Singleversity #16

Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 111.

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A sometimes-overlooked album in King Tubby’s amazing discography, Dangerous Dub (named after his studio’s perilous location) was proof that the dub innovator still had some tricks up his sleeve in 1981. Recorded with Jamaica’s premier studio band, Roots Radics, as well as help from Jah Screw, Tubby submerged roots reggae in his patented brew of saturated bass lines and rocksteady percussion. "Loud Mouth Rock" in particular features Tubby at a creative high; hollow percussion and tambourine act as perfect counterpoints to the resonating bass groove and studio wizardry. Tubby still had a good eight years before his mysterious murder, but he would rarely reach these artistic heights from here on out.

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It’s unfair (though completely unintentional… and typical) that we don’t feature female artists or female-fronted groups that often here. I don‘t consciously exclude them, but I guess I just don‘t always gravitate that way. Of course, Uffie… But really, here’s one trio I don‘t mind praising: Right about this time last summer Paw Tracks released the first full-length from First Nation, a Brooklyn all-female freak-folk group that didn’t to my recollection receive that much attention. A bloody shame too, because “Swells” is just one of a number of brilliant tracks that sound like a niche fulfilled somewhere in among Animal Collective and Black Dice. Dear females: Trying harder. Thanks: First Nation.