Greensleeves has arrived at the eighth' and last volume of their 'Evolution Of Dub' series, a box which, still in line with the tribute to Charles Darwin's 'On The Origin Of Species', this time got 'The Search For New Life' as a subtitle. The first disc featured is 'Computerised Dub', a 1986 production by, then still, Prince Jammy, and really just a crazy dub version of Wayne Smith's 'Sleng Teng', for which the "digital don" pulled all the stops and in titles like 'Megabytes', 'Modem' or '256k Ram' announced the computer age.
Two Friends Crew, the alter ego of producer Mikey Bennett and Patrick 'Shadow' Lindsay, provide us with more digital dub. For their previously unreleased 'Voyage Into Dub' they got to work on productions from the golden era of digital reggae in the late 1980s and early 1990s of, among others, Home T, Cocoa Tea, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and Shabba Ranks.
With Shane Brown's specially for this box compiled 'Juke Boxx Dub' set, we immediately make a time jump to the second half of the 2000s. We don’t get to hear dub versions of new roots tunes all too often, so it’s a real treat to hear versions of hits like Morgan Heritage's 'Brooklyn And Jamaica' (here 'The Statement'), Chuck Fenda's 'Freedom Of Speech' ('Freedom Dub') or the Romain Virgo smash 'Mi Caan Sleep' ('Can't Sleep Dub').
For those who couldn't get their hands on a copy of Alborosie's limited edition 'Dub Clash' set, this box offers a second chance. The album, recorded on meticulously restored analogue equipment Alborosie recuperated from the studios of King Tubby and Coxsone Dodd, is meant as a tribute to King Tubby and brings this impressive series to a worthy conclusion.