Why Didn't You Tell Me? (Part Seven)

 

Dub is in the air, it sometimes seems. And on NTS, my radio station of choice, you never seem to be too far away from some variation on the dub template, which is a cause for celebration in these desperate times. Among the station’s residents is Jack Sapsed whose monthly All Fruits Ripe programme is usually a great listen and generally features dub in all sorts of mad varieties.

Back in February of this year his show ended with the More Rockers mix of Virginia’s ‘Rainbows’, one of my very favourite things in this whole wide world and one of the greatest examples of prime Bristol blues & roots from back in the day. On the same show Jack also played the Smith & Mighty mix of ‘Love to the Power of Each’ by Dub Ghecko, which completely threw me as it also featured the unmistakable vocals of Virginia. And it sounded amazingly wonderful, yet it was completely new to me. As someone who privately prides himself on knowing a thing or two about dubby downtempo music of the 1990s, that hurt!

After a quick online search, I became aware this was the title track of a 1996 LP on the Dubhead label, and that Dub Ghecko was an identity adopted by Jack Lundie, who I think it is fair to say is a Bristolian legend. It’s certainly a name I know well as half of Henry & Louis, his partnership with Andy Scholes, with the pair also being behind the 2 Kings studio and label. Some days I am liable to claim Henry & Louis’ Rudiments CD on More Rockers is one of the greatest records of the 1990s, full stop. It features, indeed ends with, their exquisite extended dub of Virginia’s ‘Rainbows’, and as a bonus she sings on a couple of other tracks on the record.

A remarkably young-looking Virginia (if she looks young, it’s probably because she was very young!) features in the 1996 TV documentary, Drums of the West, on the Bristol jungle scene. In it Phil Johnson, the author of Straight Outa Bristol, argues that the new music would not take off until it featured some recognisable songs. Then, surely with pointed irony, there is wonderful footage of Virginia singing her composition ‘Rainbows’ and chatting about the song’s origins. For me, Virginia wasn’t recorded enough by that Bristol scene. Until recently I would have mentioned that she’s also on More Rockers’ ‘Saying’, and on a couple of tracks by DJ Suv of the Full Cycle / Reprezent team, but apart from that I was not aware of anything else from that time she sang on.

So, to discover that Dub Ghecko CD, on which she sings the title track, ‘Love to the Power of Each’, as well as ‘Descendant’ and my personal favourite ‘Never Bow Down’ (which in my mind blends effortlessly with a certain Go-Betweens song), has been one of the highlights of recent times. All these tracks are so good, but ‘Never Bow Down’ is the one for me: “Never bow down to the forces of darkness”. Indeed. And I really cannot believe nobody told me about its magnificence. Perhaps they just assumed old clever clogs did actually know his stuff? Who knows.

Also, among the credits on the Dub Ghecko record is guitarist Rob Chant. If you are at all like me and have spent considerable time studying the small print of 1990s pop records which originated in Bristol, you will know the name. What I hadn’t realised (there is a bit of a theme developing here!) is that he, drummer Rob Merrill (another Bristol regular), and Jack Lundie of Dub Ghecko & Henry & Louis were in a group together in the mid-1980s called Chunk. I knew the two Robs were in Sweat with yet another Rob (Smith) and Ray Mighty, and that these four would go on to be the core of early Smith & Mighty live performances. But I hadn’t come across Chunk before.

It seems the Bristol Archive label has shared an EP of Chunk recordings. I am not sure if any of the tracks have been available in physical form, either now or back then. Somehow the tracks got me thinking of PiL’s ‘Rise’. Jack Lundie is rapping, and the sound is refreshingly militant in a Defunkt ‘Razor’s Edge’ kind of way.  I suppose the Sheffield acts Chakk and Hula could be reference points, and I suspect Chunk were heavily influenced by the emerging hip-hop and Washington Go-Go sounds.

