Aggrovators / Joe Gibbs

 THE AGGROVATORS

Johnny In The Echo Chamber: Dubwise Selection 1975-76

JOE GIBBS

African Dub "The Series": Chapters 1 & 2

Melody Maker, 1995 or 1996 

As the recent "Macro Dub Infection" compilation demonstrated, dub's influence is omnipresent, informing/infusing the soundworlds of such disparate NOW-genres as trip hop, post-rock and drum & bass.  Ironically, the one place the Spirit is weakest is with the digi-dub revivalists, like Alpha & Omega and Rockers To Rockers. Partly it's because of their slavish, literalist adherence to a bygone form; partly because the technology they use sabotages their 'reproduction antique' intentions. Digital sound is too cut'n'dry, too geometrically plotted, to conjure up the halycon, herbalistic haze of '70s dub (mostly made on lo-fi 2 or 4-track, with self-cobbled effects and echo units).

     Although the name suggests an Oi! band, The Aggrovators were a session squad used by the late King Tubby, the sound-sorcerer who more or less invented dub. The best document of the Tubby/Aggrovators partnership is Disc 2 of the "King's Tubby's Special" anthology--arguably the most enchanted dub selection ever--but "Johnny In the Echo Chamber" is damn fine. What's great about this 1975/76 stuff is the way will'o wisps of vocal (sung or DJ talkover) are retained, drifting in and out of the miasma of reverbed rhythm like iridescent wraithes.

     The "African Dub" series was produced by another legendary figure, Joe Gibbs. While "Chapter 3" is the all-time classic, this reissue of the first two volumes is almost as precious. Despite the title's Rasta-esque allusion to the lost motherland, the mood isn't nostalgic and ethereal, but upful, secular, at times even perky (e.g. the vocal-free version of Althia & Donna's UK Number One skank-smash "Uptown Ranking"). Taut and spry, rarely shrouded by echo, these mostly instrumental tracks seem very present tense, whereas the more liturgical dub seems to melt into Eternity.  Highlight: "Idlers Rest" with its Eurodisco-meets-acid-house electronics obviously inspired by Donna Summer's "I Feel Love".

     It could be that that dub reggae is a finite resource, engendered by the unique conjunction of a specific time, place and technology. And that attempting to resurrect that Zeitgeist-in-sound is as futile as recreating Motown.  All the more reason to treasure these holy relics from dub's golden age....