Lawrence
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 14:59
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Ehh, most of that Dancehall stuff sounded pretty bad early on. Everything had that goofy Acid House-style bass synth and it wound up just not sounding reggae enough for me. And there's still the problem with murder music which would be hard to avoid concerning how Dancehall is.
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fat_fleet
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 14:59
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Sin Agog wrote: EDIT: Lester Bangs wrote a huge, wonderful article on Jamaica in 1976, when reggae was far from being standard listening in households and colleges in America. As well as describing a huge Nyabinghi block party led by Dadawah, it includes a revealing interview with Bob Marley, who seemed pretty into his brand new cadillac. I might write it up some day as I can't find it online. It's up there with the top two or three things Lester Bangs ever wrote.
That sounds really familiar, was it in Psychotic Reactions[...]?
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Lawrence
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:05
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Well reggae has gotten alot more diverse for such a small scene. I have to admit some of the 'lovers rock' stuff tends to be a little tedious for me to listen to. I tend more towards Dub Reggae though just because it's more experimental.
Collecting old reggae records is a weird market though. Like early blues, you expect to find them on compilations. Most of the older reggae records you find are often poor pressings with lots of sand on them (going by what Russ from Needledrop Records told me...)
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fat_fleet
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:06
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Lawrence wrote: Definitely start with Lee Perry or anything on the ONU-Sound label.
Avoid the Dancehall stuff and make sure you don't get anything alluding to fag-bashing. I just don't find that side to the music particularly cool...
Yeah, I feel like the more you get into the dancehall world, the sketchier the politics with all the misogyny and homophobic stuff...seems like a really violent subculture.
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IanB
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Edited Aug 14, 2013, 18:17
Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:06
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fat_fleet wrote:
Whatta list IanB!
Sorry I got carried away!
If you want to read up on the history then Lloyd Bradley's "Bass Culture" is all but unimprovable as is David Katz' "Soild Foundation". Should be easy enough to get both through a library. The Rough Guide is very good too.I would recommend my sleeve notes for The Front Line box set but reading back twelve years later I think they are probably a bit shit. Not least because I completely forgot, in a UK context, about the under rated and unsung UB40. Rookie hipster mistake!
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Lawrence
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:09
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The problem existed before Dancehall even happened though, so be careful. There were some 80s records that were also a bit sketchy. Probably has to do with the history of Jamaica being a commonwealth, to be fair.
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stray
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:11
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Lawrence wrote: Well reggae has gotten alot more diverse for such a small scene. I have to admit some of the 'lovers rock' stuff tends to be a little tedious for me to listen to. I tend more towards Dub Reggae though just because it's more experimental.
Knowing what bits I know of your music taste you need to listen to the African Headcharge 'My Life in a Hole in the Ground' album if you haven't already (you probably have as you mentioned ON-U Sound). It definitely fulfills all the criteria of experimental, some of it is just too harsh and dissonant for most people.
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Lawrence
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:12
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I have that one.
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zphage
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Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 15:33
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lots of goods stuff already mentioned
to go a little deeper I would recommend
sylvan white:
http://youtu.be/agduXpBciPY
Mighty Three:
http://youtu.be/OCpJcZshNr0
Mike Brooks:
http://youtu.be/GVcNDySdRFI
Milton Henry:
http://youtu.be/EC2yRx5uJxE
Chantells:
http://youtu.be/of98f_EdLxk
Stranger Cole:
http://youtu.be/0uI-zj_iD1A
Kingstonians:
http://youtu.be/pKfN23MhQQ0
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stray
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Edited Aug 14, 2013, 16:15
Re: Reggae - Where to Start?
Aug 14, 2013, 16:14
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Dub kind of started as something to make for a singles B-Side, an alternative mix really of the A Side. It's a genre in it's own right though, with many different forms coming from it. Fundamentally it is still Reggae in Rhythm & Structure just with as you say Electronics (Delays and Reverbs in the main when it started, then with filters and additional sound collaging/editing coming later).
Dub is, for me, the root of all production in electronic music. It's more of a method and a mindset than a sound per se, and its best artists produce dub mixes in a live sense (using a mixing desk and effects as a live instrument). This is the approach that really started with Lee Perry. Build your signal paths, start your sources rolling, then jam.
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