DUBROOM ALBUM REVIEW
When you hear "Inner Circle", changes are that you think of highly commercial reggae, such as their theme song "Bad Boys" which they made for a television program. Others will remember this band from their days with singer Jacob Miller, who unfortunately died much too early in a car accident. Few will remember them for their really killer dubwise albums. And that is really a shame, because this is a Heavyweight Killer Dub album that you'll bound to remember even after hearing it once. So much respect is due to Blood And Fire, for re-releasing another great CD! Heavyweight Dub and Killer Dub were both originally released in 1978. One LP (as they were called back then) was mixed by the mighty Prince Jammy in King Tubby's studio's (Killer), the other one by Maximillian, a reasonably unknown engineer at Channel One Studio's. Further, there's an all star list of musicians who participated in this set of tracks.
It sure is heavyweight, and it sure is a killer! There are many really hard rocking steppers rhythms on this 19 track set, some dubs from well known tracks such as well, and everything is mixed very well too, I can't or won't say different. This is the kind of album that you play when someone asks you what's so special about all this "old skool" material. The riddims are very interesting to listen to, the mixes are intense, and the psychedelic sounds that make Dub what it is, are created the way they should be: by adding effects to instruments.
Although the two albums are mixed by different engineers in different studio's, they match each other perfectly. If I had to choose between them, I would favor the first album (Heavyweight Dub, by Maximillian), because it's mixed much more psychedelically. But really the choice is almost impossible. To have both albums on one CD makes the choice unnecessary anyway.
Doesn't this CD have any negative points? Yes, it does. The lack of vocals is a thing that really bothers me. Only in the last track can you hear some vocals. A little more snippets of Jacob "Killer" Miller's vocals would have been a welcome addition to this set. But perhaps it would then become "too heavyweight", and that's another CD.
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