top ten albums - no. 3

Dear Sheddists,

our third visit to the record racks takes us to the much sunnier climes of Jamaica.

I was vaguely aware of Jamaican music as a child through early ska hits on the UK Trojan label - the likes of  'Liquidator' by the Harry J Allstars, 'Double Barrel' by Dave and Ansell Collins and 'Al Capone' by Prince Buster - but it was John Peel's fabulous Top Gear Show on Radio 1 that really turned me on to it.

Reggae, like most other established musical forms, is fragmented into a bewildering myriad of sub-genres from rock-steady to ragga. It was, however, dub that really caught my attention.  

I had never heard anything remotely like it before - the hissing hi-hat cymbals, pounding bass, smoky echoed vocals and fractured piano runs that emerged from nowhere only to disappear the very next moment.  I simply had to explore this further.

At first my dub play-list was put together through the medium of a make-shift home-studio. This comprised an Akai twin tape-deck, an FM radio and pillows for sound baffles. It proved surprisingly successful, and two or three times a night I would leap up to press the 'record' button as the latest white label from Jamaica hit the Top Gear airwaves.

I found myself in need of harder stuff and the very first dub album I managed to track down in a local record store was 'Dubbing With the Observer' by the Observer All Stars. Based largely on rhythms showcased by Dennis Brown it's a classic in its own right.

Notwithstanding the strong claims of this album to a place in my top ten I've chosen instead 'King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown' by Augustus Pablo, a masterpiece in the art of dub.  His trademark melodica blows delicate and haunting Far Eastern scales across the entirety of the record.

I have an original Jamaican pressing of this record on the Yard Music label, complete with details on the back cover of the distribution centre at 15 Tangerine Place, Kingston from which it was sold.  Needless to say, it takes pride of place in my vinyl collection.

Here's the title track - don't forget to turn it up loud!