Tommy McCook and the Supersonics "Pleasure Dub" 2009

Pressure Sounds is delighted to be able to finally add a Treasure Isle album to the catalogue! Duke Reid's nephew Errol Brown, who would go on become one of the key engineers at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong Studio, mixed Pleasure Dub and this album has never been re-pressed since its initial release! The original twelve vinyl LP tracks, including cuts to rock steady classics such as The Right Track by Phyllis Dillon, The Tide Is High from The Paragons and Things You Say You Love by The Jamaicans, a.o. The records made at Treasure Isle are as immediately recognisable as those made at Brentford Road at Duke Reid's arch rival's Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd's Studio One!Famed (notorious, actually) reggae producer Duke Reid was one of the most powerful and successful figures in Jamaican music during the ska and rocksteady eras, and his Treasure Isle studio on Bond Street in Kingston was a mecca for the island's A-list stars. While the question of who really invented dub will forever be clouded in controversy, there is no question that Duke Reid's early recordings of the great reggae toaster U-Roy were of seminal importance; it is from this source that an entire river of popular music would later flow, and there is a clear and essentially unbroken line leading from those early dub-with-DJ recordings to modern hip-hop and remix culture.

Pleasure Dub brings together an excellent selection of classic dub versions from the early days of Treasure Isle -- such deathless rocksteady hits as the Paragons' "Tide Is High" (versioned here as ''Dub with Strings''), Phyllis Dillon's "The Right Track" (''Tracking Dub''), and the Jamaicans' "Things You Say You Love" (''Rema Skank'') are presented here, and the music is not only thoroughly enjoyable, but also somewhat educational: this is transitional music, more sprightly than reggae but not nearly as headlong and galloping as ska, and the dub mixes tend to be raw and experimental and very exciting. The backing tracks (or ''rhythms'') presented here were all provided by Skatalites alumnus Tommy McCook and his crack session band the Supersonics; during this period there was probably no better session ensemble anywhere in Jamaica. A couple of the CD-only bonus tracks feel like filler, but for the most part this is an utterly essential dub collection. [Rick Anderson, AllMusic.  Rating: 4/5 stars]

trax:

01. Tracking Dub 02. Love Dub 03. Dub With Strings 04. Lift Off 05. Ride De Dub 06. Rema Skank 07. Bond Street Rock 08. Many Questions 09. The Attorney 10. Silver Hour 11. Twilight Rock 12. Dreads Leaving Babylon 13. Side Walk Doctor 14. I Shave The Barber 15. Barbering 16. Seven Eleven (7-11) 17. I See Your Face Version 18. Scrubit (featuring Lizzy)

...served by Toxxy...