celebrated studio band the Aggrovators with Tubby's remixing skills firmly in mind, crafting deep, dense rhythms strong enough to survive even the most strenuous studio reworking, and together they unleashed some of the most enduring dub versions ever cut. At the peak of his career -- essentially the period from 1969 to 1977 -- Lee produced thousands of records, forging a labyrinthine discography of vocal sides, DJ records, and dub versions, each disc seemingly spun off from another.

Among Lee's most influential projects was a 1974 collaboration with singer Johnny Clarke which yielded a series of roots reggae classics including "None Shall Escape the Judgement" and "Move Out of Babylon"; that same year, he also helmed Owen Grey's smash "Bongo Natty," while the 1975 Cornel Campbell hit "The Gorgon" launched a number of like-minded "Gorgon rock" records. At one time or another, Lee also worked with everyone from Jackie Edwards to Alton Ellis to Ken Boothe, and for all of his experimental instincts, he also possessed a commercial flair equal to any of his contemporaries. By the early '80s, however, Tubby was running his own studio and producing his own records, and although they continued to collaborate on occasion, both the quality and quantity of Lee's recordings began to slide; he later purchased producer Joe Gibbs' former Kingston-area studio, making a few half-hearted attempts at working with digital technology but otherwise easing into retirement as the years passed, his place in reggae history assured.


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Bunny Lee - King Of Dub (flac 174mb)

01 King Zion Dub 4:09
02 Super Star Dub 3:14
03 Graceful Dub 3:14
04 Rubba Dunza (Clock Tower Mix) 3:06
05 Jah Angel Of Dub (Clock Tower Mix) 3:05
06 Blood, Sweat & Dunza Dub 3:09
07 King, Queen & Minstreal Dub 3:33
08 Easy Dread & Check This Dub 2:49
09 Fancy Up A Dub 3:42
10 Stalac 80 Dubwise 3:13


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Here comes a record of genuine rarities never compiled on album before all were mixed at King Tubby’s. From the opening “Dub Gospel” to the closing “One And Only Dub” even seasoned dubheads will find themselves listening to music they never knew existed. The cornerstone of the album consists of dub versions of 4 little-known Derrick Morgan tracks, “Teach My Daughter”, “Rasta Nah Fear”, “Under Heavy Manners” and “Pick Sense Out Of Nonsense”, plus his duet with Johnny Clarke on “Behold”. Livening up the mix are dubs to a brace of Ronnie Davis tunes (“Good News” and “That’s Life”) along with versions of “Oh Jah Forgive Me” and “One And Only Lover” from Cornell Campbell (who also plays bass on “Under Heavy Manners”). The set is rounded out with versions of tracks by Jackie Edwards, Johnny Clarke, John Holt and Joy White. Whilst the album concentrates heavily on the 1975 ‘flying cymbal’ style of Carlton ‘Santa’ Davis there is also one track from 1974 (“Golden Rule Dub”) plus a handful from the years 1976 to 1978, the highlight of which must be the instrumental workout “Going Home Dub” featuring blistering solos from Tommy McCook and Vin Gordon.

Bunny Lee And The Agrovators - Dub Will Change Your Mind (flac 252mb)

01 Dub Gospel 3:07
02 Golden Rule Dub 2:43
03 Dub Teacher 3:18
04 Idling Dub 2:31
05 Fearless Dub 2:48
06 Forgive Me Dub 3:33
07 Going Home Dub 3:41
08 Under Heavy Dub 3:31
09 Sensible Version 3:13
10 Behold Version 3:37
11 Lifetime Dub 2:53
12 Festival Of Dub 2:57
13 Dub Is Everything 3:13
14 One And Only Dub 3:09

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When Lloyd A. Chin Loy opened up Aquarius Record Store in 1969 in Half Way Tree, Kingston, he brought on his half brother Herman Chin-Loy who ran the record store end of the business. Herman Chin-Loy then dabbled in producing. His earliest productions were quirky, innovative instrumentals, using musicians such as Lloyd Charmers and The Hippy Boys on tracks such as "African Zulu", "Shang I", "Reggae In The Fields", "Invasion", and "Inner Space". He was the first producer to use the Now Generation band and the first to record Horace Swaby, whose recordings, like those of other keyboard players who recorded for Chin Loy, were released under the name Augustus Pablo, the success of Swaby's releases causing the name to stick.

In the early 1970s, Chin Loy also produced Dennis Brown, Alton Ellis, and Bruce Ruffin, whose "Rain" reached #19 in the UK singles chart. Chin Loy was responsible for one of the first dub albums, Aquarius Dub, released in 1973, and mixed at Dynamic studio by Chin Loy himself (along with Prince Buster's "The Message", Clive Chin's "Java Java Java Java", Joe Gibbs' "Dub Serial" and Lee "Scratch" Perry' "Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle") he changed the Jamaican musical history radically. That sound was called Dub! A follow up, Aquarius Dub part 2 was released the following year.

Lloyd A. Chin Loy hired a Welshman, Mr. Rosser in the 1970s to build the first 24-track recording studio in Jamaica and probably the Caribbean. Herman Chin-Loy returned to reggae productions in 1979, scoring several hits in the early dancehall style with artists such as Little Roy, and Ernest Wilson

Herman Chin Loy – Aquarius Dub (flac 131mb)

01 Jah Rock (2:45)
02 Rumbo Malt (2:53)
03 I Man (2:47)
04 Oily (2:53)
05 Rest You Self (3:00)
06 Jumping Jack (2:29)
07 Heavy Duty (3:00)
08 Jah Jah Dub (2:34)
09 Nyah Time (2:53)
10 Jungle Rock (2:56)

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