Dub 244 Artikel

Herman Chin Loy wants the world to know the truth about his musical vision, realized in a series of fantastic records released throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. And how his mission was interrupted in the early 1990s.

“I would like to start off by saying: what about the half that has never been told, who so bold, for the price of gold. The first part is like a Jamaican proverb, but who so bold, for the price of gold, is the part that I put in, because it is all about gold. My mission on this earth is all about the music. But if you want to know the truth, follow the money!”

Herman’s musical trip had a wonderfully sunny start, before ending in acrimony and intrigue. Follow the money indeed… He started by selling records for Leslie Kong, then opened his own One Stop record shop, before moving on to KG’s electrical appliance store in Halfway Tree and deejaying at their discoteque, the Lotus A Go Go.

“It was the age of Aquarius! Whatever was in the air, or what got my attention at the time would find its way into the music, cos I was very creative.”

So Herman turned his keen ears towards record production. The Aquarius and Scorpio labels had a fine run of hit tunes, known for their unusual arrangements and imaginative productions. Many cuts featured Herman himself talking over them. Others were moody instrumentals, for which Herman invented the name Augustus Pablo.

“The name came out of my head. Augustus Pablo – it sounded real not normal! Horace Swaby is the one that I really put the name with, but before that it was Lloyd Charmers, he did some songs for me under that name. Well Horace Swaby came back to me and said can I use the name on my own productions, and I said sure, go ahead. Cos I was not interested in money per se, I was interested in helping others along.”

Kingston in the early 70s was on fire with new music, and Herman put on the afterburners to release Aquarius Dub, probably the world’s first dub LP.

“People always used to come to the store and they want to buy the dub music, but they couldn’t get it easily, so I said let me put all these things together as an LP, and let’s put no label on it so it looks like a dub [plate], and let’s sell it as a dub album. And I was the first one to do that, for sure. I remember when I took the record down to sell it to Randy’s, well they just scoff at it to some degree. Well if people didn’t want to sell my music, then I would just say ‘fuck off with you’, I’ll just sell my music myself, from my own shop and nowhere else.”

Herman then opened the Aquarius Records shop on Constant Spring Road, with a busy bus stop right outside providing a captive audience. Big speakers were placed out in the street, and Herman acted as a vibes man and entertainer, running in and out of the shop and dragging customers inside. As the crowds grew bigger, Aquarius became extremely influential, and the energetic Herman could make or break the latest tunes.

“Well once we get going now, the Aquarius record shop sells more records than anyone in Jamaica. And the people get to know me and come to hang out to see what we play. And soon all musicians start gathering there, like Tommy McCook and the Wailers and everyone, cos Aquarius was the place to be.”

In one infamous incident, Peter Tosh was hanging around outside the shop, when plain-clothes police grabbed the spliff he was smoking and dragged him back to Halfway Tree police station, where he was brutally beaten. Herman and Tommy McCook were the ones who bailed him out.

“Peter Tosh was feisty and got in some trouble sometimes, but then we all did – heheheh. I had always hung around with the bad boys.”

Herman had by now brought his brother Lloyd into the business, and together they opened the Aquarius Studio, fitted out to an extremely high standard by Rosser Electronics, from Swansea in Wales. The studio is probably most remembered today for the recordings made there by Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. But it was also the seedbed for some interesting offshoots into jazz and soul, with Herman always pushing up against the boundaries of what was conventional. Interestingly, Herman retains a huge affection for Lee “Scratch” Perry, and the mystic experiments that came out of his Black Ark studio.

“Well Scratch was a mad guy, a crazy dude. When we were a youth, the two of us make some records with a bit of screaming and shouting on top. So I come with “here is the news, the great bugga wugga from arugga”, and some other foolishness, just like Scratch, who come with the Chicken Scratch. It was a youthman thing. Then later he came into the shop one day looking like Haile Selassie. And I say “bloodclaat Scratch, you can’t go around looking so”, and he take off him cap and looked inside and pull out some cigarette butt he found in there. And he had a girlfriend name Pauline, and when the two of them fall out, he threw everything out of the studio that had the letter P on it! He was one crazy dude.”

