RhoDeo 1137 Roots

Hello, we're still on that island with a huge place in the global music catalogue, 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's artists are known as Da Riddem Twins or sometimes jokingly credited as "Robbie Bassspeare" and "Sly Drumbar." Being a rhythm section they've grown to great heights considering where they came from. One could say they are on a mission, considering the relentless way they've been involved in making and producing music these past 40 years. As a rhythm section dub music came naturally and here today are a few samples of their work in flac and an ogg

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Drummer Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar (getting his nick Sly from listening to Sly Stone) and bassplayer Robert Shakespeare meet in the mid seventies. Dunbar already had quite a reputation as a drummer. He had played on several Jamaican hit records, a.o. Double Barrel by organist Ansell Collins. His rhythmic innovations to reggae drumming were becoming a trade mark for Channel One when he got acquainted with Aston 'familyman' Barrett's youthful protege bassplayer Robbie Shakespeare. Shakespeare had already done a good deal of studio work, like 'Stir it up' from Bob Marley and some stuff with the Aggrovators. When they heard each other playing, it didn't take very long for them to decide to form a rhythmic drum-'n-bass partnership, and Sly & Robbie was a fact.

Their first major project was providing backing for the late singer/songwriter Peter Tosh in his backing band Word Sound and Power. In this period they scored their first major worldwide nr 1 hitsingle with Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger: (Keep on walking) Don't Look Back. They recorded five albums with Peter Tosh: Equal Rights, Legalize it, Bush Docor, Mystic Man and Wanted Dread and Alive. While on a world tour with Peter, they lived on bread and water to save money to be able to start their own record label: TAXI Productions.
When they returned from touring, they indeed raised the TAXI label. They joined the band Black Uhuru and from there things really started. Black Uhuru, consisting of singers Ducky Simpson, Puma Jones and lead singer Michael Rose (now known as Mykall Rose) and Sly & Robbie on drum and bass turned out to become the most progressive sounding reggaeband of that time. In this line up 6 albums were released: Showcase, Sinsemilla, Red, Chill Out, The Dub Factor, and Anthem, each album being a large step forward towards innovating reggae music. After Anthem, Michael Rose left the group and was replaced by Junior Reid and two more albums were produced Brutal and Positive.

Far from restricting themselves to the Jamaican scene, (in which they have played for virtually every prominent Jamaican musical artist, they have became one of pop music's most sought after rhythm sections.
An artist with whom they were recording was Grace Jones. Sly & Robbie played on three albums. Everybody knows songs like 'I've seen that face before (libertango)' and 'Pull up to the Bumper'. The work with Grace Jones was the start of a heap international artists wanting Sly & Robbie to produce and/or provide the drum 'n bass backing for their songs and albums. Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Ian Dury, Herbie Hancock, Maxi Priest, Cindy Lauper, Barry Reynolds, Carly Simon... In reggae they backed and produced a talented new singer, Ini Kamoze, who's first album was a massive hit among the reggae audience.

They changed the face of Reggae several times: in 1976, they introduced a harder beat called "Rockers", which quickly replaced the then prevalent "One drop" style, then introduced the "rub a dub" sound in the early 1980s. Sly and Robbie were important in developing the trend towards computer assisted music and programming in the mid 1980s. Presented here, Language Barrier is an onslaught of aural alarms and craziness. Yet, holding it down like a rock are the inimitable Sly and Robbie. This is a great record. Very urban, self assured insanity, in a weird way. An album that has Bob Dylan on it, not to mention BIll Laswell, Wally Badarou, Herbie Hancock, et. al. . Daring stuff and i guess thats why they are still out there doing there thing.

Around 1990 a new turn in reggae music came up: raggamuffin or ragga. The drum computer became an important ingredient and started to replace live drumming on studio recordings. The Rhythm Twins released 'The Summit'in 1988, which is a record that contains eight instrumental tracks. Hard to define whether it's live drums or a drum computer (it is live drums), and this album can be seen as the last one on which Sly & Robbie play their instruments. From now on, Sly focuses on drum programming and production (Robbie still plays the bass), and again they produce a gigantic world wide hit: Murder she Wrote by Chaka Demus and Pliers.

