Agony Shorthand

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Another dub war going on on this 1977 session, with Sly & Robbie's REVOLUTIONARIES recording at Kingston's Channel One studios, paired against the AGGROVATORS recording @ King Tubby's in almighty hand-to-hand dub combat. The slow grooves and lack of pyrotechnics in the Aggrovators tracks keep me from recommending this one. It's sort of like slow, for-lovers-only reggae-soul with a minimum of manipulation and fade-outs, but (to its credit) is played live in the studio for the express purpose of turning it into dubs later. TOMMY McCOOK's involved in both groups, setting down smoky, studio-filtered sax; in fact my sources tell me that there was a lot of cross-pollination between both bands, and this fight was more a loving gathering of like-minded pals to smoke some herb and lay down the grooves. The Revolutionairies' "side" is better, and involves a lot of the King Tubby trademarks heard on dozens of other discs. For instance, ever notice how only his dubs include this percussion tweak that makes every snare sound like the drummer mistakenly smacked the hard metal portion of his chair instead of the drum? And then echoes it for a good couple of seconds over the bass line? It's the sort of technique that's had them queuing up at the Tubby CD sections for years. I'll probably keep this CD in the hopper but don't recommend it for anyone but completists.