Dozen

Big sound from a little island.

Here’s Mixmag’s TOP 12: JAMAICAN INFULENCES By Seb Wheeler

12. Psychedelic Production

We’ve all surfed the psychedelic zone that opens up in clubs around 5am, in which cool sound effects (waves of reverb, acid squiggles, ghostly echoes) keep us mesmerised until dawn. That kind of sonic hypnosis began with dub: the art of turning reggae tunes into spaced-out trips to another dimension.

11. Ragga vocals

Where would we be without the not-so-humble ragga vocal? A more aggressive take on reggae’s sunny approach to vocals, ragga lyrics have defined some seminal tunes. Who hasn’t raised a gunfinger to DJ Hype’s ‘Badman’ or gone buck wild to UK Apache & Shy FX’s ‘Original Nuttah’?

10. Dance Moves

Classics like the Bogle and the Dutty Wine might not be the first thing you’ll see on the floor at Ministry, but new styles like Palance have been rocked at dancehall parties in clubs all year. And who can forget the wave of ‘skanks’ that UK funky artists like Gracious K ushered in a couple of years ago?

9. The Soundclash

The first clash on record took place in the early 50s between two systems called Tom The Great Sebastian and Count Nick. That began a tradition of battles for territory and tunes that had a seminal influence on the Bronx block parties where Afrika Baambaata and Grandmaster Flash invented hip hop.

8. Weed Tunes

Pot. Ganja. Sensimilla. The effect of the herb on dance music has been a potent and often hilarious one, from Deekline’s ‘I Don’t Smoke’ to Ratpack’s ‘Searchin’ For My Rizla’ and The Streets’ ‘Irony Of It All’, plus rerubs like Coki’s mad edit of Richie Spice’s ‘Marijuana’ and Cotti & Cluekid’s ‘Sensi Dub’.

7. Rewinds

Rewinds: you either love ’em or hate ’em. Possibly the most annoying but effective thing to be given to us by reggae is the act of stopping a record mid-flow and starting it all over again. It can be insanely irritating, but when done well the art of wheeling a tune can send a rave absolutely bonkers.

6. Dubplates

Having access to tunes that aren’t released or readily available yet is how top DJs have always stayed ahead of the game. Jamaican selectors knew this from day one, and they’d do their damndest to secure hot dubplates – one-off tunes cut for a certain DJ to use on their soundsystems.

5. The Rave

We know the word ‘rave’ as the term used to describe ’avin it large in some remote field or godforsaken warehouse, but it’s also Jamaican slang for ‘party’. Bob Marley released a track called ‘Midnight Ravers’ in 1973, about a “musical stampede, where everyone is doing their thing”.

4. Whole new genres

When Rebel MC sampled a Jamaican tape recording that featured the call “alla the junglists” a genre was born (“The Jungle” is the local name for Tivoli Gardens in Kingston). There’s dubstep and its love of deep, driving basslines and huge systems, and sub-genres like dub- and ragga techno.

3. Toasting

When the first soundsystems were hit the street corners of Jamaica, deejays would take to the mic to introduce tunes, sing a bit and vibe up the crowd, an art known as ‘toasting’. Legends like U-Roy and Big Youth paved the way for MC-friendly genres like hardcore, jungle, d’n’b, garage, grime and dubstep.

2. Soundsystem culture

Tunes are built for them, crowds congregate around them and they’re a thing of beauty as well as a battle weapon. From scummy free parties to the most famous clubs, the sound-system is where it’s at. The custom systems at the world’s best clubs all owe a debt to the original sonic obsessives.

And at number one…The Remix

When legendary dub pioneer King Tubby started work at Duke Reid’s famed Treasure Isle studios, little did he know he’d end up leaving a legacy that still resonates throughout dance music today. One of his first jobs was to remove the vocals from reggae tunes to create a ‘version’ of the instrumental track to be used as the B-side on 7” records. He soon realised he could do more with a mixing desk than simply fade lyrics out, and began to manipulate, or ‘dub’, individual elements, often using primitive but psychedelic effects. The remix was born.