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Five in-demand Scientist Albums Reissued

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Five in-demand Scientist Albums Reissued

Five in-demand Scientist Albums Reissued

By Erik Magni on Monday, August 15, 2016 - 2 comments

Big Showdown, Heavyweight Dub Champion, The Evil Course of the Vampires, Wins the World Cup and Space Invaders reissued.

Scientist reissues Iconic reggae label Greensleeves – nowdays owned by VP Records – was key in putting dub on the musical map through releasing a number of classic albums. The ones mixed by mixing engineer extraordinaire Scientist have never been officially reissued before. I guess it has had something to do with copyright laws, or the lack of it in Jamaica in the early days of reggae and dancehall.

The label has now however managed to come around these issues by not crediting Scientist as the artist, changing album titles and covers. Instead the albums are centred on the producers – Henry “Junjo” Lawes and Linval Thompson. Very clever.

The albums finally reissued are based on recordings that heralded the hit making start for Henry Lawes and the Roots Radics, a band often described as the main architects behind dancehall, a genre that represented a shift and big leap forward for reggae. Many of these dangerous recordings also marked the start for several long and successful careers. Barrington Levy is one the artists that started his career together with Henry Lawes and the Roots Radics.

And two of the dub albums are almost solely based on two of his sets – Englishman and Robin Hood. These two albums form the foundation for Big Showdown – where Scientist goes head to head with Prince Jammy – and Heavyweight Dub Champion. The other three sets – The Evil Course of the Vampires, Wins the World Cup and Space Invaders – have riddims taken from a large number of different artists.

But these five reissues offer more than just dub. Each album include the vocal counteractions on a different disc. It’s the first time the sets are presented in this fashion. Again, very clever.

These eye-catching comic book style albums are some of the best dub sets ever put out and they marked a change history of dub. The riddims provided by the Roots Radics are some of the rawest and heaviest ever to be put on wax. Scientist demolishes the riddims and then he builds them up piece by piece creating a completely new sonic landscape with emphasis on bass and drums.

These selections are crucial to say the least. Roots Radics riddims produced by Henry Lawes and Linval Thompson recorded at Channel One and then mixed by Scientist at King Tubby’s. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Tags: Scientist, Henry Junjo Lawes, Linval Thompson

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Read comments (2)

Posted by The Scientist on 08.19.2016

I have news for VP greed sleeves, The think they knows the law ,what a cheep shot.
This goes to show the reggae community how they got slime ball princess jammys to lie in court and how this record company is willing to stoop as low as they can go to rob the artist by renaming works ,and miss credit the original artists ... Producers DON'T OWN COPY RIGHTS and they will soon learn the hard way .....

All this because they wanna rob the artist .. I wonder why they cant stop the release by the Russians if they owned the recordings as they claim ?

There is a court Judgment against them and more is cumming, they keep shooting them selves in the mouth ...