The Chunk bassist was Manfred Milhofer, a name I recognise from among the credits on Henry & Louis’ Rudiments. And I could embarrass myself here, but is this the same person as DJ Manfred? As in the DJ Manfred who used to play in legendary Bristol clubs like the Dug Out, Rummer, and Moon Club, as well as on the city’s house party scene. Manfred features in the essential 2009 book on the unsung heroes of the Art & Sound of the Bristol Underground by Chris Burton and Gary Thompson, covering the mid-1980s through to the early 1990s. The book includes a very detailed ‘six degrees of separation’ graphic on the Bristol Family Orbit by Naoki & Miwako E-jima. I notice now that it features Dub Ghecko, which proves I was not really paying attention. So, what’s new?

Similarly, the label that put out the Dub Ghecko record, Dubhead, is something else I knew next-to-nothing about. I am now aware that it was a London-based label which was active from 1996 through to 2004, and I assume it grew out of the Dubhead compilations on Shiver Records. It seems Dub Ghecko was the first act to release a record on the label, closely followed by The Disciples, with their Infinite Density of Dub, which yet again I was not aware of until recently.

That is a little bit odd, actually, as in the early 1990s the sombre, stately Disciples anthem ‘Prowling Lion’ was regularly played on Joey Jay’s Word, Sound & Power show on the newly legal Kiss FM, for a while the sound of early Sunday evenings in London. Martin Campbell’s Channel One cut ‘Wicked Rule’ (which Joey had adapted into a jingle for his show, if I remember rightly) is the other track that I associate with those times. I have sweet memories of Joey handing over to Patrick Forge’s Cosmic Jam before they both got shunted off to the nightshift. (in all its full-length glory ‘Prowling Lion’ is another of my favourite things, and rather neatly Jack Sapsed ended his latest NTS show with it!

Another odd thing about missing out on The Disciples’ Infinite Density is that I love their Resonations set which must have come out slightly earlier on Cloak and Dagger, the label co-run by the music journalist known as Sherman at the Controls, who also released some excellent records by The Woodshed. Infinite Density is closer to the dub template than the Dub Ghecko set, but that’s fine as The Disciples, for me, with close colleagues Alpha & Omega, seemed to have that something a little bit special that is often absent from other creators of roots-based dub sounds. One thing I love about The Disciples is that sometimes seemingly there’s almost as much of a Radiophonic Workshop / library music influence at work as the obligatory King Tubby, Scientist, et set one.

Next up on Dubhead was a slow-burn set by East Meets West called Time is the Master: A Dub Experience which is not related to the life-enhancing old John Holt song but does include a brave cover of ‘London Calling’ which works, with Hughie Isachaar, on guitar and vocals, taking on the Joe Strummer role. Yet again, this is a record I was not aware of until recently. East Meets West, it seems, was a collaboration between Japanese producer Hiroshi N., who I confess I know nothing about, and Dougie Wardrop which is at least a name I recognise, which is not surprising as Dougie seems to be a force of nature, and has been behind the long-running Conscious Sounds studio and label, as well as outfits such as the Bush Chemists, Centry, Messenjah, Hydroponics, and the Dub Specialists.

Coincidentally or not, the very useful Japan-based resource Ban Ban Ton Ton recently posted that the Mysticisms label was issuing a remix EP from the Dub Specialists’ back catalogue. The Dub Specialists project (and yet again I can’t pretend I was familiar with their work back in the day) was a collaboration between Dougie and Chris Petter. Chris who would also record for Dubhead with fellow horn player Dave Fullwood as Love Grocer, and their Fresh Produce LP oddly looks exactly like one of the old On-U Sound CD re-releases through Cherry Red way back when.

In the second half of the 1990s, over the course of three Dub to Dub LPs (Break to Break, Beat to Beat, and Loop to Loop) the Dub Specialists created some rather rough sample-heavy and later on often trombone-led sounds, which more than one might expect sometimes seem close to the likes of Coldcut, Bomb The Bass, Depth Charge and Shut Up and Dance from earlier in the decade. They were not exactly Lords of finesse, but this works to their advantage. Characteristically, I have developed a real fondness for the dubbier downtempo tracks on these LPs, particularly where they get really Wilmotty, if you know what I mean. I suspect they caused a degree of confusion at the time, which is no bad thing.

