Roots Archives Forum

Visitor wrote:It doesn't matter if the music is good or bad. Thats not the point why some people avoid Jamaican Recordings.

Listen for example "Rare Dubs" by Augustus Pablo. If you have good ears you will notice it isn't by Augustus Pablo... although its credited to him. This goes same for everything that this label releases. You see?

Whilst we're questioning Jamaican Recordings how did they licence Lee Perry productions from Bunny Lee and not know that they were fakes?

Incidentally I really like this release

Jamaican Recordings are well known for their outrageous fakery, especially with any of their Lee Perry releases. Their *Dub Treasures From The Black Ark* was mostly non-Black Ark tracks crudely remixed in an effort to sound like Scratch.

In answer to your question Congo Bunny, I heard a rumour that it's Bunny Lee's son who does the "remixing", so that would explain a lot!

Mick Sleeper wrote:Jamaican Recordings are well known for their outrageous fakery, especially with any of their Lee Perry releases. Their Dub Treasures From The Black Ark was mostly non-Black Ark tracks crudely remixed in an effort to sound like Scratch.

In answer to your question Congo Bunny, I heard a rumour that it's Bunny Lee's son who does the "remixing", so that would explain a lot!

Mick, Nuton Williams does the majority of these mixes, they are contemporary mixes of older tracks. If you notice most of JRs releases list the recording studio and musicians, but almost never is the actual mixing engineer mentioned. It would be nice if they were more upfront about things.

Any of these identified as "essential pick" at our favorite reseller?

It would be nice if they were more upfront about things.

Yes, like a big red sticker that says *Warning! Remixed By Some Guy*

Not to defend them but now that I know what it really indicates, the "unreleased versions straight from the master tapes" notation they often use actually makes sense. Straight from the masters in this case seems to indicate new mixes taken from original unmixed masters.
It makes sense that Bunny Lee would have old tapes like this. Say he did a session at Channel One, then took the tapes to Tubby's for mixing, he'd still have those unmixed masters somewhere, right?. It's actually kind of a cool idea,from a certain perspective, to take those old tapes and do something new with them. And some of the new dubs I've heard, though marred by pro tools digital sounds, are actually pretty inspired mixes. In one sense it's refreshing that someone still has the vibes to do it well. In my experience the problem (with the dubs at least- cant speak to the melodica stuff) isn't that the dubs suck, just that they're misleading about who is behind it.
I have a friend who loved the Cornell Campbell Gorgon Dubwise record. He felt the mix was brilliant. When I explained it was a new digital mix of old tapes he was let down but we kind of decided "hey, if you enjoy it, just enjoy it and forget about the rest"
I personally find though, that once you pick up on the digital effects you can't unhear it and it continues to jar a bit.

I have to agree Flashman

I ha e enjoyed the "Pablo" one and the tribute to studio 1 one very much and just except them as new remixed stuff.

Clearly they would have a lot more credibility if they were just honest about what they were though, they are packaged to try to fool people

Agreed also. The Horace Andy Dub Box has some nice mixing work.

Yeah, maybe we should be saying "why don't they give Nuton Williams credit?" He deserves it for his work.