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Prince Fatty meets The Gorgon in Dub

One could fill pages here just with the person of Edward O'Sullivan Lee, better known as Bunny “Striker” Lee or The Gorgon. Without Striker and of course Osbourne Ruddock aka King Tubby that would be the case Dub-Genre probably completely different. The collaboration between the two is and remains a milestone in the early development of the Dub. Bunny Lee was a ghetto great, you could almost say a kind of godfather, someone who could take care of almost everything. Until his death in October 2020, he was as popular and respected in Uptown Kingston as he was among the Sufferahs in Trenchtown. Bunny Lee often acted as an intermediary who also made loans, solved problems, and transacted deals. When Byron Lee modernized Dynamic Studios and threw out his old mixing board, Striker closed the deal so King Tubby could buy it. So King Tubby started with a proper multi-track studio. Bunny Lee was enthusiastic about King Tubby's way of working from the start and their productions are and remain unrivaled. Every King Tubby Dub is unique. Tubby didn't laboriously put the individual components together, but simply started the tape and started live. The results are widely known and are still very popular.

The British producer, sound engineer and DJ Prince Fatty has already introduced younger generations to reggae, soul and Latin grooves. With his own albums he has earned a reputation as one of the best modern artists Dub-producers and sound engineers in the world. With the first two Hollie Cook albums, which he produced in 2011 and 2014, he made a significant contribution to writing a new chapter in British lovers rock. In recent years, Prince Fatty has contributed through various singles to show veteran artists such as Little Roy, Winston Francis, Earl Sixteen and his collaborator Horseman, the drummer of the British group Reggae Regular, in a new light. After a long break, he returns with the album “Prince Fatty meets The Gorgon in Dub(VP Records / Greensleeves) returns to the craftsmanship created 50 years ago by King Tubby, Prince Philip, Prince Jammy and many unsung heroes. A carefully selected set of master recordings from the old Bunny “Striker” Lee / King Tubby era are transferred to the present by Fatty. Conceptually, the idea sees Prince Fatty reinterpreting the classic sounds of late Jamaican music legends Bunny “Striker” Lee and King Tubby. This album is 10 Dubs the sonic distillation of an interesting story. After Prince Fatty came across the collection of archived Striker Lee recordings, the young one took advantage Dub-Producer the opportunity to remix the versions to his own taste. The aim was once again to make the tracks accessible to younger listeners and to keep the fire going for Striker Lees Dub-To reignite the spirit of the times. For the real remixing, Prince Fatty transferred the audio material into the analogue domain: he sent the recordings through a carefully reconstructed analogue audio system similar to King Tubby's. The result is a crisp, modern Dubmasterpiece, with Fatty himself acknowledging the songs' status as classics.

A few more comments on the successful song selection: The riddims come from Linval Thompson's "Jah Jah A The Conqueror", which were processed with Tommy McCook's instrumental arrangements of the same track. Also included is Jackie Edwards' "The Invasion", originally known by Burning Spear. Followed by Cornel Campbell's "Press Along", Horace Andy's "Don't Try To Use Me" and Ronnie Davis' "Sun Is Shining", which we originally know from Bob Marley. Below we hear Barry Brown's "Give Thanks & Praise" and Rod Taylor's "Garden Of Eden". The riddims of Neville Brown's "Prophesy" are also known from Don Carlos' "Late Night Blues". With Leroy Smart's "No Love", the instrumental is also known as Horace Andy's "Zion Gate" and Don Carlos' "Ababajonoi" goes back to the instrumental "Real Rock" by Jackie Mittoo and Vin Gordon. Overall a newly edited one Dub-Album of classics for the modern era that may become a classic itself in a few decades.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

5 replies to “Prince Fatty meets The Gorgon in Dub"

Well, the album is a collection of classics, the originals are well known (thanks Ras Vorbei for the meticulous list of the originals), which makes me wonder why we should remix it at all, dubben and give out?
Sure, it's all classics and sure, maybe that's how you get "new" listeners Dubmusic... I would actually have preferred to continue listening to the old tracks (I will do that too, because I don't think there's anything to add to them) and new riddims from Prince Fatty!
Maybe he lacks the inspiration for that, or so I speculate.

