NINEY - SLEDGE HAMMER DUB - OBSERVER JA ORIGINAL

£ 466

$ 617

£ 466 Sold For

Jan 21, 2006 Sold Date

Jan 14, 2006 Start Date

£ 50 Start price

15 Number Of Bids

Great Britain Country Of Seller

eBay Auctioned at

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Description

Observer label JA Original - Sledge Hammer Dub / In the Streets of Jamaica - Vinyl in EX condition. Extremely rare LP. Plain white cover as original issue has seen better days! No track listing noted.

According to Niney,whenTubby mixed one of Dennis Brown dubs he used to mix a second special heavy mix for his Home Town Hi-Fi sound system once Niney had left the studio. He kept all of these mixes on one tape and one day played the tape to Niney who right away knew that there was almost enough material for a killer dub album; And how did it get its name? "It's like a man have a sledgehammer" says Niney, "hitting you in your head".

REVIEWS: REAL GROOVE Magazine, Grant Smithies:

A compilation of alternative mixes to Dennis Brown B-Sides from 75/76 (many of the vocals can be found on the 'Deep Down With Dennis Brown' LP), 'Sledgehammer Dub' was first released on the Observer label in late 1976 and original copies have been the subject of bidding wars between reggae collectors ever since. Why? Because the bugger ain't just a quarter century old and damn good, it's also seriously scarce. The initial pressing run was tiny, somewhere around 300 records, The secret to the success of all his best works, says Holness, is in the rhythms. Not the lyrics, not the skill of the singer, the band or the producer, but the power of the rhythms themselves. 'A great riddim have to capture your soul and your heart. When you hear a great riddim you know it straight away. Like when you're eating dinner and you think- hey, this is really seasoned good, it taste perfect, you know? A good riddim is like that. A weak riddim can't draw you, there is no attraction, you don't hear no energy in it. A good song needs melody too, a melody so nice and sweet and simple a likkle baby can sing to it. And for my riddims I always use the Soul Syndicate band. At first they were just youths but I thought they had the potential and I teach them until they reach perfection. Most day we make some riddim together and we sell the tapes dem back to man like Joe Gibbs so me and the musician could eat a likkle food.' It is the Soul Syndicate (George Fullwood, Carlton Davis, Tony Chin and Earl 'Chinna' Smith) who provide most of the backing tracks on 'Sledgehammer Dub', though the searing 'Tribulation Dub'- probably the albums heaviest track - was cut at London's Chalk Farm studio with The Cimarons because Holness wanted to prove that top-shelf reggae could be made outside Jamaica if the right man was behind the mixing desk. Why was it named Sledgehammer Dub? "Well, most of dem tracks were mix by Tubby's, apart from about five of dem mix by Errol Thompson at Joe Gibbs studio. And when Tubbys mix, him mix strong! Is like a ton of rocks rolling at you through your speaker. When him cramp up certain sound and release it again, is like a sledgehammer, beating you in your head. Tubbys was a genius, man"

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