Dance of the Vampyrs

from the LP Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires, Greensleeves Records, 1981



It’s a motherfucking blizzard up here today, and I’ve always loved the contrast of humid, sun-soaked tunes when played in such weather. The tradition of dropping all/most of the lyrics from an already-created reggae track goes back a long way; the story goes that the crowds which would gather to dance at neighborhood sound systems (kinda like block parties) in the late ‘60s preferred to be able to sing the vocal parts of their favorite tracks themselves, and so it became customary for reggae 45s to have a wordless version, or “dub”, as the B-side to the regular track. This developed into an opportunity for the guys at the soundboards to show off their own abilities, and quickly morphed from merely dropping the vocals & raising the lows to an entire genre of its own---in essence, the world’s first remixers. Scientist, born Overton Brown, learned his craft from the man who many consider to be the ultimate godfather of dub music: King Tubby. Initially, Scientist was just the tech guy around Tubby’s studio, fixing blown speakers and what not; eventually, Tubby challenged a teenaged Scientist to try his hand at the knobs, and the rest is history. Keeping the minimal, bass-heavy style of his teacher, Scientist quickly developed his own distinctive approach to dub which centered on his mesmerizing mastery over echo, delay, and all sorts of outlandish, alien sound-effects. This track begins with an echoed video-game-like blip which shoots the listener into Scientist’s maniacal and tripped-out world, inhabited by vampires, werewolves, and mummy’s; the liner notes menacingly warn the listener that this entire album was mixed down on Friday the 13^th. This may seem trivial to most, but on an island that is only surpassed in its superstitious convictions by Haiti, the very mention of that date and number would lead many to be fearful; Bob Marley himself once turned down an opportunity to open for the Grateful Dead due solely to their name! This song and whole album soundly prove that Scientist was not content to merely ape the style of his mentor, but instead was ready to carry the warm glow of dub into a new decade.