Joe Gibbs and the Professionals: No Bones for the Dogs

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating * * * *)


Subtitled "Dubs from the Mighty Two, 1974 to 1979" this 18-track collection features the production work of Jamaica's Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson (aka the Mighty Two): the former an ally of Lee "Scratch" Perry (together they did the seminal The Upsetter which was Perry's attack on his former employer Coxsone Dodd); the latter an established engineer/producer when he arrived at Gibbs' studio in the early 70s.


During the period of this collection they scored numerous cult hits which relied on x-ray revisions of popular reggae tunes and classics shipping out of Gibbs' record shop in Kingston.


So those wise to reggae will hear Culture, the Heptones, Sylford Walker and Gregory Isaacs undergo the chop-'n'-channel treatment from the Mighty Two, although the results are often at some distance from the source material.


For dubheads this is a fine companion to 2001's Love of the Common People double disc Gibbs anthology.


Label: (Pressure/Chant)