Hi Philipp,

Would this album have been needed? A legitimate question, in my opinion. What I noticed about the Prince Fatty Remixes: He audibly took back the Striker trademark - the flying cymbals - to the delight of some [e.g. lemmi ;-)]. The flying cymbals are still audible, but no longer omnipresent. I also like the track selection, which Prince Fatty has confidently picked from the huge Striker/Tubby pool. So far I haven't found the time to compare Prince Fatty's remixes with the originals. What I can say for myself: I like the new edits and Prince Fatty has already managed to get me to engage with it more intensively again Dub-Heir employs.

This is what Prince Fatty says about his approach: “These are classic songs, we all know the arrangements inside out, so to me it's nicer and fresher to hear a new structure,” explains Prince Fatty of his approach. “I've had a lot of fun with this and it's been very educational for me. To hear the quality, not just of the musicianship, but the engineering is spectacular.”
“The personalities of all the characters involved, I think that is underestimated,” he continues. “People always talk about the equipment or the tape machine or the mixing desk, but I defy anyone to sound like the aggrovators. That's what's beautiful about all these recordings. The personality is just jumping out of the speakers. Hearing the vocals in isolation just makes the hair on my arms stand up.”

Reply

Ding Dong! High “friends”! I'm here again DubTerritory and am looking forward to expressing my “mustard tube” a little again.
Prince Fatty is also one of my big heroes in the Reggae Music Circle and, unlike me, he doesn't just talk around, he lets his actions speak for themselves. We also have roughly the same “definition of a boombastic DubStyle”!
I would especially like to answer the question of whether this album was really needed. I, too, am not immediately familiar with the details compared to the originals so that I can immediately answer this question from this point of view.
To me, the reworks sound almost exactly like the originals, to which, in my opinion, there was or is nothing to be added.
But now it is the case that sometimes it can be of great advantage if you leave something out. And Ras Vorbei speaks from my heart when he notes that Prince Fatty has audibly reduced the (hissing) flying cimbals. I got out of the Dub Conference noticed that King Tubby initially found the high pass filter to be a “mistake” and wasn’t really keen on it.
(But even at school I couldn't really remember anything that was written anywhere in books, so please forgive me if I remembered things wrong about the filter and King Tibby)
In any case, the fact is that Prince Fatty's "cymbal" has been transferred to a much more pleasant frequency range, although almost everything else has remained the same. But if I understand Prince Fatty correctly, then he has already built a new structure. Also good ! I also noticed that there are no mistakes when recording in Jamaica, just new styles. “Every mistake is a new style”!!! Statements like this make me happy!!! However, you shouldn't confuse mistakes with botches, because if, for example, a doctor told me, "Sorry, I made a mistake, that's why the patient is now dead," then I wouldn't be at all happy about it if he said, I should now “re-evaluate” this and accept it as a new style. But with music and especially in Dub, I welcome mistakes or new styles. Assuming I can do something with the error at all. Yes …. and I've never been able to do anything with the "High - Pass - Cymble - Error".
Seen in this way, I feel like this album by Prince Fatty is like a repair to a very nice vintage car that unfortunately had an ugly scratch in the middle of the windshield and has now finally been repaired with a new window. (How beautifully this ambiguity with the “disc” arose completely by itself and purely by chance ;-) ).
VP Records is still a “red flag” for me, but I am very sure that you can also purchase this album tactilely, or “will be able to have it”…… or something like that.

Another thing on my own behalf: It is always said that everything was better in the past and in this case that is true: This (too) small excerpt in the comment column is “bullshit” …….. I often lose track and always have to read again what I have already written. I used to be able to do this better because you could see a lot of your commentary at a glance. Now it feels like I'm in the Lidl complaint department.

Otherwise I would say it won't get any worse, just different ;-)

So long ……………… lemmi

“I also noticed that there are no mistakes when recording in Jamaica, just new styles.”

Yes, you can see it that way, lemmi. King Tubby used his technique to make music out of mistakes, for example by removing vocal mistakes, i.e. incorrectly sung notes, and/or replacing them with sound effects. Sometimes he left out everything except the bass and drums and maybe the riddim. When he then added the vocals back in, no one would think that anything had been corrected in the original recordings. As a result, everything ended up sounding like it had been planned that way from the start.

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