Coda
Electronica, Remix Culture & Jamaica
Jamaica as a Source of Transformative Strategies in Global Popular Music
The long tail — On-U Sound, Ariwa, Wackies, jungle, trip-hop, Basic Channel and the remix culture that took dub’s method worldwide.
71 records on this page
Songs & tracks
Every song the chapter names, in the order the text names them, each with the sentence that introduces it, set as printed.
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001
Build
Innocence
“At six o’clock one night last month, in a midtown Manhattan recording studio that adjoins a seedy topless club, Frankie Knuckles erased everything except the vocals and string section from ‘Build,’ a ballad by the British pop group Innocence.
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002
Wonderful World
Jimmy Cliff
The success of infectious dance songs such as Jimmy Cliff’s “Wonderful World” and Millicent Small’s “My Boy Lollipop” (both 1964), and Desmond Dekker’s “007” (1967) proved that Jamaican music could exist as a viable and potentially profitable genre in England.
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003
My Boy Lollipop
Millicent (Millie) Small
The success of infectious dance songs such as Jimmy Cliff’s “Wonderful World” and Millicent Small’s “My Boy Lollipop” (both 1964), and Desmond Dekker’s “007” (1967) proved that Jamaican music could exist as a viable and potentially profitable genre in England.
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004
007
Desmond Dekker
The success of infectious dance songs such as Jimmy Cliff’s “Wonderful World” and Millicent Small’s “My Boy Lollipop” (both 1964), and Desmond Dekker’s “007” (1967) proved that Jamaican music could exist as a viable and potentially profitable genre in England.
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005
Complete Control
The Clash (Lee Perry prod.)
Selected examples of this musical dialogue would include the projects cited above, such as the Clash’s 1977 song “Complete Control,” produced by Lee Perry.
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006
Police and Thieves
Junior Murvin
The Clash subsequently covered Junior Murvin’s Perry–produced “Police & Thieves” in a manner that blended reggae and punk styles more obviously; the group later collaborated with Jamaican DJ/producer Mikey “Dread” Campbell, who contributed a dub-influenced production style (as well as some deejaying) to portions of their 1981 LP Sandinista.
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007
Born For A Purpose
Dr. Alimantado
It was around that time … that he went on the radio and played Dr. Alimantado’s ‘Born For A Purpose.’ Alimantado was immediately shot to cult status as a result!”
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008
Five Nights of Bleeding
Linton Kwesi Johnson
The truth is, however, despite the graphic depictions in Johnson’s lyrics (“Five Nights of Bleeding,” “Song of Blood,” “Sonny’s Lettah, “Di Great Insoreckshun”), one of the music’s prime attractions was the tone of his voice, the seeming matter-of-factness of which is belied by a melodious tone and cadence.
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009
Song of Blood
Linton Kwesi Johnson
The truth is, however, despite the graphic depictions in Johnson’s lyrics (“Five Nights of Bleeding,” “Song of Blood,” “Sonny’s Lettah, “Di Great Insoreckshun”), one of the music’s prime attractions was the tone of his voice, the seeming matter-of-factness of which is belied by a melodious tone and cadence.
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010
Sonny’s Lettah
Linton Kwesi Johnson
The truth is, however, despite the graphic depictions in Johnson’s lyrics (“Five Nights of Bleeding,” “Song of Blood,” “Sonny’s Lettah, “Di Great Insoreckshun”), one of the music’s prime attractions was the tone of his voice, the seeming matter-of-factness of which is belied by a melodious tone and cadence.
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011
Di Great Insoreckshun
Linton Kwesi Johnson
The truth is, however, despite the graphic depictions in Johnson’s lyrics (“Five Nights of Bleeding,” “Song of Blood,” “Sonny’s Lettah, “Di Great Insoreckshun”), one of the music’s prime attractions was the tone of his voice, the seeming matter-of-factness of which is belied by a melodious tone and cadence.
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012
Bare Hedd One
Intelligent Jungalist
A good example of this fusion that refers directly back to Jamaica is Intelligent Jungalist’s “Barehedd One,” a 1995 jungle track built from a sample of the Techniques All-Stars canonical “Stalag 17” riddim.
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013
Stalag 17
Techniques All Stars
riddimA good example of this fusion that refers directly back to Jamaica is Intelligent Jungalist’s “Barehedd One,” a 1995 jungle track built from a sample of the Techniques All-Stars canonical “Stalag 17” riddim.
