Gregory Isaacs - Dub A Di Number One

Gregory Isaacs - Dub A Di Number One
DUBROOM ALBUM REVIEW



An album with a title like this one, containing heavy duty riddims and mixes from such as Ernest Hoo-Kim and Errol T is a must for every lover of Dubwise Style as I would say. But does the title cover the contents? I think so! That is why this album gets the highest possible rating of three full stars.

During his long time carriere, Gregory has put out some massive Roots and DUB tunes. Although Gregory Isaacs is mostly known for his smooth Lovers' Rock tunes, there is another side of the Cool Ruler and that side is prominently featured on this album. This side makes him interesting for the hard core Dub heads who you can't get into enjoying Lovers' Rock.

For those who are familiar with Gregory Isaac's great Dub album "Slum Dub": Dub A De Number One definitely contains the same atmosphere. The same thing you'll also find on the Blood and Fire Inner Circle release Heavyweight Dub. The music rocks hard and the echo's go straight to your head. Everything in in the "orthodox" Roots tradition.

But Dub Da Number One goes further than the two albums mentioned above. It contains a set of dubs "From the Archives" so to speak, mostly stuff which was previously unreleased (and I wonder why), but you'll also find dubs from a recent release, "I found Love". This album was produced together with the famous Reggae guitarist Ernest Ranglin. Now, the great thing with this all is, that you don't have to expect some digital cross-over music, or ragga when you know that there's recent music on the disc too.

Riddim after riddim, some pretty well known, mix after mix, the album remains interesting. Every now and then I just got to get up from my chair, stop writing and start skanking. Time to disturb the neighborhood and remind them, that Dub is The Number One. Fortunately, they agree!