Winston Rodney is Burning Spear, a roots reggae legend who's still touring. This CD, a dub version of Marcus' Children a.k.a. Social Living, was engineered by Sylvan Morris (king of Studio One and Dynamic for years) at Harry J Studio in Kingston in 1978 and then dub mixed at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas by Karl Pitterson and Benji Armbrister. It's late '70s dub at it's finest, with echoing vocals, instruments dropping out and deep grooves. Sly and Robbie appear on some tracks, though which I'm not certain. In all this is closer to what I like in reggae production - a rougher, meatier sound with cool dub breakdowns. (www.burningspear.net)
Music Reviews | No. 36
Built on Squares
by Larry Crane
In 1997 we ran a great interview with Trent Bell of Bell Labs in Norman, Oklahoma. He's been running that studio for years now, and mostly is working on "regional" acts when we catch up on one of our...