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014
Rings Around Saturn
Photek
Others artists such as Photek and L. T. J. Bukem would interpret this trait in more futurist or Afro-futurist terms in works such as “Rings Around Saturn” and “Earth.”
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015
Earth
L.T.J. Bukem
Others artists such as Photek and L. T. J. Bukem would interpret this trait in more futurist or Afro-futurist terms in works such as “Rings Around Saturn” and “Earth.” Writer Simon Reynolds described jungle’s frantic, techno-derived drum patterns as “the metabolic pulse of a body reprogrammed and rewired to cope with an era of unimaginably intense information overload.”
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016
Hidden Camera
Photek
All resolves into what he termed the music’s “bunker” imagery of alienation, surveillance, and paranoia, conveyed in song titles such as Photek’s “Hidden Camera” as well as in the profusion of dialogue excerpted from radio and walkie-talkie transmissions, television crime show dialogue, and 1970s blaxploitation cinema.
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017
Rockit
Herbie Hancock
Born in 1950, Laswell has been active on the experimental fringes of various American genres since the late 1970s. His major commercial breakthrough came in 1983 when he produced keyboardist Herbie Hancock’s electro-jazz-funk hit “Rockit,” and he has occasionally worked with other mainstream popular artists such as Mick Jagger, Whitney Houston, and Sting.
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018
Ethiopia
Bill Laswell
Rasta-derived titles such as “Ethiopia” and “Shashimani” [sic] reflect how dub, with its own partial roots in the mystical aspects of Rastafari, has factored into Laswell’s embrace of exotic musics and provided a suitably mystical aura to his studio experiments.
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019
Shashimani
Bill Laswell
Rasta-derived titles such as “Ethiopia” and “Shashimani” [sic] reflect how dub, with its own partial roots in the mystical aspects of Rastafari, has factored into Laswell’s embrace of exotic musics and provided a suitably mystical aura to his studio experiments.
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020
Dancehall Malfunction
Sub Dub
The importance of Jamaican music in brokering this fusion is made explicit in song/CD titles, and other references drawn directly from Jamaica’s music and culture such as Riddim Warfare, “Dancehall Malfunction,” “Soon Forward,” “Chinatown Dub,” the pairing of his Optometry CD with a “version” set titled Dubtometry.
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021
Soon Forward
DJ Spooky
The importance of Jamaican music in brokering this fusion is made explicit in song/CD titles, and other references drawn directly from Jamaica’s music and culture such as Riddim Warfare, “Dancehall Malfunction,” “Soon Forward,” “Chinatown Dub,” the pairing of his Optometry CD with a “version” set titled Dubtometry.
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022
Chinatown Dub
We
The importance of Jamaican music in brokering this fusion is made explicit in song/CD titles, and other references drawn directly from Jamaica’s music and culture such as Riddim Warfare, “Dancehall Malfunction,” “Soon Forward,” “Chinatown Dub,” the pairing of his Optometry CD with a “version” set titled Dubtometry.
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023
Woman’s Dub
Lee “Scratch” Perry
For “Woman’s Dub,” the distorted snares drum like needlepoint magick, but rusted, ferric.
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024
Kojak
Lee “Scratch” Perry
“Kojak” is an intoxicated mix, an echo chamber of moans in which space staggers and lurches dangerously….
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Albums, compilations & series
Albums, compilations and series, again in the order the chapter names them.
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025
Sandinista
The Clash
… the group later collaborated with Jamaican DJ/producer Mikey “Dread” Campbell, who contributed a dub-influenced production style (as well as some deejaying) to portions of their 1981 LP Sandinista. The post-punk group A. R. Kane’s music was an influential mixture of punk-derived guitar textures with an ambient dub influence.
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026
Second Edition
Public Image Ltd.
A similar case is ex–Sex Pistols vocalist Johnny (Rotten) Lydon and his group Public Image, Ltd., who carved out a bleak, alien soundscape by blending dub’s stark spaciness with punk-derived dissonance and minimalism on their influential 1981 recording Second Edition (a key element here was the thick-fingered dub-meets-punk approach of bassist Jah Wobble).
