James Allison / Blindness (James’ North Dub / Ransom Note

James Allison delivers an EP for Ransom Note’s Friends & Family Recommends under the title Make Dance Rock Again. My pick of the bunch is a radical dub of the 2006 Fall track, Blindness. Stark, stripped back and slowed down, the end result sorta recalls Dennis Bovell reshaping The Slits. Sharp, serrated shards of broken buzzsaw riffs and Mark E. Smith’s stuttered, staccato bellowing are punched in and out of a heavy bass (Rowche) rumble, as Allison does a great job of recreating a very authentic, early 80s post-punk vibe.

 

Alpha & Omega / Warrior Dub / Partial

Christine Woodbridge and John Sprosen have been making heavy roots music as Alpha & Omega since the late 1980s. I think the track Warrior dates back to the 1993 album Everyday Life. Full of the duo’s signature phasing, EQ-ing, brass and synth “Far East” fanfares, this is the first time the track’s appeared on a 45. With squelchy lows and twinkling, tinkling, starlight-like treble, it’s backed by an exclusive dubplate mix which introduces glimpses of grounation drumming. 

Biggabush / Bass Is The Space / Ilian Tape

Renowned Brummie musician Glyn Bush was a founding member of Rockers Hi-Fi, an outfit who, during the 90s, fused dub with techno and house. Recording solo as Bigga Bush he has a new EP out, on Munich’s Ilian Tape, where production duties are split with his daughter, re:ni. There are 4 tunes on the 12, but Bass Is The Space is the one that’s been doing it for me. A lush, loose, laidback ambient river of low-end tranquility, with wah-wah flickers, splashes of echoed percussion and soft swirls of sound, where the odd sonar bleep helps the stoned navigate the deep. 

Coyote / Fittest / DSPPR

Fittest, for me, is the standout from a new 3-track release by the currently incredibly prolific Coyote. A righteous Rasta commands its skipping beat, cool congas and digidub B-line. Initially in little snippets, before being allowed to burst into very soulful song, amid handclaps and party whistles. A chip off the “Balearic Dub” block of previous big Ban Ban Ton Ton favourite, Living In Heaven, its groovy grounation sharing a chalice with Oracle Sound’s Birthday Dub and Vu 2’s Chant 4 Freedom.

Dominic Dawson / Baltimore / Flower

Seasoned, Brighton-born DJ / producer Dominic Dawson relocated to Tokyo a few years ago. Since the move he’s struck up a fruitful relationship with legendary local label, Flower Records, something that he now further cements with this reggae cover of Randy Newman’s Baltimore. The song, written in 1977, painted a bleak picture of B-More’s streets, way, way before the hit TV show The Wire. Here it’s delivered by the super soulful Sandy Mill, while Dawson tips his hat to Sly & Robbie’s Taxi Gang, and their own 1980 version of the Newman tune fronted by The Tamlins. Skanking and syn-drum popping, horn and fretwork come from fellow expats brothers Sam “Mallorquin” and Max “Essa” Bruce. 

Flying Vipers / Nervous Breakdub / Jump Up

The Boston-based Flying Vipers have covered California punks Black Flag’s seminal, 1979 debut EP, Nervous Breakdown. I think they did this a while back, but a 45 has recently appeared care of Chicago’s Jump Up! Records. The flip features a brilliant dub where the boisterous, belligerent buzzing bass and racing drums are slapped with dangerous doses of delay. Rough, rude and distorted, with blasts of 2-Tone-esque brass, its rush a reminder of New Age Steppers’ Bad For My Nerves. 

Jah Shaka / Lion Youth / Ariwa

Mad Professor is marking 45 Years Of Ariwa with a 10-track compilation. I’m hoping the album is the first in a series, since due to the size of the label’s vast catalogue, the selections could only ever be a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg. That said, the record has clearly been very carefully curated, because not only is it packed with rarities, but thematically the songs are also linked in a celebration of Black British pride and identity. The artists include Aisha, Aquizim, Tony Benjamin, Johnny Clarke, Alan King Pin, Kofi, Lee Perry, Ranking Ann and The Sane Inmates, and I think all of the original releases date from 1982 to 1990. Everything is a real gem, but a special mention goes to Jah Shaka’s Lion Youth, a timeless piano-led chant of positivity and solidarity.* 

*A wild dub of this song can be found on Mad Prof’s Dub Me Crazy – The Second Chapter.

J-Walk / Never Go Home / Before I Die

J-Walk previews his forthcoming album with a highly desirable, bespoke 45. The press one-sheet cites Spacemen 3, Nick Nicely and The Field Mice as sources of inspiration. However, with drums crashing, and melodies mirroring the kosmische of La Dusseldorf, some of Andy Bell’s recent solo stuff is also a point of reference. The production might be bedroom, Lo-Fi, but the guitar and synth give off such a shimmering wall of sound that it’s like Phil Spector filtered through shoegaze. Breaking down beneath spoken verses and sung chorus to ringing reverb-ed arcs. 

On the flip there’s the big bonus of a dub, which brings the bass to the fore. The rhythm now an echoed clanking and the fretwork reduced to fractured fizz. The results recalling the work of Martins Hannett and Rushent. 

Leroy Smart / So Much Things (1979 Dubplate) / Deeper Knowledge Records

Continuing the Jah Shaka connection, Deeper Knowledge have pressed to a 7 a super heavyweight dubplate cut of Leroy Smart’s So Much Things – a version that was a favourite of the late UK sound system king. Produced in the late 1970s by Augustus “Gussie” Clarke, with engineering and mixing assistance from Barnabas and Sylvan Morris, there are flashes of keys and showers of effects but the focus is the track’s echoed percussion and Smart’s powerful, pleading vocal.