Back in the late 70s when punk was exploding across the UK, no self respecting serious young white music fan could wear his bum flap or 'Complete Control' badge with pride without at least a working knowledge of heavy dub music. With the Clash pioneering it at their gigs, the Ruts signing to People Unite and the Rock Against Racism marches routinely featuring Steel Pulse and Aswad, dub had never had a wider audience.
Now, with the rap wars having been fought and won, reggae for the masses outside Jamaica means the occasional Bob Marley homage and that nice Lauryn Hill getting in on the act.
But these were extraordinary records, extraordinary sounds, mind-boggling echo effects that few of us had even dreamed existed. How could anyone drum like that and what was that noise? And, when you'd pogoed yourself into the ground, they were a great way to come down. We didn't smoke dope where I lived, but what fantastic voyage must these sounds and that flakey reality have sent you off on?
Inner Circle were more famous than Bob Marley at home. They played on a mountain of hits for singers such as Dennis Brown and Eric Donaldson, backed Augustus Pablo and allied themsleves with politician Malcolm Manley's PNP. Heavyweight musicians with a heavyweight sound - though as was the norm their musical personality was split between their commercial ambitions and their more experimental, and interesting, dub versions based on previous hits.
That's what we have here, twenty nine tracks of pinging, lost in space snare, chunking guitar stabs and rumbling, skull numbing bass. It's the sound of brillaint musicians strippig it down and stretching out. 'Dread At The Control', 'Unemployment Rock', 'General Amin', great titles that mean nothing but add to the mix. The Clash revival came last year, now it's time for the music we enjoyed as we queued at the Electric Ballroom bar in Camden Town.
