Over the Memorial Day weekend I was involved in a major Dubathon musick swap with some friends from Glass Cow & Eat A Peach. It was a massive undertaking & some heavyweight Jamaican roots music was traversing the globe.
I am mostly the source for the Dub side of things, as I am not a huge fan of more mainstream reggae. I tend to like the riddim punched up to 11 & all the studio tricks the Dub royalty of Kings & Princes can lay on me, with the vocal tracks pared down to just another facet of instrumentation.
However, some of the material that was requested & swapped was more traditional reggae. As I listened to a vast variety of JA styles: roots; dancehall; rocksteady; Dub; & reggae, I began to enjoy some of the vocal stylings of certain artists. Although Prince Far I has a gruff vocal style, I have always liked his reggae as well as his Dub outings. Some of the smoother voices I was hearing started to resonate with me now, perhaps from the heavy bombardment. Derrick Harriott & Don Carlos particularly caressed my ears & touched my soul.
Sweet-voiced vocalist Don Carlos (born Euvin Spencer) was one of the original trio of singers with the great Black Uhuru along with his two friends, Rudolph 'Garth' Dennis & Derrick 'Duckie' Simpson. They were lifelong friends from the Waterhouse district of western Kingston, Jamaica. Many talented Jamaican musick artists such as King Tubby, Junior Reid, & Prince Jammy were also from this area.
I discovered Dub releases by both Derrick Harriott & the Crystalites (Scrub-a-Dub), & Don Carlos which I have really come to enjoy. This one has, to my way of thinking, just the right amount of vocals with a heavy dose of that fabulous mash-it-up Bunny Lee stylee. Listen & decide for yourself…
Tracklist –
Spread Out in Dub
My Brethren in Dub
Bosrock Dub
I’m Gonna Make You Love Dub
Big Mouth Dub
Conscious Rasta Dub
Booming Dub
Infra Red Dub
Move Me Dub
Baby Don’t Care for Dub
Tribulation Dub
Too Late to Dub
Rivers of Dub
There’s a Dub Faraway
Check it Deep,
NØ
Don Carlos - Dub Version, Dressed to Kill METRO360, 2000.