Herman was developing his own unique world view derived partly from a rejection of conventional politics, alongside a distinctive reading of the Bible.

“Musicism is because you have socialism, communism and capitalism, so I thought Musicism would be a good thing to forge people together, to stop them yelling at each other and murdering each other. I thought it would be a good place for everybody to come together. Then I started a little thing down by Trenchtown there, where I was getting people from Rema and from Jungle to get together, but it mashed up in a little while because in the heat of the moment the guns would bark, and for the sake of my life I opted out of that, you know. But Musicism was a thought, so I continued to have an album called Musicism, and you’re talking about people like Linval Thompson, Sugar Minott. I was saying to the people of Jamaica, let’s not vote JLP, let’s not vote PNP, let it be that Musicism is a place where it’s not politics, and where people can talk to each other, so Musicism was birthed out of that.. So we had all sorts of things going on with the Musicism label, and I would put an album with the vocal and then have another album with the dub, because I was into business, I was into making money, but what drives me into the music was the music itself, because I really love the music.”

This reissue is of two extremely rare LPs that came out on Musicism in 1983, a couple of years after dub had declined in popularity as an album form in Jamaica. They were released in the generic 12-inch sleeves of the American label TK Disco, which had recently ceased trading, picked up on Herman’s travels to Miami. The labels were either blank or stamped with the wrong song titles from a similarly obscure vocal compilation. A handful of copies were exported to London and the U.S., and the remainder were sold exclusively by the Aquarius shop.

“In the studio we used to work really fast in them days, especially with Karl Pitterson. Karl Pitterson was one of the most efficient engineers you would ever find, and him and me had a great understanding. So the studio ran real fast. Then there was this guy Steven Stanley who was just a little youngster when he start with me, but he went on to Compass Point and working with Chris Blackwell. He was a little uppity, a bit prideful, although he didn’t even recognise that, but still he was a really good engineer. So we had these people to work for me, and it didn’t take long to do what I did. So it’s strange that we did these things so fast, so many years ago, and they still have a public that wants to hear them today.”

Herman also had an eccentric label called Selection Exclusive which mainly released 12 inch singles with hand-stamped titles on the labels, or sometimes no title at all, wrapped in more of those generic TK Disco sleeves. If this wasn’t enough to throw off even the most serious collector, instead of the expected version on the B-side, there would often be a totally different tune from 10 years earlier, sometimes with Herman whispering smokey rhymes over the top.

“Selection Exclusive was birthed where I was selling this dub album exclusive, but it was expensive. So I don’t think much people knew about these records, but the collectors knew, and these records were selling for hundreds of [Jamaican] dollars more than a normal LP. So this dub album come out and I give it to the sound systems, I give it to Gemini and Merritone, so that they play it all the time. I never give my records to the radio station. And I made so much money out of this album, that it was exclusive expensive!” Finally, it was a family dispute with Herman’s brother Lloyd that derailed the Aquarius and Musicism train. The outcome was that Lloyd took the studio and Herman kept the record shop.

“I go to court twice and lost all of that money, and my brother won control of the studio. But then they try to write me out of history. And I get so upset when I really think about it. I’m not saying I’ve never done anything wrong in my life. We all need to repent. You see, I have to tell the truth: what about the half that’s never been told! But there was some skulduggery going on then.”

Nowadays there are no record shops on Constant Spring Road. The block which housed Aquarius is now home to Usain Bolt’s Tracks And Records restaurant. Herman joined the steady exodus of Jamaicans to Miami, and today finds him using his verbal dexterity and irrepressible energy to sell Sorrel drinks filled with medicinal herbs, ginger and turmeric. But his music is still out there, circling the globe through speakers and headphones...

