Solgie

Solgie - MLK Dub (1999, RAS Records)

Fans of dub music could be forgiven for thinking that the Jamaican strain of the genre was completely over by the late 1990s – some fifteen years into the digital era. However Fatis Burrell’s Xterminator crew was to prove otherwise. The right musicians (largely the Sly, Dean Fraser and the Firehouse Crew), engineer (Soljie Hamilton) and cast of vocalists (Luciano, Cocoa Tea, Sizzla, etc.) came together to make some highly dynamic music that was converted into top-notch dub. Some of these re-mixs are positively haunting. The spacey and pulsing dubs of Luciano’s ‘Gunzalis’ and Fred Locks’ ‘Never Give Up My Faith’ (both employing the General rhythm) are cases in point. The echo-laden mix of Luciano’s ‘Final Call’ is downright bone-chilling given its dystopian atmosphere. The general sense of mystery is often compounded on this album by the way the vocals are dubbed – often a single word given extended echo or a short phrase having a distant quality. Not all is foreboding as other tracks such as the mix of Cocoa Tea’s ‘Long Time’ (on the ‘Rope In’ rhythm) are pure catchiness. Burrell also demonstrated that vintage rhythms could be reconfigured in convincing ways – Luciano’s ‘Wicked Haffi Run Away’ employs a very minimal sounding ‘Java’ while Cocoa Tea’s ‘Repatriation’ reworks the music known to older listeners as Sly Dunbar’s ‘A Who Say’ (or Ernest Wilson’s ‘I Know Myself’). MLK Dub was a stunner when it came out and it remains highly engaging – proving the potential merits of Jamaican digital dub. The Xterminator label was at the height of its power in the late 1990s and this was the last period when I can recall anxiously flipping over 7” singles to hear what the versions sounded like. Luciano’s 1999 vocal album, ‘Sweep Over My Soul’ (VP), also makes for essential listening. By Jim Dooley