King Tubby & The Clancy Eccles All Stars

Here's another entry for the WTF? reissue of the year. One single LP copy previously existed of this new release on Pressure Sounds, and it was only discovered this year after languishing in obscurity for something like 35 years. Clancy Eccles was a reasonably well-known producer in the late '60s and early '70s, and this is his sole foray into dub. This is no collection of B-sides; it's an entire album-length project mixed by King Tubby. That's the context for this reissue, now prepare for some of the freshest dub from the roots you've heard in years. Eccles had a keen pop sensibility and recorded at better-equipped studios, which makes for spacious, polished performances full of memorable hooks. He also had a thing for organ instrumentals, and we are treated to a variety of creepy, enthralling keyboard sounds bubbling over Tubby's customary deep, uncluttered bass. The actual dub tactics are restrained but the brief filigrees of tape echo and powerful reverb simply underline the brilliant performances. It's such a treat for a curio of this magnitude to be given the Pressure Sounds buff'n'polish, as well as the typically excellent packaging.