Now Thing

While the musical legacy of Jamaican dub (Lee 'Scratch' Perry, King Tubby, Scientist...) lives on in a myriad of contemporary styles from around the World, it is back in Jamaica itself where the root, branches and furthermost tips of the genre continue to flourish most effectively.

Using the best that modern technology can offer and applying to it a restless creativity that seeked to keep a keenly discerning, underground audience jumping and writhing in the dancehalls of Kingston and beyond, Jamaica's new breed of studio craftsmen have continued to push back the frontiers of dub, and in the same imaginative vein as their more celebrated forefathers. All they lack is a similar degree of recognition - the path to which is now burst wide open with this superb, groundbreaking collection.

Only the most progressive and exciting of these new ragga dub masters are represented here, and with tracks that have already caused pandemonium among grassroots' aficionados after being fronted by Jamaica's leading dancehall acts. For example, it was Beenie Man and Mr Vegas (with 'World Gone Mad' and 'Jacket' respectively) who dominated Richard 'Sham' Brownes' 'Grass Cyat' and 'Baddis' rhythms - hits that helped seal these artists' reputations in the dancehalls, but which owed everything to the electrifying beats coursing beneath them. With new yard superstars Ward 21 contributing the 'Aunty' and 'Bada Bada' rhythms (the latter having hosted the group's breakthrough hit 'Haters' for King Jammys), the raw power and energy of Slam Productions' 'Jigga rhythm' and the brutal complexity of Andrew Bradford's 'Warlord', in addition to a wealth of other essential cuts, this remarkable compilation certainly doesn't lack for excitement.

Listen up and take note, this is the future sound of Kingston and one that will be seeping in and moulding other styles and sounds around the globe for decades to come.