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027
Time Boom X De Devil Dead
Lee “Scratch” Perry & Adrian Sherwood
The core of his Jamaica-inspired work has been built around collaborative associations with musicians such as Lee Perry (with whom he produced the albums Time Boom X De Devil Dead [1987] and From The Secret Laboratory [1990]) and vocalist Bim Sherman, DJ Prince Far-I (who featured on a substantial amount of Sherwood’s early work until his death in 1983), saxophonist “Deadly” Headley Bennett, and former Roots Radics drummer Lincoln “Style” Scott.
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028
From The Secret Laboratory
Lee “Scratch” Perry & Adrian Sherwood
The core of his Jamaica-inspired work has been built around collaborative associations with musicians such as Lee Perry (with whom he produced the albums Time Boom X De Devil Dead [1987] and From The Secret Laboratory [1990]) and vocalist Bim Sherman, DJ Prince Far-I (who featured on a substantial amount of Sherwood’s early work until his death in 1983), saxophonist “Deadly” Headley Bennett, and former Roots Radics drummer Lincoln “Style” Scott.
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029
The Grassroots of Dub
Winston Edwards
Sherwood recounted his early sources of inspiration: “lots of versions and DJ things, but the first identifiable albums were The Grassroots of Dub, produced by Winston Edwards, and also King Tubbys Surrounded by the Dreads at the National Arena—Winston Edwards again.
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030
King Tubby Surrounded by the Dreads at the National Arena
Winston Edwards
Sherwood recounted his early sources of inspiration: “lots of versions and DJ things, but the first identifiable albums were The Grassroots of Dub, produced by Winston Edwards, and also King Tubbys Surrounded by the Dreads at the National Arena—Winston Edwards again.
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031
King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown
Augustus Pablo
I think King Tubbys Meets the Rockers Uptown was the first proper album.
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032
Ital Dub
Augustus Pablo
Then there’s also Ital Dub by Augustus Pablo.
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033
On-U Sound Box
Various Artists (Adrian Sherwood)
Good introductions to Sherwood’s reggae-inspired work would include the three-disc various artists compilation On-U Sound Box and the two-volume Historic Moments set by Creation Rebel.
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034
Historic Moments
Creation Rebel
Good introductions to Sherwood’s reggae-inspired work would include the three-disc various artists compilation On-U Sound Box and the two-volume Historic Moments set by Creation Rebel.
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035
Roast Fish, Collie Weed and Cornbread
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Also notable are Sherwood’s two collaborations with Lee Perry (From The Secret Laboratory and Time Boom X De Devil Dead), which fuse the thematic approach of Perry’s late Black Ark solo albums (such as Roast Fish, Collie Weed and Cornbread, and The Return of Pipecock Jackson) with updated Jamaican rhythms and Sherwood’s eclectic approach to production.
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036
The Return of Pipecock Jackson
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Also notable are Sherwood’s two collaborations with Lee Perry (From The Secret Laboratory and Time Boom X De Devil Dead), which fuse the thematic approach of Perry’s late Black Ark solo albums (such as Roast Fish, Collie Weed and Cornbread, and The Return of Pipecock Jackson) with updated Jamaican rhythms and Sherwood’s eclectic approach to production.
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037
East of the River Nile
Augustus Pablo
I was listening to East of the River Nile, African Dub Chapter Three, various Tubby’s things … and Prince Buster, The Message Dubwise.
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038
African Dub
Joe Gibbs & Errol Thompson
(Chapter Three)I was listening to East of the River Nile, African Dub Chapter Three, various Tubby’s things … and Prince Buster, The Message Dubwise.
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039
The Message Dubwise
Prince Buster
I was listening to East of the River Nile, African Dub Chapter Three, various Tubby’s things … and Prince Buster, The Message Dubwise. That’s the first dub album I ever bought, and I couldn’t believe it.
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040
Dub Me Crazy
Mad Professor
The best-known dub recordings released under his own name are the multivolume series Dub Me Crazy (which commenced in the early 1980s) and Black Liberation Dub (which commenced in the mid-1990s).
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041
Black Liberation Dub
Mad Professor
The best-known dub recordings released under his own name are the multivolume series Dub Me Crazy (which commenced in the early 1980s) and Black Liberation Dub (which commenced in the mid-1990s).
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042
Mystic Warrior
Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mad Professor
In recent years, Fraser has also been Lee Perry’s most consistent post–Black Ark collaborator, producing a string of vocal and dub albums (such as Mystic Warrior [1990] and Black Ark Experryments [1995]), which feature Perry’s free-associative “word salad” vocalizing over modernized reggae beats.
