A few months ago, while searching for Sly & Robbie albums, I came across the classic "Carl Campbell: Zion Dub“ excavated. The album is extremely rare and was previously only released on LP in a limited edition on Carl's Records in 1978. For a short time it was again available on CD in 2017. Carl's Records was apparently quite short-lived. Only one more album was released, "357 Magnum Dub", which Winston Riley of the Technics co-produced and published with Carl Campbell.
The recordings for “Zion Dub' emerged on Channel One in the late '70s and the list of musicians making up the Revolutionaries incarnation reads like the champions league of Jamaican session musicians of the time. Sly & Robbie formed the backbone of the band, joined by Chinna Smith, Tony Chin, Keith Sterling, Augustus Pablo, Winston Wright, Sticky, Skully & Tommy McCook. The result is an excellent, heavyweight RootsDub-Album that sounds like an early issue of the Roots Radics with Scientist at the Controls. All tracks begin with a toast from Jamaican-born, Brooklyn-raised DeeJay Mikey Jarrett. The comments on: "Darker Shade Of Black", "Ten To One" and "Hot Milk" etc. are all entertaining and lighten up the whole album.
DeeJay Mikey Jarrett is a reggae legend. As the A&R man for the well-known Channel One Studio, he gave artists like Lone Ranger and others the opportunity to record their first records there. His first own single "Ku Bly clan', made in New York in 1974 by Lloyd Barnes for the legendary Bullwackies label, was a hit and now fetches very high prices on the collectors' market.
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Carl Campbell: Zion Dub
One Response to “Carl Campbell: Zion Dub"
("Sly and Robbie can't Dub (!) “…………)
This sentence is me here in DubBlog has actually slipped out at least once and I've often been very ashamed of it. It must be a concatenation of Dubalbums that prompted me to make this statement.
Typically, this DubAlbum here, but prompts me to put on the goalkeeper gloves again and go between the posts and under the crossbar as a "full post".
Yes, in the ( bad ) old Channel One manner there is some "rustling" here until the rind cracks or something like that, but the riddims force me to simply ignore this "big reggae mistake". I admit that today I'm probably (not) suffering from excessive self-confidence, because I'm not sure if I can take it for granted that I show so little humility. There may even be reggae fans who celebrate this rustling to the full, but then I make myself a “Horst” for them.
I want, no ! I will !! no rustling and no "gecimbele" in my favorite music, but most of the time the riddims are so good that I have to open my tolerance box fully in order to be able to enjoy the riddims.
And now "Butter by the fishes"..... there are only two here DubTunes where I have to tolerate the rustling.
And I often complain about BassLines, which - to put it mildly - don't knock my socks off. I hear such a bass line on “RootsMan Clap Dub“. It's so simple that it gets complicated again. I would really take offense at the bass player from Senior Allstars, for example. But that's where that unique magic comes into play, which these reggae musicians from Jamaica had in their blood from birth. In cooperation with Sly Dunbar on the drums, the BassLine becomes such a powerful driving force, as if a herd of buffalo gone berserk simply ran over the Great Wall of China and only choco crumbs remained. All riddims on “Zion Dub“ grab and convince me and leave no doubt. And then there is the excellent mix of the Dubmasters The sound and the effects on the RiddimGuitar make this Dubs - for me - again in addition to something very special, because I just find this sound just perfect. The use of reverb on the snare is also exactly to my liking.
And I'm not going home until I've got my biggest highlight on this one Dubalbum raved.
Because it's just so beautiful, I have to go back a bit. One of my first favorite reggae tunes from my early reggae days was "Pride and Joy" by Pat Kelly and, as I only found out now, with Slim Smith. The vocals, the melody and the riddim just keep making me happy. And this one, my longtime “all time favourite” now in the Dub"Having" the version causes the glands (or cells) responsible for it to pour out all the happy hormones at once and immediately fill up all the hormone reservoirs with the excess momentum.
Yes, and the announcements from the DJ are pure UPLIFTMENT for me too !!! Even if I don't get everything right away, only the sound and groove of this Jamaican tells me he's right ;-)
yeah man ! “This is reggae music! Welcome to the Sound!“ ……………………… lemmi