Next Cut (2LP)

At a time when studios in Europe and America were moving up to 16 and 24 tracks, Jamaican studios were almost all still using đ inch 4-track tape. Typically, the instrumental backing was recorded to 3 of these 4 tracks. One track was for drums, one for bass and one for all the other rhythm instruments together – guitar, piano and organ. If horns were used, then they had their own track, and the bass and drums would be ‘tied’ together on a single track. The spare 4th track would then be used later for overdubbing vocals. Listening back to Bunny’s 4-track tapes today, what you hear are two separate layers of recording. First the music, with Bunny giving instructions over the talkback as the backing track is recorded at a large studio, such as Harry J’s or Dynamic Sounds. And second the vocal session recorded afterwards, with Bunny or the recording engineer guiding the singer at King Tubby’s Studio. The great stylistic innovation pioneered in Jamaica was then to add a further layer into the recording: the actual mixdown process became the third real-time performance to appear on the final record. The delay effects and dropping out of tracks pioneered at Tubby’s studio were a whole new musical process, creating a strange time-shifting effect. In fact, by layering three live performances on top of each other – musical backing, vocals and mixing – time was indeed being shifted. This compilation comprises rare sides, one-off dubplate mixes transferred from the original 10” acetates, and unreleased cuts taken from the unmixed 4-track tapes. These multi-track tapes were transferred and digitally mixed down in as neutral a way as possible, simply by balancing the levels of the tracks to match existing masters, and by applying EQ to restore frequencies lost from the magnetic tape. No reverb or delay was added. Where echo can be heard, this had been printed to tape during the original recording, usually on the vocal track. The intention is to present the recordings as closely as possible to what the musicians would have heard when the tracks were first recorded. Track Listing: Side A: Down In A Babylon aka Live Up Jah Man - Johnny Clarke (unreleased alternate cut) Blood of Babylon - Barrington Spence (unreleased dubplate mix) Blood of Babylon Dub - The Aggrovators (unreleased dubplate mix Enforcement - Vin Gordon and the Aggrovators Side B: Death Trap (Steppers cut) - Tommy McCook Big Big Girl/Ethiopian Girl – Linval Thompson Blood Dunza - Johnny Clarke and DJ (unreleased dubplate mix) Side C: Tapetone Special - Barry Biggs & Tommy McCook (unreleased dubplate) A Friend Indeed Dub - The Aggrovators Crucial Dub - Prince Jammy Split Second - Vin Gordon and the Aggrovators Side D: Satta Dread - Wayne Jarrett (unreleased alternate cut) Satta Dread Dub - Scientist The Gorgon (Steppers Cut) - Cornell Campbell (unreleased mix) Supernatural Love - Linval Thompson (previously unreleased)