dennis bovell s/d

'cut' and 'y' are all-time faves, but dude has a massive discography when you combine solo stuff, production work and remixes. i realize it's not all dubby post-punk magic like those two albums, but what else is worthwhile? i read good things and have been seeking out his remix of the raincoats' "animal rhapsody" and the soundtrack to 'babylon' but no luck so far...

janet kaye - silly games

wasn't the 3rd Orange Juice album produced by bovell?

^yea, he produced that album and some other tracks for them ("flesh of my flesh", some ep material)

also found a great feature with bovell where he talks mainly about cutting houses and that side of uk dub culture - http://testpressing.org/2009/05/08/dubplate-sufferah-an-interview-with-dennis-bovell-part-one/, http://testpressing.org/2009/05/16/dubplate-sufferah-an-interview-with-dennis-bovell-part-two/

all time legend, oh, and now an MBE.

Legend, for sure, but fuck an MBE tbh.

oh, yeah, i get all that.
but still, it's good when a good'un gets a nod, so surely it's worth raising a glass etc.

back when EMI promo mailing lists were a thing i got lucky and was sent EMI remasters/reissues of quite a few of albums by Dennis and his 4th Street Orchestra releases which he used to press on acetates and pretend to be from jamacia.
absolutely wonderful stuff.

xposting with this thread: itt post youtubes of old reggae* 45s (*i.e. jamaican funk, ska, soul, dub, rocksteady, dancehall etc.)

oh the serendubbity! just found out a 38-track compilation of Dennis Bovell productions was released just two weeks ago! it’s called The DuBMASTER: The Essential Anthology - it focuses on his own dub recordings, but there’s tracks he produced for others as well (“Silly Games” and its dub version are there, and so is that Marie Pierre track, albeit in an inferior remix version)

also to the OP: the answer is Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Forces of Victory album, which apart from everything else has the lushest percussion-drenched sound ever

I am extremely fond of his mix of Sade’s “Babyfather”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68OTrm5fC9o

Yeah, wow. Maybe my favorite song from Soldier of Love and that's easily the better mix on just one listen.

Thanks for posting. Really love this.

review + tracklist of that compilation:

https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/dennis-bovell/releases/mode/review/release/dennis-bovell-the-dubmaster-the-essential-anthology/

he was on ross allen's nts show the other week telling good stories: https://www.nts.live/shows/soup-to-nuts-ross-allen/episodes/soup-to-nuts-ross-allen-31st-march-2022

missed that - thanks for the heads up. i always forget DB produced Riot In Lagos!

I've just been reading this excellent collection of interviews about British sound system culture - it opens with a great interview with Bovell:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/bass-mids-tops

Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Forces of Victory album, which apart from everything else has the lushest percussion-drenched sound ever

― middot • is • my • middle • name (breastcrawl), Friday, April 8, 2022 5:21 PM

Sunday morning reggae jams at my house and I'm playing this album. Holy shit.

didn't know Bovell also worked with Alpha Blondy in the 90s, most notably on his 1992 Masada album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDuFQDEYpTo
"Multipartisme (Médiocratie)"

oh the serendubbity! just found out a 38-track compilation of Dennis Bovell productions was released just two weeks ago! it’s called The DuBMASTER: The Essential Anthology - it focuses on his own dub recordings, but there’s tracks he produced for others as well (“Silly Games” and its dub version are there, and so is that Marie Pierre track, albeit in an inferior remix version)

― middot • is • my • middle • name (breastcrawl), Friday, April 8, 2022 8:17 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

great comp here, but it's unfortunate that not only does the vinyl version omit 14 songs from the CD version, but that some of those omissions are much better than some of the stuff they decided to include on the LP version

1) Reading This is Memorial Device;
2) Fallen down a The Pop Group rabbithole;
3) The dub of Dennis Matumbi's 'Raindrops' is kicking my arse this evening:
4) Aside from copping for the 7", not sure where it's currently available (there's a re-recorded version on the Anthology, but it's not as deeeep)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crxwBf3RZmY

While we're at it, his dub of Elizabeth Archer & The Equators' 'Feel Like Making Love'. Yesssss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crxwBf3RZmY

Ffs, not that one, *this* one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OVs9jGqP3I

dennis bovell didn't do the dub of that (i always thought he had too)

I’m not super into dub versions but I love Blackbeard’s “electrocharge”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmkDyY80pEY

which I know from this comp

https://www.discogs.com/master/864139-Various-Lovers-And-Rockers

Matumbi's 'Dub Planet Orbit' is a fantastic record