The Revolutionaries – Hawkeye Records – 1978

Double Bubble / Michael Campbell Theme / The Meek Stuff / Mixed Up Stuff / Bad Company

Dread At The Controls / Loving Sounds / Hot Steppers / Midnight Clappers / Golden Locks

I am in Liverpool from 04/03 until 11/03 for absolutely no particular reason except we Penguin’s have never been there, so it will be quieter than normal on the download front for a little while, due to me not being any where near the stuff that matters.

Get yourself snug with this great release and please, no punch ups while I am gone, cheers.

Sweet release on Harlesden’s famous imprint Hawkeye by The Revolutionaries, mixed by Augustus ‘Gussie’ Clarke with some to very minimal involvement from Mikey Dread. Text below courtesy of roots-archive.com.

Dread At The Controls Dubwise. That’ll be another super Mikey Dread LP then, right? Wrong! Mikey Dread claims to have had very little to do with this LP and he certainly didn’t mix it.

“Gussie was a friend of mine,’ confirms Mikey, ‘but for Gussie, me never do nothing more than play his music pon my radio show; I think Gussie had some ideas back in the days, and we did something, but it wasn’t like what I did for myself.”

Originally released in 1978 by Augustus ‘Gussie’ Clarke the original LP’s artwork, typically of that era, contained very little information on who, what and where. 

While we may be unsure of who is playing or mixing on this album there’s one thing we can be certain of, they were all having a good day. This is typical late Seventies dubbing of the highest order. Those of you who like your reggae in a ‘traditional style’, with emphasis on drum and bass with the dubbing in and out of other instruments and voices rather than an over-reliance on sound effects, will really get your kicks when spinning this LP.

All kinds of musical instruments come to play on this album. Listen and you’ll be treated to tracks led by the flute, the organ or horns. It illustrates the wide range of instruments typically found in a genre that many people wrongly associate with just drum and bass. It showcases the incredible pool of musical talent that could be found in Jamaica at the end of the 1970s.

From the very first track on side one, ‘Double Bubble’, Gussie’s firm and accurate grasp of the genre is apparent. Rocking along to a prominent bongo beat the cut slips you neatly into track two ‘The Michael Campbell Theme’. This organ laden masterpiece, a cut of ‘Dreadlocks Be True’ by Hortense Ellis and is one of my favourites from an LP that is laden with dub gems. The organ leads you through a track studded with piano, guitar and is always underpinned by some very solid drum and bass lines. Three more tracks complete side one, with everyone epitomising the sound of dub in 1978.

Over on side two and the dubbing continues apace. There’s no slacking, no slipping in of the odd filler track to pad it out and make up the ten tracks. This side gets going with ‘Dread At The Controls’. The track, a take on Jackie Paris’ ‘There’s No Other’, showcases horns in dub at their best. There’s no pause for breath as the dubs just keep coming.

Fans of Leroy Smart, one of the many artists Gussie was involved with during that time, will recognise both ‘The Meek Dub’ on side one and ‘Hot Steppers’ on side two. Both are dub cuts of Leroy Smart vocal numbers.

If you like your dub in a late Seventies style then you need to seek out this release. I would even go as far as saying that if I was asked to provide one album that sums up the sound of dub in 1978, then this would be my offering.