12tree / Rolling Deep Dub / Hot Piroski

Robin Twelvetree has a new single out, titled Rolling Deep. The digital package includes 3 mixes. One of which is a dub. Lush, languid, with whispered vocals, muted trumpet, a ringing key riff, plus some super laidback guitar, it’s no surprise that this is Cantoma-esque, since Robin’s significant engineering skills have been central to shaping that signature, seminal, sunset sound. 

The Disciples / Addis Ababa / Partial

Partial have repressed a 10” from their short-lived Disciples Vintage series. The record revives 2 essentials, plus alternate dubs from The Disciples, who at the outset were brothers Russ and Lol Bell-Brown. Addis Ababa was the title track of a now rare / pricey album released on Jah Shaka Music in 1992. 

Inspired by hearing Sound Iration’s pioneering, groundbreaking Seventh Seal on Shaka’s seismic system, the music is deliberately stripped back and emphatically electronic. Full of what would come to be characteristic computerised choirs, colossal, crashing EQ’d percussion and hypnotic Far East melodies. The digital bass-line led dubplate mix features dancing vibes-like keys and long stretches of delayed and gated tape effects. On the flip you’ll find Bass Theme, lifted from the brothers’ 1993 follow-up The Lion, whose synthetic strings tip their hat to Shaka’s own Dub Symphony. 

A big thank you to Tom Dubwise for my copy.

GLOK & Timothy Clerkin / Empyrean (Froid Dub Remix) / Bytes

To compliment their collaborative album, Alliance, Andy “GLOK” Bell and Timothy Clerkin have commissioned a set of remixes. It’s Froid Dub who give Empyrean the once over. Looping the original’s ethereal vocal to a tick-tocking, percolating super slow, shuffling skank and showering it with soundsystem sound effects. Pausing for pretty piano cascades, and touches of what could be Japanese koto, a funky, flatulent TB-303, though, makes up the guts of the groove. 

Inokasira Rangers / Sympathy For The Devil / Parktone

Inokasira Rangers are a talented team of West Tokyo skinheads who specialise in ska covers of well known pop numbers. Their latest 45 features a version of The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony and for my money a standout shake of The Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil, where they keep the “ooh oohs” but Jagger is swapped for the virtuoso voice of a Jackie Mittoo-esque Hammond B3 organ. There’s also some fine fretwork for a finale. 

Jabbadub / Abazir (Uncle Fester On Acid) / Dubsyndrome

Long-standing Polish dub outfit Jabbadub have picked up a rocking remix from Uncle Fester On Acid aka Pats Dokter, the hero responsible for sorting through On-Sound’s archives and restoring / baking all the tapes. The latest release on Netherlands based label, Dubsyndrome, Abazir now travels through heavy snares, sitar strains and meteor shower-like tumbling, delayed percussion. With its booming bass in your face – tipping its cap to Jah Wobble along the way – the rework is wild, unrestrained, busy, bristling with wired energy (as opposed to stoned apathy). A melodica somehow holds down the main melody, while woodwinds spiral and soar, and the results, given Dokter’s alias are suitably psychedelic, trippy. 

In contrast, this is paired with the seriously minimal and dubstep-derived Frequency Warfare. Borrowing little, legendary, bit of Lee Perry, the music’s makers, Fester, Youth and Gaudi describe its broken beat and buzzing bottom end as a “bass weapon”. 

Makyo / Things A Get Tuff / Dakini Records

Tokyo-based Mayko covers Bristolian band Talisman, transforming the track, Things A Get Tuff, into slow, electronic roots, where Janna Reid’s sweet pop take on the song’s politically charged lyrics – plus the trip hop-y touches – recall Sinead O’Connor’s collaborations with On-U Sound and Bomb The Bass. 

A big thank you to Ryo at Rana-Musica for my copy. 

Abel Miller / Every Time I See My Baby / Melodies International 

Abel Miller and Mad Professor’s Ariwa collective take The Delfonics’ late `60s soul smash Every Time I See My Baby in a sweet, close harmonied lovers rock direction. With an end-of-the-night vibe, it’s something to skank side-by-side with Mad Prof’s Marvin Gaye dubs, and the flip has a live clip of him playing it as the last tune at a gigi in Osaka.

Skinshape X Horus All Stars / N’Tero / Lewis Recordings

N’Tero is one of two 7” singles lifted from the acclaimed roots LP Skinshape X Horus. The song features the sublime vocals of Senegalese musician Modou Touré in a slow, skanking mix that’s super Balearic. Born out of London’s highly respected Lion Vibes record store, it put me in mind of Bill Laswell’s 80s, Celluloid, global fusions. The track’s melody and bounce, for example, recalling Mali’s Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux and their classic, Bara Wililé.

The Soul Vendors / Swing Easy / Soul Jazz

Soul Jazz further cement their Clement “Coxsone” Dodd / Studio One connection with this sought after shot of 1967 rocksteady. Recorded by The Soul Vendors – Roland Alphonso, Lloyd Brevett, Johnny Moore, Jackie Mittoo, Errol Walters and Bunny Williams – Swing Easy was based on a song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof, and released on the flip of The Bassies’ River Jordan. Sorta calypso, its main horn hook recalls Wilmoth Houdini’s Black But Sweet, the 1940s voodoo half-inched for The Sabres Of Paradise’s Wilmot. The track, here, is paired with a contemporary, Ringo Rock. Both cuts are incredibly rare and up until now were only available on “less than perfect” Jamaican pressings for eye-watering pre-loved sums.