| Most
of the time, when you buy an album, the
record is credited to the artist. This
doesn't necessarily have to be the case in
Reggae Music, where the name of the engineer
(Dub mixer) makes a regular appearance. But
also the producer's name sometimes is
printed on the cover. Black Foundation Dub
is such an album. It gives you an indication
of the influence that a producer can have on
the music that he produces. Sometimes being
a producer simply means to pay for the
project, but not so in the case of Gussie
Clarke and this album proves it. Clarke has
produced many of the really big names in
reggae: I Roy, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown,
Augustus Pablo, to name but four. He's been
in the music runnings since the late 1960's,
when he started to produce tunes for sound
systems. You can find some stories in the
liner notes, like the one in which Gussie
tells us how he swapped the music rights of
a Delroy Wilson tune for an amplifier. This
illustrates very much the unique Culture in
which albums like Black Foundation Dub have
come to exist.
With the Barret Brothers (Bob Marley and
the Wailers) on drum and bass on most
tracks, a very solid foundation is layed
down for the joyous Gussie Clarke sound as
found on this album. If I had only one word
to describe the vibe, it would be the word
"joyful". Where DUB can be very
intense, even haunting, not much of this is
found on Black Foundation Dub. Instead of
heavy dub, you'll get a more subtle
variation of this Reggae Re-mix genre.
Gussie has participated a little in the
mixing of Black Foundation, but he left most
of the dubbing to King Tubby and Phillip
Smart (Tappa Zukie In Dub). Because, as he
says in the Liner Notes, he regarded himself
only a student in this discipline. But that
doesn't mean, that he had no big influence
in the sound. The vibe on the album is much
to consistent for that.
Black Foundation Dub was originally
released on vinyl in the 1970's. There were
only a limited number of copies, so give
thanks to MOTION RECORDS for re-releasing
it. The CD comes with three bonus tracks,
the vinyl version with two. One of them is a
special extended mix from an Augustus Pablo
track called "No Entry".
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