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043
Black Ark Experryments
Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mad Professor
In recent years, Fraser has also been Lee Perry’s most consistent post–Black Ark collaborator, producing a string of vocal and dub albums (such as Mystic Warrior [1990] and Black Ark Experryments [1995]), which feature Perry’s free-associative “word salad” vocalizing over modernized reggae beats.
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044
Protection
Massive Attack
His remix of Massive Attack’s 1994 Protection album (titled No Protection and released the same year), in fact, is often cited as a seminal moment in the development of what became known as trip-hop (more below).
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045
No Protection
Mad Professor / Massive Attack
His remix of Massive Attack’s 1994 Protection album (titled No Protection and released the same year), in fact, is often cited as a seminal moment in the development of what became known as trip-hop (more below).
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046
Dread Beat & Blood
Linton Kwesi Johnson
We went into the studio and by the end of the weekend we’d finished Dread Beat & Blood, and from there on we’ve been working together every since.”
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047
Forces of Victory
Linton Kwesi Johnson
This collaboration yielded several canonical British reggae albums released under Johnson’s name including Forces of Victory (Island, 1979), Bass Culture (Island, 1980), Tings and Times (LKJ, 1991), and two Bovell-mixed volumes of LKJ in Dub (Mango, 1980s).
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048
Bass Culture
Linton Kwesi Johnson
This collaboration yielded several canonical British reggae albums released under Johnson’s name including Forces of Victory (Island, 1979), Bass Culture (Island, 1980), Tings and Times (LKJ, 1991), and two Bovell-mixed volumes of LKJ in Dub (Mango, 1980s).
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049
Tings and Times
Linton Kwesi Johnson
This collaboration yielded several canonical British reggae albums released under Johnson’s name including Forces of Victory (Island, 1979), Bass Culture (Island, 1980), Tings and Times (LKJ, 1991), and two Bovell-mixed volumes of LKJ in Dub (Mango, 1980s).
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050
LKJ in Dub
Linton Kwesi Johnson (Dennis Bovell mix)
This collaboration yielded several canonical British reggae albums released under Johnson’s name including Forces of Victory (Island, 1979), Bass Culture (Island, 1980), Tings and Times (LKJ, 1991), and two Bovell-mixed volumes of LKJ in Dub (Mango, 1980s).
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051
Dub Conference
Dennis Bovell
The sound of Bovell’s work suggests that there is a direct link between his lover’s rock productions and his early dub work, the latter of which is best represented on collections such as Dub Conference (1978), I-Wah Dub (1980), and the retrospective 2003 compilation Decibel.
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052
I-Wah Dub
Dennis Bovell (as Blackbeard)
The sound of Bovell’s work suggests that there is a direct link between his lover’s rock productions and his early dub work, the latter of which is best represented on collections such as Dub Conference (1978), I-Wah Dub (1980), and the retrospective 2003 compilation Decibel.
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053
Decibel
Dennis Bovell
The sound of Bovell’s work suggests that there is a direct link between his lover’s rock productions and his early dub work, the latter of which is best represented on collections such as Dub Conference (1978), I-Wah Dub (1980), and the retrospective 2003 compilation Decibel. Bovell explained to Jeb Loy Nichols that lover’s rock arose “as an answer to all that hardcore man chanting business.
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054
Black Secret Technology
A Guy Called Gerald
Similar to the role that drummers such as Carlton Barrett and Sly Dunbar played in roots reggae, the aura of jungle rests in its foregrounding of (digital) drumming as a central structural and symbolic component: jungle pioneer A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson), whose influential 1995 album is titled Black Secret Technology, relies on the metaphor of the African talking drum to describe the drum-heavy sound he crafts for his music, as well as the imagistic blend of roots and technoscience.
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055
Rhythm and Sound
Rhythm and Sound (Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald)
This connection can be heard in the work of dozens of artists, but is most pronounced in the work produced by the duo of Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald(known by their recording name Rhythm and Sound) and of Stefan Betke (known by his recording name, Pole).
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056
Bubble Up
Wayne Jarrett
There’s one [CD] out with Jarrett called Bubble Up, and the other, I think is Dance Hall Style.
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057
Dance Hall Style
Horace Andy
There’s one [CD] out with Jarrett called Bubble Up, and the other, I think is Dance Hall Style. Those were really influential for me.”
