Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - The 1970s Dub Albums Collection (2023)

While not as well known as the titans of dub reggae like King Tubby and Lee Perry, or as respected as second-tier wizards like Scientist and Yabby You, Errol Thompson cooked up some magic when he paired with Joe Gibbs in the 1970s. Working together as the Mighty Two, they were responsible for a huge number of reggae hits as well as the series of dub albums collected here. Recorded between 1974 and 1979 and credited to Joe Gibbs & the Professionals, the recordings are an excursion into heavy rhythms, stripped-down tracks, and booming bass shepherded by the steady hand of Thompson. He doesn't go in for the woody mysticism of Perry or the ghostly sparseness of King Tubby. His productions, especially on the earlier albums, lean more towards the melodic and robust. He doesn't always subtract instruments or leave long stretches of space; instead, he lets the song play out in recognizable form. It helps that he was working with hits plucked from Gibbs' Studio One label; it's hard to make dub magic out of inferior source material. Despite Thompson's seemingly simple technique, he was something of a joker, adding odd sound effects like doorbells or barking dogs at random times and on later records going off on weird tangents like dropping in synths borrowed from Giorgio Moroder or devoting entire tracks to disco, like the fun and funky "Bionic Encounter." By the time of 1976's African Dub Chapter Two, Thompson was making music on par with the biggest names in dub. When African Dub Chapter Three was released a year later, he was coming close to surpassing them. Tracks like "Freedom Call" and "Angolian Chant" have all the power of Tubby's best work while bobbing and weaving like Perry at his slipperiest. Along with the original albums issued at the time is an eighth one made up of singles released throughout the last half of the decade. It all adds up to a truly magical listen and does well to spotlight one of the forgotten greats of the genre; Gibbs' name might be on the cover, but it's all Errol Thompson on the inside. Listening to the set from beginning to end is a fascinating journey that gives one a ringside seat to Thompson's growth as a producer and the evolution of dub itself from stripped-down instrumentals to an anything-goes art form all its own.

The 1970s were a golden age for dub music, with the decade witnessing its humble beginnings through to it becoming a dominant force on the Jamaican music scene. Throughout this fascinating evolution were a handful of pioneering sound engineers who transformed the style from relatively simple experimentations in sound to awe-inspiring reggae masterpieces, with their pioneering work continuing to inspire and influence music makers the world over, up until the present day. Leading this dub revolution were such seminal figures as King Tubby, Errol Brown, Scientist, Prince Jammy and perennial hitmaker, Errol Thompson, whose work with music impresario Joe Gibbs produced some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and beyond.

Much of the latter’s dub output from the decade was featured on seven popular long- players that saw issue in Jamaica on Gibbs’s eponymously titled record label between 1974 and 1979, commencing with the experimental, yet hugely influential, ‘Dub Serial’ and ultimately culminating with the suitably titled ‘Majestic Dub’ from five years later. Now, for the first time ever, all of these classic dub masterpieces are collected on this essential 4CD collection, which, as a bonus, also includes a dozen superb dub sides from the close of the 70s, all of which make their CD debut.