Moving things on...
BlackBeard - I Wah Dub (1980)
Born in Barbados and having moved to south London with his family at a fairly early age, Dennis Bovell here's a man who immersed himself in reggae culture in slightly more of an outside-looking-in way than a lot else you'll find on this list. Not only did he, through his obsession with dub music in the late 70s, set up the Jah Sufferer sound system in London, but he also had a hand in his early career in the evolution of lovers' rock, seeing as he was an engineer at the lovers' rock-oritented Dip Records not long before he started taking after idols like Lee Perry and Keith Hudson by releasing albums of his own. Quite an influential figure then, and one that's worked with the artists such as the Slits, the Pop Group, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Madness, Orange Juice, I-Roy and a load of others throughout his working life.
Anyway, both of Bovell's first LP releases were published under the pseudonym BlackBeard and, of course, this album is one of them.
Strictly Dub Wize was the man's debut, and is perfectly good in itself, but
I Wah Dub here is probably my favourite of the two. Absolutely ideal for the beginner too, seeing as it's simply the archetypal dub album which shows off all the strengths of the genre in one tasty and juicy package. The riddims are as good as any you'll hear, comprising of slow, reverb-heavy drum tracks and pumping basslines pushed right to the front of the mix that just get your head nodding all the way. The studio overdubs, samples and synth effects are absolutely spot on too. So, yeah, well worth having.