CORRESPONDENCE

Some particularly amusing correspondence between myself and perhaps the most enthusiastic, knowledgable music authority I know. This made me smile.

From: colin nagy
To: Nate Cunningham
Sent: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 18:26:22 -0500
Subject: dub

nate:
ive been listening to king tubby's at the controls quite a bit lately. what else can you recommend on the deep deep dub tip?

hope all is cool brother

thanks
cjn


From: Nate Cunningham
Subject: Re: dub
Date: March 7, 2006 12:38:00 PM EST
To: colin nagy

if you're vibing on tubby. tubby with soul syndicate is a great comp, on blood and fire, heavier i think than at the controls, but not quite as varied. soul syndicate is my favorite reggae backing band, they have the best rhythms--some of the stuff on at the controls is probably them. sledgehammer dub is probably my favorite dub album ever, tubby mixes of of the soul syndicate again, but the original tracks were produced by niney the observer, so the album is listed under his name. this one's not as heavy as soul syndicate or at the controls but a lot of it is straight perfection and there are some very gorgeous, wet sounds. keith hudson's pick a dub has the reputation of being the best dub record ever probably. i haven't given the whole thing a listen. what i've heard sounds solid, but somehow i wasn't inspired to explore it further (i like jamaican music with vocals more). hudson's playing it cool i would definitely recommend though. it has a bit rockier guitar, and is a very unique dub album, recorded in the early '80s but DOES NOT SOUND LIKE IT. lee perry's super ape is also considered by some to be the best dub album ever, although i haven't heard it yet at all. this would be more crazy than tubby, almost certainly less heavy. my favorite jamaican music ever on one cd would be divine madness...definitely comp on pressure sounds. probably you already know it because karl and i have been singing its praises for years, but if you don't it's sunny and wet, perry-produced roots tracks with even more submerged, crazy dub versions following each--not deep in the sense of drums and bass, but some of the most gorgeous production on any kind of record ever. outside of the big three of perry, tubby, and hudson, the glen brown reissue from last year was really solid, you wouldn't go wrong with that one. there were two niney the observer comps came out last year, i heard one of them and it sounded really solid, but there was a lot of vocal stuff on it, and i don't know if that's a problem for you. i assume most niney product is going to be dependable because he was awesome and soul syndicate was his regular band, but if you're not shy of '70s dj stuff, the niney comp on blood and fire called microphone attack has some amazing stuff on it, including big youth's ride on which is the most intense jamaican track i've ever heard. also something to think about is ras michael and the sons of negus' dadawah peace and love album, which is basically rasta funk jams slowed down and stretched out--each track is like 10 minutes--in an atmosphere of infinite, swampy dread. as the album goes on it just gets more and more lost (and better), the percussion becomes trippier, and when the burnt-ass piano rises on track three it could probably be used to conjure spirits, although i doubt they'd be able to do much other than maybe ODing all over again...(if you want me to send you an mp3 cd of just some of the various jamaican stuff i'm into let me know. although most of it is NOT deep dub...)