💾 Archived View for sdf.org › stug › phlog › 2021 › 20210515.txt captured on 2022-07-16 at 18:56:50.
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15 May 2021 After a relaxing morning of darjeeling and sumo, I am pacing. I am waiting for the time when I have to leave for a bus to the odd place which is Coventry. It is a friend's stag do which will be a civilised affair. We are meeting at a tap room attached to a beer shop and stuck outside with current covid regs. Coats are in order it seems. I hate the waiting part. I know I have a long bus ride (40 minutes) and so cannot start a little early as I know I will need to pee and hopping off to pee and wait for the next bus is not an option. This is a good old rural bus affair which goes once an hour and there are no convinient McDonalds or other fast food places which act as public toilets these days. To counter the nervous pacing, I have been listening to reggae. Good old reggae. It is always a pleasure to listen to and often changes moods. I tend to enjoy 60s/70s reggae the most with a love of dub. The excitement of this new musical form and experimentation oozes out of the speakers. Reggae came about from Jamaican musicians doing covers of music heard on US radio stations when RF propagation was kind. This became ska and then reggae. There was a culture of the soundsystem with feats of electronic engineering to get the deepest bass and best tunes for people to dance to. Over time, we see the music becoming part of the culture. The rastafari start spreading their message through roots reggae, producers show off their skills through dub versions and so many more niches appear. For those who have only experienced reggae through Bob Marley, please go explore. Bob Marley's music is important as he shared the messages of roots reggae and remains a key gateway for people to experience reggae. I started with the Legend album in my parent's CD collection. At a key point, I discovered Mark Lamarr's Beginners Guide to Reggae radio programme which was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in the 00s. It truely is a wonderful programme of which I have a few recordings. It was mostly about playing good music with the odd explanation of the dreadies and baldies (Rastafari and non-Rastafari). This along with reading the odd music magazine lead me to discover Lee 'Scratch' Perry, a key producer within reggae music. He did odd and wonderful things while working with great artists such as Junior Murvin, Max Romeo, The Congos, Augustus Pablo and so many more. Another key producer is King Tubby. This pair are dub for me. Records were released with the A side being the original song and the B side being an elongated dub edit. Beats were key, sound effects added and the mind was left blown. Dub edits can be a lot of fun. Some of my best moods have involved dub, strong Belgian beer and a setting sun. I found reggae in the 80s went a bit like the rest of 80s music and involved too much synth or not enough synth. A hard balance to find. Then the likes of Sean Paul appear and we get a rap attack sort of thing. It is not for me although I do not dislike it. Thankfully, I have found some people who still want to play with analogue effects, singing where I can distinguish the words for and still have a particular charm which I struggle to describe. Prince Fatty, so named as he aspires to be the successor to King Tubby, is one such artist. He is a producer who has done some stirling work with great artists. Hollie Cook is another who is pushing the art form while being marvellous. They have worked together and produced a couple of great albums. Anyhow, enough waffling. Do yourself a favour and go listen to these: Max Romeo - War In a Babylon Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves Althea and Donna - Uptown Skankin (a wonderfully silly song) Marcia Atkin - I'm Still In Love With You Boy Linval Thompson - Fussing & Fighting Lee 'Scratch' Perry & The Upsetters - Jungle Lion King Tubby, Augustus Pablo - Keep on Dubbing King Tubby - Take 5 (yes, dub jazz!) Please explore. Another advantage of reggae is compilation albums are so easy to come about. Go have fun and get rid of that nervous energy! Still another hour until the bus...