Fasten your seatbelts and let Don Letts take you on a guided tour of the reggae cover version...
Cultural polymath - pop star, filmmaker, radio broadcaster, commentator, Grammy winner. Oh and DJ, too. Take your pick from the many coats worn by our selector, Don Letts aka The Rebel Dread.
“A disciple of sound system, raised on reggae n’ bass culture my go to sound was dub. Besides being spacious and sonically adventurous at the same time, its most appealing aspect was the space it left to put yourself ‘in the mix’ underpinned by Jamaica’s gift to the world - bass. But that’s only half the story as the duality of my existence meant I was also checking what the Caucasian crew were up to not to mention the explosion of black music coming in from the States. That’s why this version excursion crosses time space and genre, from The Beach Boys to The Beatles, Nina Simone to Marvin Gaye, The Bee Gees to Kool & The Gang, The Clash to Joy Division and beyond. You’d think it impossible to draw a line between ‘em but not in my world. Fortunately, the ‘cover version’ has played an integral part in the evolution of Jamaican music and dub covers were just a natural extension.”
There’s a diverse mix of classic and new, with legendary figures like John Holt, The Tamlins and Cornell Campbell, mixed in with British veterans Mad Professor and the irrepressible Dennis Bovell, while (relatively) young striplings Kiko Bun, Emily Capell and Prince Fatty deliver the goods, with laidback Texan groovers Khruangbin also offering an exclusive bass heavy-delight.
Vinyl Tracklisting:
A1 Ghetto Priest - Hercules (North Street West 'Late Night Tales' Dub) - 4:12 A2 Prince Fatty & Shniece McMenamin - Black Rabbit - 3:50
A3 Wrongtom Meets The Rockers - Dub In The Supermarket - 3:39
A4 Gaudi Meets The Rebel Dread ft. Emily Capell - E = MC2 - 5:08
A5 Rude Boy - Superstylin' - 4:39
B6 Capitol 1212 ft. Earl 16 - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Full Vocal Dub) - 3:46
B7 Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno - All I Do Is Think About You (Far East Dub) - 3:21
B8 Zoe Devlin Love ft. Tim Hutton - Caroline No - 2:41
B9 John Holt - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine (Mad Professor 2021 Dub) - 3:53
B10 Cornell Campbell - Ital City Dub - 3:07
B11 Matumbi - (I Can't Get Enough Of) That Reggae Stuff (Dennis Bovell Remix) - 5:00
C12 Gentleman's Dub Club ft. Kiko Bun - Use Me (Ben McKone Dub) - 4:35 C13 Black Box Recorder - Uptown Top Ranking - 4:06
C14 OBF - Sixteen Tons Of Dub - 3:24
C15 Yasushi Ide - Ain't No Sunshine (Space Dub Mix) - 3:01
D16 The Tamlins - Baltimore - 4:38
D17 15 16 17 - Emotion (Dennis Bovell Remix) - 4:31
D18 Ash Walker - There's Nothing Like This - 3:47
D19 The Senior Allstars - Slipping Into Darkness - 5:52
D20 Easy Star All-Stars - Within You Without You - 5:14
D21 Khruangbin - Dern Kala (Khruangbin Dub Mix) - 4:03