Meanwhile, my rogue algorithmic angel over at Spotify recently recommended a new release by Dougie (Conscious) called Inner City Dub. I am not sure if this is a new set or archival recordings, but it’s superb stuff, even if there are few surprises, which is fine as I like dub as functional meditative sounds or as useful active background music. This set will appeal to those among us who like their dub with a bit of clanging guitar interrupting proceedings, with the thunderous bass, jagged lightning flashes of guitar, and clattering galloping drums all quite possibly revealing punk rock roots.

Dougie Conscious has been actively producing reggae and roots music for 35-plus years. Once, at this point, I might have been quoting the opening line of The Fall’s ‘Choc Stock’ but now I admire Dougie’s longevity and applaud his perseverance. One irony I guess is that dub has evolved into a fairly formalised affair where once it was celebrated for its sense of mischief and unpredictability, but that is not a problem judging by the size of the crowds of mostly young people attracted nowadays by sound systems such as Aba Shanti-I and Channel One. There was, incidentally, another (I think slightly earlier) East Meets West LP, called Megadub on the Dubology label, which was very much a part of the era’s emerging digital dub sound, and which sounds fantastic.

Another early (1998 I believe) release on Dubhead was Through The Haze by Armagideon. I confess I know very little about Armagideon, except that this was an identity used by Gaffa who, like Henry & Louis, was an integral part of the Bristol sound system tradition. This is another record I was oblivious to. Indeed, there were four earlier LPs in the 1990s on Gaffa’s own Armagideon Sounds label, which are much sought-after, it seems. Fortunately, I found a reasonably priced CD which pairs Steppin Forward with Natural Elements Dub and sounds incredibly good. The packaging has that same look as the Alpha & Omega records from the same time, and shares a similar sound and feel, which can only be a good thing.

The Armagideon record on Dubhead is a little different, and is not for purists, which suits me nicely, with diversions into drum & bass and the melting pot of sounds that were part of the Bristol blues & roots milieu. Talking of which, one track on Through The Haze is co-credited to Jack Lundie, and the set was partly recorded at the 2 Kings studio. As with other Armagideon records, among the singers and players is roots vocalist Rudy Lee, which is a name that may be familiar from Smith & Mighty records, particularly the righteous ‘No Justice’.

Coincidentally or not, there’s another classic Bristol LP called Thru’ The Haze, which is by Jaz Klash on the cherished Cup of Tea label. This was the classic jazz-meets-drum & bass project featuring Rob Smith and Peter D. from the Smith & Mighty / More Rockers collective and American producer / composer The Angel (who would also record as 60 Channels). Presumably these hazy titles are not a reference to Paul’s “cataclysmic overtones”, but you never know.

Again, coincidentally or not, around the time I came across Dub Ghecko’s ‘Love to the Power of Each’ on the radio and was so thrilled to hear the mellow Virginia (who, incidentally, I believe is now known as Vee Scott and has had some success singing on commercial house tracks, which is good to see), there appeared a new Bristol Archive collection, Connected Sequences, of tracks from Smith & Mighty’s Ashley Road studio vaults, covering the period 1985-1992. Now, I’m not going to pretend it’s all magic but there are some wonderful moments, and it’s fascinating seeing how the music evolved and how they were shooting off in so many differing directions at any one time.

Connected Sequences is now the third collection of this type. Bristol Archive put out The Three Stripe Collection in 2012, covering the period 1985 through to 1990 and if, like me, you have an abiding fondness for the early Smith & Mighty reinventions of the Bacharach & David canon, then this is very much for you, as it starts with Jackie Jackson singing ‘Walk On’ and ‘Anyone’, and ends with versions of these.

Then, in a joint venture between Bristol dubstep dons, Pinch’s Tectonic and Peverelist’s Punch Drunk labels worked together in 2018 to release the Ashley Road Sessions 88-94, acknowledging the debt their scene owed to Smith & Mighty. Before that, in 2009, Punch Drunk issued an essential collection of singles recorded by Rob Smith as RSD, much loved by dubstep aficionados. It opens with the gloriously deep ‘Forward Youth’, and it was a bit of a shock hearing the same Prince Jazzbo sample on ‘Step Forward’ from the new Connected Sequences collection, with added melodica which seems rather familiar too.

