Brilliant collection of Rub-a-Dub – which was the phase that took Deejaying from a sound system novelty to the brink of Dancehall going international. This was just before the electronic riddims started catching on, so the riddims are basic, very dubby, great for the (EXTREMELY LOUD) dancehall setting, and – basically yummy as f*ck! Of the toasters here, only Yellowman remained a major star, but almost all of these guys were huge back in the early 80’s (quite a few of them came here with a complete real Jamaican Sound System – it was INSANE!) If there’s one good reason to love the French, it’s for putting together this terrific comp!
No FCCs, but caveats on tracks 1, 5, 15. IMO, this is all killer no filler, but I like 4, 5, 9, 12 and 16 best.
1. 3:43 **downtempo dubby skank, vocals with lots of echo, classic nice-up-de-dance style. Caveat – it’s spelled “posse” but it sure sounds like “pussy”…
2. 3:08 ***slow dubby skank, nice bassy riddim, inscrutable but fun toast.
3. 2:50 ***downtempo skank (sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom), hoarse toast, upful lyrics.
4. 2:34 ****longish intro, then cool downtempo Augustus Pablo dub, echo-laden toast. Extra star for extra cool dub.
5. 4:50 ****electronic game sounds over cool dub, two voices, one of them a little kid. All about gunmen. Wild stuff! Caveat: The kid says “dirty nigger” a couple of times… Some insane dub in the last minute or so. Whew!
6. 3:30 **sort of a lopsided skank, classic early dancehall toast with lots of nonsense syllables.
7. 2:46 ***cool downtempo dub skank, partially sung vocals, sweet.
8. 3:20 **spoken intro, bits of bass sneak in before the main piano-based riddim. Pretty seriously crazy lyrics.
9. 3:27 ****howling and crazy spoken intro, then midtempo piano riddim. Sweet bits of original singing, two toasters sometimes in unison. Very early Yellowman track.
10. 3:19 **emotional tribute to Walter Rodney. Bonus: you have to love a lyric like “Me vex, because dem kill Malcolm X”…
11. 3:09 ***dub skank, new version of Dem Bones, including the hitherto unknown “toenail bone”.
12. 3:05 ****dub and echo everywhere, completely crazed toast, with a shoutout to other toasters.
13. 4:17 ***midtempo syncopated skank with some of the original singing, religious toast (including instructions about how to dress when crossing River Jordan.)
14. 3:25 **countdown intro, then slow skank with extra percussion,
15. 3:24 ***extremely slow and fairly psychedelic dub, gruff and incomprehensible toast. Yay! Caveat: little bit of highly suggestive chat.
16. 3:13 ****very dubby skank with groovy bass and keyboard line, fun toast.
17. 3:58 ***cool riddim, upful toast – it’s all good!