Dubbing With the Royals

Although their output was relatively small (three brief LPs on Ballistic in the late '70s, the highlights of which have been collected on CD as Pick Up the Pieces on Pressure Sounds), the Royals have garnered an enduring reputation as one of the best of Jamaica's roots harmony groups. The architect behind the Royals was singer, songwriter, and producer Roy Cousins, who maintained quality control by releasing much of the group's material on his own Tamoki, Wambesi, and Dove labels (now merged into one, Tamoki Wambesi Dove), a shrewd move that has given the Royals' recorded legacy a high degree of integrity, and that excellence continues on Dubbing With the Royals, a perfect companion to the vocal album from Pressure Sounds. Fragments of the Royals' original vocals float through these remixes, but the center is on the sublime rhythm tracks (most of them originally engineered by Sylvan Morris) that Cousins built for his compositions, and in the hands of illustrious mixers like King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock), Prince Jammy (Lloyd James), Scientist (Overton Brownie), Lee "Scratch" Perry, Errol T. (Errol Thompson), Carlton Lee, and Ernest Hookim, these rhythms display an amazing versatility. Among the highlights are Hookim's "Nose Hole" (built on the "If You Want Good" rhythm) and Scientist's ever-varied "Waizebo" (on the "Facts of Life" rhythm). Three very different dubs of the Royals' classic "Pick Up the Pieces" rhythm also stand out: Perry's constantly shifting "Llongo," Lee's "Pride of a Black Man" (which features a wonderful, extended organ solo from Gladstone "Gladdy" Anderson), and another Perry mix, "Monkey Fashion," which gives toaster I-Roy full rein to riff on Irving Burgie's pop calypso standard "The Monkey Won't Do," also known in Jamaica as "Monkey Ska." Generous (nearly 70 minutes long) and surprisingly cohesive, Dubbing With the Royals shows clearly that dub is hardly a one-trick pony. Combining this release with Pick Up the Pieces would make one heck of a double-disc box.