Having in recent times been consumed by a resurgence of interest in the activities of that Bristol creative circle, I suppose it is inevitable to find other things that were missed along the way. Thus, I chanced upon a CD called Time Will Tell: Henry & Louis Meet Blue & Red in Kingston 20 JA which came out in 2001. The record, however, has its genesis back in the summer of 1997 when, armed with tapes of deep dub foundation mixes by Henry & Louis and Blue & Red (that is, once again, Rob Smith), the King Louis half of the team, Andy Scholes, headed off to Kingston with the intention of connecting with vocalists who could add their magic to the recordings.

Rather gloriously, it seems, he had no concrete plans, though he did at least have a list of contact numbers. Somewhere along the way he fell in with the UB40 crowd who were so amused and amazed at this random approach that they offered free studio time if Andy could pull it off. And, as the CD shows, he really did make it happen, even attracting a few big names, like Johnny Clarke, Willi Williams, and Tony Tuff. Mostly those taking part, though, were new names to me.

The absolute stand-out track for me is Steve Harper’s ‘Creation’ which like many of the great roots reggae vocal recordings has at its heart Biblical imagery and references. I particularly love it where Steve sings about how “these are the last days”. I am in absolutely no sense a Bible scholar, but I am aware of the verses from the second letter from Paul to the apostle Timothy which say: “In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.” Sounds about right!

And I guess, for some of us, any reference to these being the last days will immediately link to ‘The Dead Flag Blues’ from Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s debut, F♯ A♯ ∞, released on kranky back in 1997. Can it really be that long ago? kranky seemed a bit special back then, with the incredible beauty of Labradford and others like Bowery Electric, Stars of the Lid, and so on. Somehow, I lost track of what the label was doing by the new millennium, but in recent times I have found myself almost eagerly looking out for kranky’s monthly NTS show, amid a sense that a lot of the new music the station plays seems to link implicitly to kranky sounds and aesthetics, past and present.

Anyway, the finished version of Time Will Tell, was licensed by More Rockers to the American label BSI, operating out of Portland. The BSI I believe standing for Bucolic Sound Investigations. I say I believe as, you might not be surprised to learn, I wasn’t aware of the label until recently. They seem to have had an impressive catalogue though, with a strong dub and experimental roster featuring Muslimgauze, Alpha & Omega, Rootsman, plus Raz Mesinai who as Badawi had in the mid-1990s released the Bedouin Soundclash set on ROIR, another of the great irregular dub-inspired sets of that time.

Also among the BSI releases is a one-off Pan•American 12” from 2000, pairing ‘east coast bugs’ with ‘esso’, which sounds incredible. I must confess that although I knew the name Pan•American I don’t think I was aware it was Labradford’s Mark Nelson long-running solo project, with several releases being on kranky. Recently, though, while listening to an enchanting claire rousay show on (oh yes!) NTS, I found myself holding my breath to hear ‘Lights on Water’ better, while simultaneously trying to use the Shazam app to find out what it was and where it was from (actually the 2004 Pan•American LP Quiet City).

This led me to the newest release by Pan•American which is a collaboration with Kramer, the second of recent times, called Interior Of An Edifice Under The Sea, which like most of Mark’s recent records is essentially evocative minimal guitar ambient compositions, with added atmospherics, drones and electronic colouration, very much in tune with the natural world.

There’s another Pan•American collaboration, this time with steel guitarist Michael Grigoni, New World, Lonely Ride, released on kranky earlier this year, which is just sublime and achingly beautiful. Increasingly I find minimal guitar records like these work for me in everyday life the same way the best dub collections do, in a calming, meditative sense, or as soul-replenishing background sounds for when this old world starts getting you down.

But I will always be attracted to the type of exquisite ambient or dub techno sounds that, I have found out belatedly, can be found on earlier Pan•American recordings, such as 360 business / 360 bypass from the dawn of the new millennium, which is currently one of my very favourite things and for addicts of Chicago Underground connectivity Rob Mazurek guests while Casey Rice is at the controls, and also the elegant The River Made No Sound set, from 2002, where at times, as with works by Arvo Pärt or Basic Channel (apt refence points I would suggest), the music hardly even seems to be there. More recently the Foam On A Wave label has released a Pan•American EP of lost tracks of this nature, including ‘esso’ from that BSI 12”. The collection is called In Daylight Dub. So, there you go, I told you dub was all around.