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058
Macro Dub Infection
Various Artists
A good general introduction to the dub influence on these musical genres is the two-volume compilation Macro Dub Infection, the title of which plays on Barrow’s “virus” characterization.
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059
Jamaica Super Dub Session
Wackies
Working with engineers Douglas Levy and Junior Delahaye, the Wackies’ outfit released several dub albums during the 1980s (Jamaica Super Dub Session, Tribesman Assault, Creation Dub and the multivolume African Roots), while most of his single releases were backed by dub mixes or mixed dubwise from the start.
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060
Tribesman Assault
Wackies
Working with engineers Douglas Levy and Junior Delahaye, the Wackies’ outfit released several dub albums during the 1980s (Jamaica Super Dub Session, Tribesman Assault, Creation Dub and the multivolume African Roots), while most of his single releases were backed by dub mixes or mixed dubwise from the start.
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061
Creation Dub
Wackies
Working with engineers Douglas Levy and Junior Delahaye, the Wackies’ outfit released several dub albums during the 1980s (Jamaica Super Dub Session, Tribesman Assault, Creation Dub and the multivolume African Roots), while most of his single releases were backed by dub mixes or mixed dubwise from the start.
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062
African Roots
Wackies (Lloyd “Bullwackies” Barnes)
Working with engineers Douglas Levy and Junior Delahaye, the Wackies’ outfit released several dub albums during the 1980s (Jamaica Super Dub Session, Tribesman Assault, Creation Dub and the multivolume African Roots), while most of his single releases were backed by dub mixes or mixed dubwise from the start.
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063
Dreams of Freedom
Bill Laswell / Bob Marley and the Wailers
Many, however, would consider Laswell’s most significant contribution to dub to be his collection of “ambient dub” remixes of several Island-era Bob Marley and the Wailers tracks on the 1997 Dreams of Freedom compilation.
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064
It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Public Enemy
Hip-hop (at least since Public Enemy’s 1988 album It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back) has typically relied upon the rhythmic hocketing of sound samples to create a hypermasculinized, sonic space.
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065
Williams Mix
John Cage
This process, relying heavily on digital sampling, seems at least partially inspired by musique concrète and other late modernist tape works, such as those by Cage (for example, Williams Mix) or Stockhausen (for example, Hymnen).
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066
Hymnen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
This process, relying heavily on digital sampling, seems at least partially inspired by musique concrète and other late modernist tape works, such as those by Cage (for example, Williams Mix) or Stockhausen (for example, Hymnen). A number of Miller’s musical works are, like the works of his musique concrète forebears, built from found sounds (expanded to include dance music sources) to produce pure soundscape works, such as his 1995 Necropolis project in which he remixes the work of several of New York’s underground ambient experimentalists by reaching into what he calls the “datacloud” of “viral sonic spores and chronotopes.”
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067
Necropolis
DJ Spooky
Being for the most part derived from decelerated hip-hip and neo-dub, the beats in Necropolis are fairly simplistic and not nearly so engaging as the pure sound aspects of the piece.
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068
Riddim Warfare
DJ Spooky
The importance of Jamaican music in brokering this fusion is made explicit in song/CD titles, and other references drawn directly from Jamaica’s music and culture such as Riddim Warfare, “Dancehall Malfunction,” “Soon Forward,” “Chinatown Dub,” the pairing of his Optometry CD with a “version” set titled Dubtometry.
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069
Optometry
DJ Spooky
The importance of Jamaican music in brokering this fusion is made explicit in song/CD titles, and other references drawn directly from Jamaica’s music and culture such as Riddim Warfare, “Dancehall Malfunction,” “Soon Forward,” “Chinatown Dub,” the pairing of his Optometry CD with a “version” set titled Dubtometry.
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070
Dubtometry
DJ Spooky
The importance of Jamaican music in brokering this fusion is made explicit in song/CD titles, and other references drawn directly from Jamaica’s music and culture such as Riddim Warfare, “Dancehall Malfunction,” “Soon Forward,” “Chinatown Dub,” the pairing of his Optometry CD with a “version” set titled Dubtometry. Miller is also a prolific writer and composer for whom musical composition and written theorizing are apparently complementary pursuits.
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071
Revolution Dub
Lee “Scratch” Perry
In the following passage, he discusses Lee Perry’s use of excerpted television dialogue on the Revolution Dub LP:
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