Early Reggae & Rock Steady - roots of dubstep

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:23 pm

as i already mentioned somewhere else, i have been (and i still..) collecting first press records of the beautiful era between 1963-1970.
though i have been always more into rockstead&reggae than ska.

I wonder if there are any people who are interested in that kinda sound. i get loads of inspiration out of chunes from this time.

and it is basicly the root of dubstep. lee perry doing his wicked rocksteady tunes or his organ-killing '69-reggae tunes... i even tried to imitate the organ of a tune by the upsetters called ''the mob'' (instrumental of ''inspirations - love oh love''.

And one of the greatest basslines has done the studio band of caltone... yvonne harrison with her banging ''the chase''... (i played it on a proper soundsystem in tokyo... it was heeeaaavyyy

)

anyway: i find it quite important that there is some connection to the root of dubstep. doesn't matter if it's early reggae, dub, dancehall... and a lot of people who jumped on the dubsteptrain have absolutely no idea of all that. i think it's somehow an important part of this music.

tell me what you think, and are there any serious reggae/rocksteady record collectors?

djake · Post by **djake** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:45 pm

the upsetters are big!

grew up listening to them, because of my dad!

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:24 pm

somehow i'm disappointed that nearly no one seems to have a real connection to this music...

kingldub · Post by **kingldub** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:27 pm

VulvaVibration wrote:somehow i'm disappointed that nearly no one seems to have a real connection to this music...

I made a thread about Ska and Rocksteady a while back.

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:22 pm

damn.. i fucked it up. although i searched through the forum..

kingldub · Post by **kingldub** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:14 pm

VulvaVibration wrote:damn.. i fucked it up. although i searched through the forum..

It didn't get many replies to be honest mate.

honey-d · Post by **honey-d** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:12 am

I grew up listening to ska and all of it's fun varieties. It seems like alot of dubstep has lost it's roots in that respect, but I guess that's all part of the evolution of a genre. I wonder if many old dub/reggae/ska musicians have listened to dubstep before

Maree-Jaine · Post by **Maree-Jaine** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:00 am

I proper love my roots and reggae music, and find I get a lot of inspiration from the music from back int day and that.

I don't think a lot of people come in the "Other Music" forum, hence lack of replies. It's not that people don't love this music, I personally know a ton of people who love their roots and culture innit.

Been on a right mish recently to find as much roots as I can...the drums are usually amazing ...I love drums!!

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:35 pm

mate, concerning the drums you HAVE to listen to some rock steady chunes of the ''west indians''! it's wicked!

i doubt that the old musicians recognized dubstep... well maybe the very dubby stuff like red light or thelike...

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:50 pm

Toni wrote: Been on a right mish recently to find as much roots as I can...the drums are usually amazing ...I love drums!!

ah and of course, not early reggae but still damn great, out of the movie ''rockers'': slave master by gregory isaacs.

look & listen at the drummer... this is great drumming! love that riddim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmTZRGzUw0

Maree-Jaine · Post by **Maree-Jaine** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:58 pm

VulvaVibration wrote:
Toni wrote: Been on a right mish recently to find as much roots as I can...the drums are usually amazing ...I love drums!!
ah and of course, not early reggae but still damn great, out of the movie ''rockers'': slave master by gregory isaacs.

look & listen at the drummer... this is great drumming! love that riddim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmTZRGzUw0

Wicked

I'm loving this at the moment... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buCkQm0ymQA - such a beautiful song!! Was thinking about remixing it, but can't touch on the perfection that's already in it!!

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:15 pm

indeed a sweet voice.. reminds me somehow of millicent patsy todd...

i didn't find the chune i very much compared to dhaima... too rare

but listen to that one, one of my favorite rock steady chunes. unfortunatly youtube compressed the fucking file that mucht, that it sounds a bit strange... still: a great tune!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0uw_jat1g

(jap, it's a cut to the take 5 version)

Maree-Jaine · Post by **Maree-Jaine** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:30 pm

VulvaVibration wrote:indeed a sweet voice.. reminds me somehow of millicent patsy todd...

i didn't find the chune i very much compared to dhaima... too rare

but listen to that one, one of my favorite rock steady chunes. unfortunatly youtube compressed the fucking file that mucht, that it sounds a bit strange... still: a great tune!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0uw_jat1g

(jap, it's a cut to the take 5 version)

Ooooh nice!

Bit later on...er '76 maybe?? but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hlZvuSEQrQ gotta reeet groove

lan3y · Post by **lan3y** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:31 pm

Im glad i stumbled upon this thread

I really like my roots reggae and discovering gems that can often be forgoten about or not known about.

I agree send those wobble heads to dub school not enough people look to where a sound or genre has come from or influenced by.

Toni that "Dhaima - Inna Jah Children" is a wicked tune!

Anyone else got any tunes to recomend?

Peace

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:42 pm

oh i got loads of tunes to recommend mate!

tell me what you need, especially the early days i can give you some advise...

for rock steady you should defintly check out the whole caltone label (producer: ken lack), and of course, you can never go wrong with studio one (coxsone dodd)... don't ever forget all the lil' sublabels of the major labels.

and one of the probably biggest pearls of jamaican music is the merritone label!
heavy stuff, hard to find, expensive if found....
got some records on that label, and they really are floorfiller...

interesting also the early DJing. loads of rock steady tunes with toasting over the riddim... heavy shit!

love that sound!

there are so many more labels, records, tunes, singers, producers... remember: in jamaica per day, TONS of recordreleases in the 60s

lan3y · Post by **lan3y** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:52 pm

Nice one *starts the googling* safe for this will check out some stuff and let you what im feeling!

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:03 pm

good luck, not easy to find...

Pi-Krust · Post by **Pi-Krust** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:06 pm

Yeah I love Rocksteady way more than Ska.Not to say there aren't some classic Ska cuts,but I can only take so much of it before I get bored.All those crap new wave Ska/ska-Punk bands have kind of ruined it for me a bit as well.
Alton Ellis was the don of vocal Rocksteady for me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7gu4h-kb5E
Also Love Delroy Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaagpWPR ... re=related
For Instrumental Rocksteady u can't get better than Jackie Mittoo IMO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exp-SbJmCcM.God I could talk about Rocksteady all night man

.

phrex · Post by **phrex** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:28 pm

then lets talk bout it all night

alton ellis was really a master... he had great tunes.. but still... there are so many others.

roy shirley for example... well okay, his voice is very special

and what about all those cool cool rocksteady tunes on the great collins down beat label (okay, everything ''stolen'' from the great duke reid)

mondays child · Post by **mondays child** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:34 pm

All about the Bluebeat.

Early Reggae & Rock Steady - roots of dubstep

Early Reggae & Rock Steady - roots of dubstep

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