They continued to innovate during the 1990s and early 2000s, fusing Dancehall and Latin music sounds (La Trenggae) or Dancehall and hip hop/R&B (their 2004 Big Up riddim). In 1999, their "Strip to the Bone" album paired them with electro producer Howie B, and together they explored new dub territories.

In 2006, they recorded with their original group, the Revolutionaries, to produce Horace Andy's new album "Livin' it up" and produced several hits for Cherine Anderson.In 2009, Movin' On, the new album by Bitty McLean, which they produced with Bitty and their longtime friend and associate Guillaume Bougard, came out and was immediately acclaimed as the best Reggae album of the year. They toured Japan, Morocco (Mawazine festival) and Europe with Bitty to showcase the album

Sly and Robbie may well be the most prolific recording artists ever. One estimate is that they have played on or produced some 200,000 songs, considering that some of their riddims such as "Revolution" have been used on over 100 songs. After almost 40 years together, they still tour and record relentlessly.


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'Disco Dub' is a rare LP by the great Jamaican riddim duo ,t doesn't play long, a mere 24 minutes, but it packs a punch. The LP only appeared on Jamaican pressings. Notable for the psychedelic lead guitar stylings of Carl 'Douggie' Bryan featuring a very rare use of the 'E-bow'. Musical highlights include the first track 'Sidewalk Doctor' a trippy re-working of the Jackie Mittoo classic, and 'Depth Charge', a recut to the 'No, No, No' rhythm. Short but sweet.

Sly and Robbie – Disco Dub (flac 126mb)

01 Side Walk Doctor (6:12)
02 War Of The Gods (4:45)
03 Depth Charge (4:50)
04 Mickey Mouse (3:42)
05 Battle Of The Titans (4:12)

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The so-called "Rhythm Twins" have had a hand in constructing over 200,000 sides and counting since they began playing together, an astounding number that is made even more amazing by the sheer high quality and steadiness of the duo's playing. Sly & Robbie lock in place like few rhythm sections before or since, but they also have shown a solid flair for studio production as well These dozen tracks drawn from sessions held between 1978 and 1985 is of course just an eyelash's length sample of the duo's output, but it illustrates perfectly their professional and frequently brilliant exactness and ends up being a pretty darn good dub album for good measure. In spite of being drawn from various sessions and sources, it sounds like a seamless and ever changing dub suite. Bright, clear and wonderfully ever-changing and definitely late-night trippy, these dubs may not be crucial, as the title states, but they sure as hell feel and sound pretty cool.

Sly and Robbie – This Is Crucial Reggae (flac 235mb)

01 Soon Forward Dub 2:59
02 Rock Me In Dub 3:22
03 Marijuana 2:43
04 Slave Driver Dub 3:04
05 Thompson In Dub 3:33
06 Rasta Man Chant 4:06
07 Revolution Dub 3:51
08 Roots Dub 3:20
09 Herb 3:29
10 Going Downtown Dub 2:58
11 Channel One In Dub 3:42
12 Stepping Out A Space 3:42

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Spacy dubs on this 81 sampler, Raiders Of The Lost Dub, this meanwhile rare vinyl available here in it's losslessly digitized format. The title looks like a bit of a non sense but study the song titles, and an Indiana Jones fan should recognize scenes from the movies. Compiled by Paul "Groucho" Smykle and Trevor Wyatt, largely produced by Sly & Robbie (tracks: 03, 06-10).

Various – Raiders Of The Lost Dub ( 81 flac 206mb)

01 The Paragons – Indiana Jones 3:19
02 Ijahman – Whip That Tarantula 3:47
03 Black Uhuru – The Monkey Is A Spy 3:30
04 Burning Spear – Pit Of Snakes 3:52
05 Wailing Souls – Well Of Souls 2:51
06 The Viceroys – The Dub Of Gold 3:46
07 Black Uhuru – Who's In The Tomb 3:35
08 Black Uhuru – Convoy Hijack 4:16
09 Junior Delgado – Bazooka Blast 4:20
10 Black Uhuru – Fire And Brimstone 3:40


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