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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