RhoDeo 1303 Roots

Hello, since the mid eighties, UK was established as the new center of dub production, with originators Mad Professor and Jah Shaka, paving the way for a all new open minded generation of producers, DJs, soundsystems and studios, followers of steppers approach, and willing to preserve and pass on dis tradition. Embodying in the sound a whole new kind of digital and electronic musical variations, like drum n bass, jungle, techno, dubstep…they keep on to perpetuate and recreate the diversity and originality within the style till present days.

A disciple of Lee "Scratch" Perry, Mad Professor was one of the leading producers in dub reggae's second generation. His Dub Me Crazy albums helped dub make the transition into the digital age, when electronic productions started to take over mainstream reggae in the '80s. His space-age tracks not only made use of new digital technology, but often expanded dub's sonic blueprint, adding more elements and layers of sound than his forebears typically did.  .... N'joy

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Mad Professor was born Neal Fraser (or Neil Fraser) circa 1955 in Guyana, a small country in the northern part of South America. He earned his nickname as a preteen, thanks to his intense interest in electronics; he even built his own radio. At age 13, his family moved to London, and around age 20, he started collecting recording equipment: reel-to-reel tape decks, echo and reverb effects, and the like. In 1979, he built his own mixing board and opened a four-track studio in his living room in the south London area of Thornton Heath. Calling it Ariwa, after a Nigerian word for sound or communication, he began recording bands and vocalists for his own label of the same name, mostly in the lovers rock vein: Deborahe Glasgow, Aquizim, Sergeant Pepper, Tony Benjamin, Davina Stone, and Ranking Ann, among others. Amid complaints from his neighbors, he moved the studio to a proper facility in Peckham, South London. In 1982 he recorded his first album, Dub Me Crazy, Pt. 1, and quickly followed it with a second volume, the successful Beyond the Realms of Dub. 1983 brought two more volumes, The African Connection (acclaimed) and the fairly popular Escape to the Asylum of Dub.
The Ariwa studio was moved to a better neighborhood in West Norwood during the mid-'80s, and upgraded for 24-track capability, making it the largest black-owned studio in the U.K. From there, Mad Professor really started to make an impact on the British reggae scene. He produced major hit singles for Ariwa mainstay Pato Banton and Sandra Cross, and also helmed the breakthrough album for conscious reggae toaster Macka B, 1986's Sign of the Times. At the same time, the ragga era was dawning, and all-digital productions began to take over reggae. As the ragga sound grew more and more dominant, Mad Professor's brand of dub got spacier and weirder; while ragga detractors complained that Mad Professor's work sounded sterile compared to the dub of old, many praised his otherworldly effects and inventive arrangements. The Dub Me Crazy albums reached the height of their experimentalism during the latter part of the '80s, although by the early '90s they were showing signs of creative burnout. The 12th and final volume in the series, Dub Maniacs on the Rampage, was released in 1993.

Meanwhile, Ariwa continued to prosper as a label, with further hits by the likes of Macka B, Pato Banton, Sandra Cross, female singer Kofi, Intense, Jah Shaka, John McLean, the Robotics, Sister Audrey, Peter Culture, Johnny Clark, and others. Additionally, he began to collaborate with some of reggae's better-known figures; most crucially, he teamed up with main influence Lee "Scratch" Perry for the first time on the 1989 set Mystic Warrior. In 1991, he produced the first of several albums for the groundbreaking veteran DJ U-Roy, the acclaimed True Born African; he also went on to work with the likes of Yabby You and Bob Andy. He switched his focus to touring in 1992 and released the 100th album on Ariwa not long after.

With his high-profile collaborators, Mad Professor started to make a name for himself outside of the reggae community, and soon found himself in demand as a remixer for rock, R&B, and electronica acts. Over the course of the '90s and into the new millennium, he would remix tracks by Sade, the Orb, the KLF, the Beastie Boys, Jamiroquai, Rancid, Depeche Mode, and Perry Farrell, among others. His best-known project, however -- and the one that truly established his credentials -- was 1995's No Protection, a completely reimagined version of trip-hop collective Massive Attack's second album, Protection. Perhaps creatively refreshed, Mad Professor's own albums started to regain their consistency in the mid-'90s.

