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Tommy McCook / King Tubby - Death Trap

Pressure Sounds

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Thunderous roots emissions from the Black Ark studio...

foundation dub from around 1976 -

If you're looking for a true masterpiece of deep, mystical roots music from Kingston, then you're at the right place now.
With the ghosts of rocksteady and ska still floating within this early example of dub music, which, at the time, was still a very new style of instrumental reggae music with the elements of the song being stripped and re-formed with the mixing desk and the engineers taking centre stage, you can hear the tremors of the bassline below the skeletal 'ska' ride, at a slower, more focused and meditative pace, with reverberations of each instrument filling the vast open space, leaving clear pathways for Tommy McCook to ride the rhythm, and for King Tubby to fire the elements into the depths of Yabb You's production.

Here we have it:'Death Trap', with Tommy McCook on horns, and then King Tubby on the dub version counteraction with 'Living Style', all recorded at Lee Perry's Black Ark studio.

Yabby You was a true legend of rastafari roots music, and Tommy McCook was no doubt one of the greatest players of instruments to come out of Jamaica. Well, in fact Tommy McCook was born in Cuba (and died in Chicago) actually, but he made his name as a boy in the famous Alpha Boys School in Kingston learning to be a trained musician, and then went on to be a founding member of The Skatalites, as well as working for the original Duke Reid with the Supersonics, riding the wave from Jazz through to Ska, Rocksteady, Ska, Dub and beyond - so it's safe to say his musical foundations lay in Jamaica.

Let's say this again, just in case the sound you're hearing wasn't convincing enough:
Yabby You, Tommy McCook, King Tubby... All in Lee Perry's Black Ark Studio.

It's a serious, serious combination, from a serious time -
and you can hear it in all it's deadly cool, on both versions of this disc.
Almost half a century on, it's safe to say that these are 100% timeless pieces of roots & dub music.


All packed up and pressed up nicely too, via Pressure Sounds.

Tommy McCook - Death Trap



King Tubby - Living Style