7. Dub SyndicateClassic Selection Volume 2
I can’t remember ever not liking dub, especially having lived in Ladbroke Grove for many decades. The same classical music person who was going about Talking Heads told me that he didn’t like reggae. I can’t imagine a world where you wouldn’t like reggae! I found that very hard to swallow. The early things for me were King Tubby and the classic dub records, and then I really enjoyed Adrian Sherwood’s work because it was from here, and he was using the studio to put his own stamp on it, and early digital equipment to create more space within the music. I could have included Dub Syndicate’s Classic Selection Volume 1, 2 or 3 on here, because, again, it was music that I would listen to again and again and again until I knew every reverb tail and every fill. That kind of minimalism is something I’d love to achieve, but I find it quite hard because I start as a maximalist and then take stuff away, always throwing more ideas than I need. So I’m very in awe of Adrian Sherwood’s work. I still buy most of his records to this day.
I’ve done three Oracle Sound dub albums in the last year and a half; it seems to come to me very quickly. I can make a dub track in a morning. Then when I try to listen back to them, it’s really strange because I can’t remember making them. I think there’s a subconscious state that I reach just by having a Space Echo.
In your book you recall an as-yet unreleased attempt to make a Dub Syndicate inspired track with The Grid called ‘Shoplifter’…
Dub Syndicate did a track called ‘Lack Of Education’ with this Bristolian street poet bloke called Andy Fairley, so we got this Shakespearean lush from Dave [Ball, The Grid]’s local pub to come sing over my version. It never came out because it involved him saying he liked to steal from “Mr. Branson’s shop.” Virgin [the band’s Richard Branson-owned label] took one listen and said, ‘No. That’s never going to come out.’ But it will one day. I found it in my attic.
