LONE RANGER - OTHER SIDE OF DUB

LONE RANGER - OTHER SIDE OF DUB
DUBROOM ALBUM REVIEW



If you want to know what the other side of Dub is, you might as well check out the other side of Reggae too.

What is the other side? What are the other sides?

Well, at least one of them is a side that is not easily recognized by people in the western world, the so called first world.

And that is, that Reggae Music is first and foremost a Sufferer's Music. It's born in Jamaica, under the most heavy conditions. Many tunes were produced while bullets were flying around studio's in what was just another gangster war.

How do you think you think you play under circumstances like that?

Another, yes yet another side is the musical technology that was used in the days when Reggae was developed.

Studio's like Channel One and King Tubby's DUB Laboratory were created by technical experts who were able to create sound equipment with material that musicians in the West felt too good for. Yes, even the school-bands who can't even get a single tone right.

What many perceive to be the "charm of Reggae" (especially the older recordings), is directly related to all these conditions. The rough sound, and the heartical vibes come out of the soul of the sufferers.

Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the legendary STUDIO ONE. Many of the basslines that make Reggae Music were born in that studio.

Decades later still going strong!

With nothing more then a two track, and later a four-track Coxsone Dodd literally recorded the start of so many of Reggae's legends.

You name them, they started at Studio One.

And you hear it. Because the sound of Studio One stands symbolic for the fact that Reggae Music is first and foremost a sufferer's music.

And that's the other side of Reggae. And with that, the other side of Dub.

It's a great album, a classic among the classics. In a nice combination of versions (dubby instrumentals) and Toasting Tunes, you hear how only true masters managed to get a sound like this under conditions like that.

And the Lone Ranger? He was the Toaster or DJ at Studio One.

Toasting is Reggae Rapping. Or actually, Rapping is R&B Toasting. Just another side of Dub.

On The Other Side Of Dub you can hear the Lone Ranger toasting. And while you do, you can rightfully wonder why you perhaps know so little of him. Because the Lone Ranger is just as good or better than toasters like Dillinger and Trinity.

So there you have a lot of reasons to buy this album.

First, it is a proof of the fact that Reggae is a Sufferer's Music. No doubt about it when you hear this one.

Second, it is an impressive document of the technical skills of players, vocalists and producers at the legendary Studio One.

Third, Lone Ranger simply is one of the top toasters of Jamaica during the 1970's.

Do It!