Saturday, November 06, 2010

Disco Dub Vibes  


 I was going to meet my mate Steven from dub.com for a beer, but sadly he has been in California too long, and has turned from a once dependable Dubliner, ever a reliable drinking partner and record beard discussion catalyst, and metamorphosed over the long years into a true San Franciscan, i.e a flake, having been caught up in the Giant's world series riots the previous evening.  But even though my meeting with the reggae don fell through, it got my thinking about all the island tinged boogie and so on I could bring up in conversation with him before I eventually got out of my depth and exposed for what I really am, a lame poseur. 

 There is of course tons and tons of reggae disco, dubbed out B side instrumentals, jamaican boogie, london carribean scene funk and what have you, and by all means put your favorites in the comments section. Reggae and dub hit the north american and european mainstream the same time as disco and punk (right? or no?), so it figures I would guess. Out of my depth already. These two tracks though are from my own collection and I could not find them elsewhere on the greater internet, and are both very different from one another, so I thought would make a good post. 

 Landscape were a UK New Wave band, that had some artsy electronic 7"s in the seventies and a couple of radio played synth pop tracks in the 80's (one was called 'Einstein' or something, and had a great video with the ghost of Einstein in it haunting a chemistry lab(?)). 'The Fabulous Neutrinos' is a dubby instrumental B side to the harsh on the ears single 'So Pure, So Good, So Kind', unearthed from a dollar bin many moons ago.

 Frankie Paul, sometimes called the 'Jamaican Stevie Wonder', because of his poor vision, is a dancehall singer who was associated with the Coxsone soundsystem. 'Funky Reggae Party' is an out of place mid tempo electro funk track that sits weirdly on the B side of the South London produced and recorded dancehall reggae album 'Ripe Mango' on Blacker Dread records in 1983. I forget which part of south london the Blacker Dread record store is in, but its still there. Flipping the record over and finding this was a nice surprise: 

Landscape - The Fabulous Neutrinos

Frankie Paul - Funky Reggae Party

Posted by Black Shag | 6 comments

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6 comments: to “ Disco Dub Vibes


  • November 6, 2010 at 4:03 PM  

    jeez man, .. lame poseur you may be BUT you also a dam fine blogger. Bit #nowayed that I've just been investigating the MT40 Casio, responsible for the Sleng Ting riddem and countless other influenced tunes and then I get your tweet and am led to more insightful reading. Not even playd the audio yet - better live up now I guess..
    (never think no-one is reading!)


  • November 16, 2010 at 8:02 PM  

    Dear Lame Poseur, I am the "reggae don" indeed! However I believe the flake was on your behalf, not mine, plus I did need to burn toilet paper on Mission Street at 10pm. Who else was going to do it? A bearded fixie-riding hipster? I think not.

    Landscape were awesome and had that catchy hit "Einstein a gogo"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZqUNEHYZgQ

    Thats a classic Frankie Paul find for sure.

    Cheers mate!


  • November 16, 2010 at 8:06 PM  

    @tnasch - check out this quality MT40 footage via afflictedyard.com

    Kingston Signals | Noel Davey & the Casio MT-40: The Sleng Teng

    http://www.dub.com/2010/11/16/659/


  • November 23, 2010 at 4:18 AM  

    Well worth checking out the Landscape 'From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus' album from 80/81...I remember the title causing huge amusement at school but again, we were easily amused in the olden days.

    Tracks like 'Norman Bates' still sound kinda amazing all these years later.

    Never come across the Frankie Paul track before, such a great production sound, so driving in its intensity....many thanks for sharing these two sonic gems.

    So many approaches to the 'disco dub' mileu...from seventies Jamaican reggae producers jumping on the discotrain to African disco tracks with a dub feel all the way to UK avant-garde post-punk dub experimentation perhaps best exemplified by PIL's 'Death Disco' which was as much inspired by Moroder as King Tubby...

    ...and then I guess there is the early 90s UK Guerilla Records and Bristol Cake Label progressive dub-house tunes...

    ....so many versions to choose from...arf!(bad dub pun alert!)


  • January 13, 2011 at 12:59 AM  

    It's in Brixton!


  • February 27, 2012 at 8:55 AM  

    Not forgetting Frankies track Acid which appeared on exterminator 7inch followd up with the 12 inch a year later on Black a dread