Heavyweight Dub / Killer Dub

Album Review

This disc is comprised of two dub albums released by Inner Circle in 1978. At that point, Inner Circle was more popular in Jamaica than Bob Marley & the Wailers. Their singer, Jacob Miller, was already famous for songs like "Tenement Yard" and "Tired fe Lick Weed in a Bush." Most of the rhythms from which these dub tracks are derived were originally released on the albums Killer Miller and Wanted; they were dubbed by Maximilian at the Channel One studio and by Prince Jammy at King Tubby's. On the program are dub versions of "Land Called Home" (rendered here as "Addis Ababa Rock"), "Killer Miller" ("Killer Dub"), and "Standing Firm" ("Frelimo"), among others — in typical Blood & Fire fashion, the liner notes specify most of the relationships between dub and vocal versions. It's too bad that more of Miller's vocals weren't left in some of these mixes, but the rhythms themselves are rock-solid and Prince Jammy's dub treatments are particularly sharp. Listen carefully for "Deck the Halls."