Letter #35

Good morning / afternoon / evening everyone,

I hope you’ve had a great week. This week we’re all in for a treat – we have a brilliant guest editor, Olly Batho from Frisson, who’s put together a great mixtape and a love letter to dub.

HERE’S THE MIXTAPE

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As well as regular spots at Spiritland, having his record collection profiled onThe Vinyl Factory, and being an all-round lovely guy, Olly runs the excellentFrisson daily mixtape. It’s a constant source of brilliant music, and lovely accompanying stories too. I highly recommend it!

Thanks to Olly for this week’s guest letter, without further ado…

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I want to thank Jed for putting me in the driving seat for this week’s list, what an honour. Friday’s for me are now synonymous with Love Will Save the Day, and I would add that whittling this list down to 30 was very challenging indeed.

I’ve themed this list around ‘dub’ and its mutant variants, whilst keeping an eye on the three part Leary / Mancuso / Love Will Save the Day ‘bardos’…

I realised recently just how much dub has influenced my musical outlook. Growing up attending sessions such as the University of Dub, Jah Shaka and Channel One events, alongside the Notting Hill Carnival, has shaped my perception of many other genres beyond the original source (roots, reggae etc). This list aims to chart the way in which dub has infiltrated my tastes and show its influence amongst other musical backdrops.

I’ve built it from the foundations up, starting with the original pioneers and masters of vintage studio trickery. King Tubby, Mittoo, The Revolutionaries and Mad Professor all feature early on, and its Scratch Perry that kicks things off, he’ll return throughout the list, but here we find him at his most playful. Inviting bullfrog, alligator, and music lovers alike to join him on the journey. I think that’s all of us then? Warrior Stance is a shout to Jah Shaka and representative of early digi dub that was / is so prominent within UK sound system culture.

From here things go further East, and more transcendental, with material from Sahel Sounds pushing things into North African desert territory, and Digital Mystikz presenting Scratch Perry’s return in a more haunting role. The Rhythm and Sound track is probably the deepest we go, bringing that German dub techno aesthetic to simmer underneath vocals from Jamaican royalty Cornel Campbell. I’ve also included a deadly track by Ramadanman, with brooding bass and the beginnings of those drums that would later form the basis of his Pearson Sound alter ego. Following this, dub infected dancehall / reggaeton rhythms in the form of DJ Python, and Elite Beat, then Latin American influenced productions by Mala who definitely knows his way around low end frequencies. Qawwali brings that immersive and sparse type of dubstep that was incredible in pushing the genre in all the right directions in 2006.

Skull Dub is a prime example of a track that I instantly loved largely due to its dub stylings, it also provides the perfect jump off into some skippy two-step and the third part of the Mancuso / Leary mantra; re-entry. Alongside the stripped back swagger there is something slightly punk-funk about the Laps track that paves the way neatly into some favourite disco dub material. To finish I’ve gone full circle back to where we started in Jah, Scientist with his dub version of the Tamlins / Nina Simone classic – Baltimore. I really hope you enjoy, and please do listen in order – that is important!

As always, if you’ve read to here, thanks for indulging me ♥️ .

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