Artist.......: Jacob Miller Album........: Stop Them Jah Label........: Pablo International Genre........: Reggae Catnr........: n/a source.......: CDDA rip.date.....: Jan-02-2008 str.date.....: 000-00-0000 quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo Url..........: n/a track title time 01. jacob miller-stop them jah 02:42 02. augustus pablo-new style (dub plate mix) 02:29 03. augustus pablo-unfinished dub 1 02:48 (dub plate mix) 04. augustus pablo-unfinished dub 2 02:52 (dub plate mix) Runtime 10:51 min Size 11,7 MB Release Notes: Following the recent death of reggae legend Augustus Pablo comes this limited edition ten inch dub plate of previously unreleased mixes, dating from back in the Seventies. A dub plate is a one off copy, the original acetate of a recording which is then never released on vinyl. It is usually a different version of a tune already available and released, typically with a different lyric, or a different vocalist, or a more raw and bass-heavy mix. Dubplates are much prized by sound-system operators for the simple reason that no rival sounds can never play it. Since the inception of the dancehall era, the competitive nature of the dubplate has become still more pronounced. Nowadays a dancehall 'special' will typically extol the virtues of the particular sound which commissioned it or pour scorn upon the merits of any rival sound foolish enough to challenge in the dancehall arena. Personally, I've always been rather dubious about the mystique that surrounds the dubplate. They cost a small fortune, not just silly collectors' prices but loan shark prices, second mortgage prices. The older ones often sound as though as though they were recorded at a convention of fish fryers. Also, very few dubplates are original in the full sense of the word but are simply variations on tunes that got a conventional release in the first place. Finally, endless brilliant reggae music has been released in Jamaica over the years which to this day languishes in complete obscurity. Every week great music comes out of Jamaica which immediately vanishes without trace. Most reggae music is then, by definition, rare. So who needs the artificially constructed rarity of the dubplate? Well, here is your chance to own your very own "dubplate", On this record is material which hitherto would have been available, if at all, at outrageously inflated prices, now available here in the UK for the absurd, giveaway sum of ú4.95. The record is on Pablo's own International label but whether it was actually pressed in Jamaica or here in the UK is unclear. It has the additional advantage, if you want to be a fully fledged vinyl junkie, of being pressed in the satisfyingly unusual 10" format. One side consists of two previously unreleased dub mixes of Pablo's Unfinished Melody, a tune perhaps best known from his album East Of The River Nile. Recorded at Lee Perry's Black Ark studio back in 1976 and given the final mix by Tubby, both mixes are satisfyingly raw and dub-heavy although unfortunately the sound quality has a touch of that previously mentioned Saturday night fish-fry. The other side has crystal clear sound quality however and perhaps the most exciting prospect of all, Jacob Miller's hitherto unreleased Stop Them Jah. On the same rhythm as Hugh Mundell's Stop Them Jah and Jacob Miller's own Who Say Jah No Dread (AKA Too Much Commercialisation Of Rasta) this is lyrically quite different to both. The rhythm in question is best known to a wider audience as King Tubbys Meets The Rockers Uptown from the album of that same name. Jacob Miller's vocal comes and goes intermittently over the crisp, incisive horns familiar to all who own that album and is described on the label as a guide vocal. So perhaps this might have been a trial for an intended release that, for whatever reason, never saw the light of day. The side finishes with a cut to New Style, the rhythm on which back in 1974 Bongo Pat recorded Young Generation. Although described on the label as a previously unreleased dub plate mix, it sounds to me indistinguishable from the vibes/xylophone cut on the version of Bongo Pat's original single. But that's dub plates for you.