MIKEY DREAD "JUNGLE SIGNAL" LP Dub Reggae King Tubby

$

74

Original copy of this 1982 Dub killer Lp  from MIKEY DREAD.  Released on DATC (Dread at the Controls).  Recorded and mixed at King Tubby's.

Vinyl is NM with high gloss, clean labels and no scratching. Sleeve is excellent with no writing, ringwear, or seam splitting.

Seminal radio DJ, artist, producer, and TV host Mikey Dread may be best-known in the U.S. for his work with old school punk heroes the Clash, but in his Jamaican and adopted British home, his legacy is seen as much more than that. Born in 1954, in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Michael Campbell came to national prominence in the '70s with a weekly radio show on JBC (Jamaican Broadcasting Company). Taking the name Mikey Dread, the DJ's four-hour spot, which he called Dread at the Controls, was a revelation. Jamaican radio had not revolved around local talent, but rather imported music mostly from the United States. Even as the Jamaican recording industry had flourished across the '60s, this aversion to local music had not diminished. Some of the labels had overcome this handicap through a pay-to-play system that wasn't exactly payola, but a system of advertising. Thus Studio One, Treasure Isle, and the island's other larger labels would buy blocks of advertising time, during which they would play their new releases. This led to advertising coming solely from those labels with adequate cash and with only two radio stations servicing the island, there were few alternatives to reaching national audiences. Dread's radio show changed that. He not only featured Jamaican music, but played the hottest new songs within days (and even hours) of their pressing. The DJ also knew his musical history, and one of his favorite tactics was to spin the original classic songs whose rhythms were currently mashing up the dancehalls.

But Dread didn't stop with anarchic patter and hip music; his jingles -- which were recorded at King Tubby's studio -- were as groundbreaking as the show itself. The DJ employed whichever vocalists happened to be in the studio at the time, including two school girls, Althea Forrest and Donna Reid, who Dread soon began to favor. The pair had recently cut a song with the production team the Mighty Two, as a feminine retort to DJ Trinity's hit "Three Piece Suit," which Dread utilized for a jingle.

In response, the Mighty Two released the cut "Uptown Top Ranking" toward the end of 1977, which went to the top of the charts in Jamaica and Britain. Dread seemed to have the magic touch and so he took a shot at repeating his on-air success in the recording studio with the help of Lee Perry. The resulting debut cut, "Dread at the Controls," quickly became the DJ's anthem. It was swiftly followed by "Schoolgirls" and the potent "Homeguard." More singles followed, including a clutch with the Mighty Two, and "Rootsman Revival" for Sonia Pottinger. Meanwhile, Dread's radio show continued on, delighting audiences and infuriating the DJ's conservative bosses at JBC. By 1979, however, Dread had tired of the constant battles at the station and resigned. He initially took a job as an engineer at Treasure Isle, but soon linked up with producer Carlton Patterson, for whom he cut the "Barber Saloon Haircut" single. The pair also joined forces behind the recording desk, and together produced Ray I's hit "Weatherman Skank."

Before the year was out, Dread had launched his own label, Dread at the Controls, which was also chosen as the title of his debut album and DATC's first release. Its dub companion, African Anthem Dubwise, followed and featured dub remixes by King Tubby, Prince Jammy, and Dread himself. Both albums featured excursions into deep dub and were cut up by jingles, spoken word segments, and toasts. As the new decade dawned, Dread was on his way to England to open for the Clash's month-long tour. Afterward, all five went directly into the studio where Dread oversaw the group's seminal "Bankrobber" single. The Clash had initially composed the song with a ska arrangement in mind, but Dread would have none of that and publicly made his opinions clear. He then set about completely restructuring the song into a heavy dub monster. Dread would also record his own DJ version of "Bankrobber," under the title "Rocker's Galore -- U.K. Tour." The recording sessions moved to New York City where Dread joined the Clash for their next single, a cover of Eddy Grant's "Police on My Back," as well as "One More Time," a song that would soon appear on the band's Sandinista! album. While there, Dread recorded a single of his own, the bruising "Rocker's Delight." More sessions were set up in Kingston, but were aborted because the group became the intended victim of every thief in town. The Clash disappointedly left for the safety of home and Dread turned his attention back to DATC and his own recordings. Continuing to co-produce with Patterson, the label unleashed a string of crucial singles aimed at dancehalls by such seminal artists as Sugar Minott, Edi Fitzroy, and Junior Murvin. Dread had maintained his relationship with King Tubby as well, and his remixes were often featured on the label's B-sides, another crucial element to the label's success. Meanwhile, Dread also cut a number of his own singles, "Proper Education," "Love the Dread," and "African Map" amongst them. These inevitably featured seminal dub remixes on the B-sides, created by Patterson, Dread, or King Tubby, and often the records were pursued by fans exclusively for the dubs themselves. Dread's new album, Beyond World War III, arrived in 1981. The next year brought Jungle Signal, which interspersed vocal offerings with great slabs of dub. The "Jumping Master" single was a major hit that same year, and Dub Merchant arrived soon after, boasting eight blinding remixes of that song.

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