Mixing electronics with rootsier, more organic sounds indebted to the earliest days of dub, he left behind the Dub Me Crazy moniker to launch a new series, the subtly Afrocentric Black Liberation Dub. The first volume was released in 1994, and others followed steadily into the new millennium, albeit at a less prolific pace than the Dub Me Crazy installments. More collaborations with Perry and U-Roy followed as well. In 2005, Mad Professor celebrated Ariwa's 25th anniversary with a tour of the U.K. alongside Perry and the double-CD retrospective Method to the Madness. In 2009 he released several albums, Times Hard under the moniker Mad Professor vs. Joint Chiefs and the back to basics Audio Illusion of Dub as well as Revolution Feat. Pato Banton And Mr. Professor, Nairobi Meets Mad Professor – Wu Wei, and in 2010 Izrael Meets Mad Professor and Joe Ariwa and in 2012 The Roots of Dubstep. Neal "Mad Professor" Fraser has been a prolific producer, contributing to or producing nearly 200 albums.

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Digital dub straight out of the Ariwa studios in Peckham. Pato Banton works some lyrical magic over the Professor's super tight digital dub workouts. This collaboration with Jamaican singer Pato Banton is typically mind-expanding, with more pop intent and extending vocal tracks.

Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton (flac  234mb)

01 Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton 6:00
02 Gwarn! (Go On) 7:42
03 Nuff Kind Of Dread 7:13
04 King Step 7:24
05 Give Me Oil 4:17
06 My Opinion 5:41

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Mad Professor was contacted by Massive Attack after "Protection" was released to remix a song for a single. After the single was remixed, the band asked Mad Professor to listen to more of the album to explore the possibility of further remixes. The project then became a track by track remix of almost the entire album. Mad Professor heavily edited the original material to form a slow, pulsating mix in which the beat is emphasized, reverb is extensively used and the occasional vocals (many of the tracks are almost entirely instrumental) fade in-and-out in typical dub fashion, making a hypnotic, if slightly repetitive, mix. The result is arguably more textured than the original as Mad Professor returned the group to their experimental, cut-and-paste dub reggae and hip-hop roots. He has made Protection into a more daring and fulfilling album with his remixes.

Mad Professor vs Massive Attack - No Protection (flac  319mb)

01 Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection) 8:35
02 Bumper Ball Dub (Karmacoma) 5:59
03 Trinity Dub (Three) 4:22
04 Cool Monsoon (Weather Storm) 7:10
05 Eternal Feedback (Sly) 6:26
06 Moving Dub (Better Things) 5:57
07 I Spy (Spying Glass) 5:07
08 Backward Sucking (Heat Miser) 6:16

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Legendary dub producer Mad Professor has made consistency his calling card, and in a year in which he released a half-dozen albums, New Decade of Dub stand out from the competition. On his second collaboration with fellow British dub master Jah Shaka, the tripped-out psychedelic sounds are a bit more stripped-down than usual, with the spotlight primarily resting on the percussion talents of Drumtan Ward. Frequent sideman Black Steel contributes his typically tasteful guitar work to the proceedings, and Louis Farrakhan is even sampled to great effect. It's a bit more restrained than most of Mad Professor's more experimental work with the inimitable Lee "Scratch" Perry, but a fine excursion into dub's deep roots nonetheless.

Mad Professor n Jah Shaka - New Decade Of Dub (flac 276mb)

01 Ecological Dub 4:16
02 Natural Roots 3:23
03 One Million Man Dub 3:51
04 Wig Wam 4:21
05 Chanting Down The Wicked 4:17
06 New Decade Dub 4:01
07 Gautrey Road Style 4:23
08 Roots Jamboree 3:33
09 Zulu Hut 3:51
10 Morphing Dub 4:23
11 Only One God 4:01

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