Ring Craft Posse

This is the best release in Moll-Selekta's catalogue. They've developed a working relationship with producer Blackbeard, the current proprietor of the late King Tubby's studio, to release his extensive back catalogue. This compilation spans an eternity in musical developments in Jamaica — 1972 to ‘84 — but the dub mixes are remarkably consistent. The mixing engineer is Jah Thomas, who produced many worthy dub albums during this period including the all-time classic Black Ash Dub with Sly and Robbie. The Riddim Twins are the drive behind the Ring Craft Posse, which is yet another alias for their working bands of the ‘70s and early ‘80s. St. Catherine in Dub takes on rhythms popularised by Michael Rose, Lee Perry, Dennis Brown, Horace Andy and more. Thomas’s technique is more in line with the distorted, textural treatments favoured by Lee Perry than the thundering polyrhythms of Tubby, but he has clearly absorbed the best of both worlds. The long timeframe makes for a great diversity of rhythms and demonstrates all the technological toys that contributed to the vitality of dub in this period. Perhaps the producer's home base in Portmore in the parish of St. Catherine, just down the road from Kingston, gave him a fresh perspective on the mixes. There are an awful lot of dub collections to choose from, so to find one in 2004 that still sounds fresh, even with familiar rhythms, is a major achievement.