In preparation for his Night Dreamer session, legendary reggae engineer Scientist rewired the Amsterdam studio’s mixing desk. Setting the board’s filters and EQ to his own specifications. He described the arrangement of analogue gear as a flashback to his time with the pioneering producer King Tubby, back in Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1970s. The new music he’s fashioned is like a beefed-up modern take on the sides that he mixed in the early `80s at Joseph and Ernest Hookim’s Channel One. Hits Scientist created with the house band, Roots Radics, that topped the island’s charts and helped shape what became Dancehall.

To assist in this task he’s enlisted a team of top UK players. On guitar is “Crucial” Tony Phillips, a founding member of the band Creation Rebel. A group that also featured Roots Radics drummer, Lincoln Valentine “Style” Scott. Phillips is an unsung pillar of British reggae. When Creation Rebel went on lengthy hiatus in 1983, he established a his own label, Ruff Cut (one of their latest vinyl releases was a re-lick of Fred Locks classic Love & Only Love), and recruited a new live touring crew. As a performer he’s probably supported every superstar – from Gregory Isaacs to Buju Banton – who’s ever flown in from JA. On drums and bass are brothers Dave “Fluxy” and Leroy “Mafia” Heywood, respectively. Starting out in The Instigators, in the late `70s, like Phillips, the siblings backed countless visiting reggae artists, and in the process evolved into an in-demand rhythm section and hugely prolific and successful producers. Gregg Assing, who since the late `80s has worked closely with Jah Shaka and The Twinkle Brothers, provides keys. All of the album tracks are led by the horns, supplied by saxophonist Finn Peters and trombonist Salvoandrea Lucifora. Peters’ eclectic credits include hip hop, house, jazz, and a short stint with Spiritualized. Lucifora is the leader of The Netherlands’ Zebra Street Band. Each of the 6 pieces is presented as an extended “discomix”. There are 4 songs and 2 cool and deadly, mellow instrumentals.

Vocals come care of veteran singer Donovan Kingjay. Recording since the early `90s, here he revisits a few of his favourite tunes, all of which date from around a decade ago. Missing You is a smooth, slick love song, further sweetened by the presence of Alyssa Harrigan and Peace Oluwatobi, who back Kingjay throughout the album. Be Thankful, originally produced by Conscious Sounds’ Dougie Wardrop, is righteous Rastafarian song of praise, where Scientist’s effects mirror the lyrics’ imagery of thunder, lightning, and retribution. Jailhouse is concerned with the business of crime and particularly  punishment. A criticism of the increasingly poor prison conditions that in turn increase the profits and dividends of those who run and own these overcrowded institutions. With “a whiff of an Ital spliff”, Higher Meditation is a hymn to herb. Both of these tunes first appeared on Kingjay’s 2014 album, recordings where Crucial Tony and Mafia & Fluxy sat in.

Scientist cut the new dubs direct to disc in a single live take, via Night Dreamer’s bespoke Neumann lathe. Where others might have felt under pressure, I guess he was used to it, having learnt his trade mixing dubplate after dubplate in all-night studio lock-ins under the guidance of King Tubby, as gunshots ricocheted around the surrounding district of Water – nicknamed “Fire” – House. Scientist seemingly effortlessly, expertly strips things back, creating galaxies of space between the splashes of sound. The bass is booming, and omnipresent, but he sometimes reduces the drums to showers of rainstick-like detail. Organ flashes, bubbles. The brass blasts are twisted inside out. In places they’re transformed into emergency sirens. Each instrument is introduced and snapped short with echo. Phillips’ 6-string picking is treated, disintegrating. Scientist sending out snaking slithers, and applying wicked wah-wah filters to the whole lot. Rich and sophisticated, with unexpected, unpredictable outbursts of wild and radical, the results are reminiscent of recent “mature” output of both Mad Professor and On-U Sound.

Scientist’s Direct-To-Dub is out now on Night Dreamer.