“I always want my music to be on a higher plane, like to carry some message. And a dub album gives plenty of space for the message. Just because there are no words, it doesn’t mean that it don’t communicate. If you listen carefully, you will hear it properly, and so the message will reach down through the years, and spread to the people again. This is a spiritual conversation, cos I have reached to a different spiritual plane!”

- Diggory Kenrick

Musicians include: Drums – Mikey “Boo” Richards, Paul Douglas Bass – Aston “Family Man” Barrett, Val Douglas Guitar – Mikey Chung, Willie Lindo, Lennox Gordon, Carl Harvey Keyboards – Robbie Lyn, Leslie Butler, Geoffrey Chung Horns – Arnold Brackenridge, Ronald “Nambo” Robinson, David Madden, Dean Fraser

Reissue des sechsten Albums (1993) der legendären Psychedelic-Dub-Formation African Head Charge um den jamaikanischen Produzenten & Percussionisten Bonjo Iyaginhi Noah. Erweitert auf Doppelformat, enthält diese 2LP zusätzlich zu den Tracks der Original-LP (Seiten A & B) 5 weitere Titel der Original-CD, den Titel "Run Come See Me" aus der 7"-Beilage zur Original-LP-Erstauflage, sowie die beiden unveröffentlichten Tunes "Rastaman" und "Pursuit (Underpulse Motion DJ Edit)", einem Remix & Edit von Patrick Dokter. 2LP auf schwarzem Doppelvinyl mit Downloadcard plus 24 x 12" Faltposter mit raren Fotos und neuem Interview mit Bandleader Bonjo Iyaginhi Noah.

Auf Adrian Sherwood's neuer Compilation, die über Real World Records erscheint, wird Sängerinnen Platz gegeben, die oft männlich dominierten Dub- & Raggae Szene zurückzuerobern. Auf insgesamt 10 Songs sind unter anderem Likkle Mai (auf Japanisch), Rita Morar (auf Hindi), Kerieva (auf Romani), Neyssatou (auf Arabisch) & Yehaiyahan (auf Chinesisch). Das Album ist dem Gedenken an Ariane 'Ari Up' Forster und Lincoln Valentine 'Style' Scott gewidmet.

"Happy Hour in Dub" ist ein himmlisches Set von Dub-Versionen, basierend auf Hollie Cooks von der Kritik gefeiertem 2022er Album "Happy Hour", und ihr erstes komplettes Dub-Album seit 2012. "Happy Hour in Dub" wurde durch das genaue Anhören des modernen Lovers Rock des Originalalbums ins Leben gerufen. Cook und Mckone erklären: "Der Grund und die Inspiration für die Dub-Platte ist, dass "Happy Hour" in seiner ursprünglichen Form so viele komplizierte musikalische Feinheiten hat, die sich durch die Songs ziehen - von den Hintergrundgesang- und Streicherarrangements bis hin zu einigen viel subtileren Details. Und als wir beim Abmischen einige dieser Parts alleinstehend über dem Schlagzeug- und Bassfundament hörten, hatten wir das Gefühl, dass es noch so viel zu erforschen und freizulegen gab..." An den Reglern sitzt neben Hollie der Produzent von Happy Hour, Ben Mckone, der ihre gefühlvollen Kreationen bis an ihre klanglichen Grenzen ausreizt, dazu kommen neue Gesangseinlagen von Josh Skints und Kiko Bun.

