* 1976 INSTRUMENTAL DUB CLASSIC *
Jasper | New England | 09/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Well Charged consists of a number of dub versions of tracks mostly from The Mighty Diamonds LP, "Right Time." The music here is played by a loose group of the finest Jamaican session men, known collectively as The Revolutionaries ("Vital Dub" is just a name given the Revolutionaries by this particular producer for this particular set). The results are nine tracks of purely ecstatic instrumental dub from 1976, every one being a juicy, colorful and joyous celebration of life and music. If you like tasty bass grooves, skanky upfull rhythms, splashes of organ, and loads of tripped out and happily echoing horns, then you will find this to be a masterpiece of instrumental reggae and dub. The fact that these are all dubs of Mighty Diamonds tracks engenders the disc with a truly cohesive feel emotionally and instrumentally.
Musicians playing on these tracks include Sly Dunbar, Ansel Collins, Sticky Thompson, Ranchie McLean, Dougie Bryan, Ossie Hibbert, Herman Marquis, and the great Tommy McCook. These are jazzy, irie, skanky reggae instrumentals, which would be fantastic on their own. The tastefully applied dubs (mixing courtesy of Ernest Hoo Kim & Ossie Hibbert) only sweeten the pot, adding just the right amount of reverb here, the right amount of echo there, and leaving out bits and pieces only sporadically, rather than stripping it down to drum and bass for long, sparse periods. Like I said, these dubs are juicy.
Sound quality is excellent here, so what, if any, are the drawbacks? Well, despite the hilarious photo of an utterly spliffed individual on the cover, the insides are bare, and the back cover only provides the briefest bit of info on recording and personnel. The length is only just over a half an hour, but the price of the disc still makes it a bargain, and it plays well over and over again, sounding fresh every time. Every track, bar non, is a five star number, so you won't need to be skipping any tracks, which ads further to the value. So really, the drawbacks are minor, but the rewards are great.
Ask a fan of the Revolutionaries what is their best dub set, and you will find "Well Charged" at the top of the list more often than not. This is classic and positively indispensable instrumental dub, and we are blessed to have it, end of story."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1