Zu Beginn der 1980er-Jahre zählten sie zu den größten Acts des Planeten, und ihre Reunion-Tour füllte 2007 weltweit die Hallen und Stadien: The Police. Wie kaum eine andere Popband profitierte das Trio von Einflüssen afrikanischer und vor allem jamaikanischer Musik. Songs wie "So Lonely" und "My Bed"s Too Big Without You" wären nichts ohne Stings parallel zum Gesang gezimmertes Bass-Fundament, und "Walking On The Moon" ist wahrscheinlich eine der wenigen Reggae-Killer-Basslinien, die außerhalb Jamaikas entstanden sind. Zeit für eine Würdigung der besonderen Art: "DubXanne" ist das wohl erste Dub-Showcase, das komplett auf Police-Riddims basiert. Eingespielt wurde das Album von Okada, der Backing-Band des Reggaekünstlers Zoe, und vielen Gästen wie Earl 16, Rankin Rogers, Eased (Seeed) und dem Dichter Benjamin Zephaniah. Das Ergebnis sind gesättigte Bässe, ein dynamisches, repetitives Gleichmaß, Sound-System-Atmosphäre und vor allem: Synchronicity - eine Rückkoppelung der abstrahierten Reggaeelemente von The Police mit deren jamaikanischen Wurzeln.

Reissue des zweiten Albums (1982) der legendären Psychedelic-Dub-Formation African Head Charge um den jamaikanischen Produzenten & Percussionisten Bonjo Iyaginhi Noah, dessen damals undefinierbarer Sound massgeblichen Einfluss auf experimentelle Bass-Labels wie Hyperdub oder Tectonic hatte. An den Aufnahmen beteiligt waren auch Bruce Smith (The Pop Group), Style Scott (Roots Radics) und Deadly Headley (The Wailers). Re-cut by Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, for maximum bass pressure! LP auf schwarzem Vinyl mit Downloadcard und bedruckten Innentaschen mit Sleevenotes von Steve Barker (On The Wire).

Wenn ihr Dub-Reggae der 70er Jahre liebt, dann ist diese Limitierte Yellow LP eine wichtige Ergänzung eurer Sammlung! Der Produzent Joe Gibbs war für die vier Mitte der 70er Jahre unter dem Titel African Dub All-Mighty veröffentlichten Scheiben verantwortlich, aber die Musiker waren in Wirklichkeit eine wechselnde Ansammlung von Mitgliedern der Bands Soul Syndicate, We the People und The Revolutionaries sowie das ergänzende Genie hinter dem Mischpult Errol Thompson.

Endlich wieder auf Vinyl erhältlich. Jetzt auch exklusiv bei HHV in gelb. Hier aber wie früher, schwarz.

Das Volle-Länge-Debüt von Jacques Palminger! Eingespielt mit seiner Dub-Formation, den Kings of Dub Rock: Hier die personifizierte Sphäre, die menschliche Veredelung, die elegante Sängerin Rica Blunck - dort der drahtige, elektronische Freigeist Viktor Marek, ein Beat-Schmied von höchsten Gnaden und Graden. Dazwischen lässt Jacques Palminger seinen Worten freien Lauf und beschwört, schimpft und jammert, dass es seine helle Freude ist!
„Es wird klar, dass nur der richtige Mann die falschen Lieder singen muss, damit sie richtig werden. Oder besser: Es muss nur der richtige Mann kommen, einem zu erklären, dass diese Lieder nie falsch waren. Jacques Palminger, dieser aufrechte Mann und seine Musik haben noch Großes vor sich: Ein Leid geht um die Welt.“ (FAZ)
Inklusive "Worte nur Worte", "Polizeihubschrauber" und "Kolany".

Dieses Dub-Album ist das Pendant zu dem 1978 veröffentlichten Fünf-Sterne-Album "Africa Must Be Free By 1983" und unterstreicht die Beziehung zwischen dem Produzenten Augustus Pablo und dem Künstler Hugh Mundell. Pablos Dub-Produktionen, gemischt von Prince Jammy, bilden die perfekte Ergänzung zu diesen klassischen Rhythmen und Melodien. Das von Kevin Metcalfe anlässlich des 40-jährigen Bestehens des Greensleeves-Labels neu gemasterte Album ist ein Beispiel dafür, warum Augustus Pablo auch nach Jahrzehnten noch Reggae-Fans und -Musiker inspiriert.