[Editors Note - It's always weird reviewing your own releases but hopefully we always treat everything fairly. Shout to Trevor Jackson for the killer artwork, Joe and Kamal at Ariwa, Prof for the music, and Toby and Piers for the compiling. Over to the great Aaron of Peaking Lights fame...]

Let me explain why the world needs another Mad Professor compilation. A lot has happened in 50 years since the founding of Ariwa Records. A lot of records have been made and babies made while listening to those records, and those babies have gone on to make their own records in this nearly 50-year run.

Through my poor account of history, the Windrush generation brought with them the sounds of Jamaica and other Caribbean territories like Guyana after the British had colonized or ruled through brute force and built cities on the backs of the enslaved African and indigenous populations as they extracted resources. When the aftermath of WW2’s destruction left a levelled Europe— having been battered and burnt— a workforce was needed to rebuild, so they turned to their colonies. This workforce brought with them all kinds of new cultural creativities; in the UK, the sounds of reggae, and mixed working-class neighborhoods created a uniquely British sound for reggae and almost all British music to follow. No doubt the birth of sound systems was in Jamaica, but in the UK, the community centers and warehouses were places where various cultures mixed, and young people were exposed to each other, even if from completely different backgrounds.

Inevitably, this new reggae sound would go on to liberate countless music genres from bland-ass consumer sterility that had been used to sell albums and stiff mindsets. Corporate music has always sucked; it always will suck, even if at times it has its moments; they will be spoiled and are never to be trusted. Corporate music sold the masses a lie through its uncreative productions and boring as fuck safe ass shit— that somehow, through the propaganda machine, is shit out into the ears of millions of flacid listeners like they’re in that horror movie Human Centipede but with sound, and people just take the mediocrity that’s fed to them.

Reggae and Dub threw a wrench in that corporate machine and all the in-between and surrounding sounds. We all know this and we all love that it gives us a place to have some space in the music we listen to. Liberation through sound. It had such a profound effect on the UK musicians from the mods to the punks to post-punk to acid house and jungle and quite a few other movements I’m leaving out for the sake of time … I will say that in the US musicians post this era generally seemed to have an underlying country influence, most of the British musicians leaned into the reggae influence. Pardon my brief and poor account of history which deserves a proper dissection and probably someone more informed to tell; but what I’m getting at here is that Neil Fraser was part of the Windrush generation arriving in London in 1968 from Guyana and his effect has been on music in general since Ariwa studios took form in 1979, not just reggae. He is a part of that very instrumental generation who cracked open the head of Western music and let us into this world. Dub showed us how to play and have fun with sound.

And while the music industry corporate elites tried to put the head back together it ended up a bit like Humpty Dumpty, never really the same, and for that we all owe our gratitude and newfound freedoms of sonic exploration.

This compilation is a fantastic showcase of Mad Professor’s work, the 3 a.m. party tracks you can flip out to, the rough cuts, nasty, bad man sound system destroyers. More bizarre, more better. This album is about having fun, the older sibling who puts on the late night track and rinses the minds of you and your friends with some music you’ve never been exposed to. There are reverses ripping all over the place, filtered basslines and nonsense samples flying around the speakers. Leaning heavily into the more experimental side of his dubs. This is the companion more party album to the last Mad Professor album I reviewed on Melodies International, punchy digital drums, lots of rhythms and mangled samples. Upbeat and rough but each track with a definitive groove you can wrap your head and hips around. It’s an answer to a question we haven’t quite discovered why we’re asking.

Brilliantly compiled by the Test Pressing crew. It’s left turn after left turn and wild as can be, well planned out and reads like a DJ set that keeps impressing while you’re guessing. You gotta keep checking the album cover like “what the hell did I just listen to” as each song drives you a bit deeper into the subconscious realm of Mad Professor and his lab of experiments.

I’m thrilled about this record and all the tracks presented; it’s a deep dive into a very deep catalog; this is a completely different beast than most compilations. And what a beast it is! It’s like only the headiest of tracks; we’re definitely going off the deep end here. B-sides, a collaboration with Jah Shaka and a version of Aisha’s “Can You Feel It,” tracks that sound like a 4-track mix or demo, hot stuff and that Aisha track is a real surprise at the end after your face was melted from the previous tracks.

We start this journey with the Mad Professor track Ariwa Dub Sampler. Loaded with samples and digital drums shuffling underneath a drum machine conga, purely vox-sampled keylines that are infectious and wild. A great opening track and it really sets the mood for this album as well as puts it in its own world of fantastical dub productions. It really sets the mood for how far out and brilliant this whole album is. Dub madness!

Earl Lawrence comes in hot on this 2nd track “Dancing on a bassline/ Dancing on the bassline”. Really great laidback cut with enough drive to put it right at the edge of being a stepper. We flip this right into the dub version. A serious bass groove in this cut, my head’s bouncing. One of the more straightforward tracks of the comp. A bubbly locked-in rhythm section “Reggae music’s got me under control”. It sure does Earl. I like how this track contrasts with the first track; it’s such a solid cut. Totally different tracks, hard cuts. It’s early in the record. But as you’ll see if you stick with me, this is truly a selectors comp!

Mad Professor and Jah Shaka up next with Only One God. An amazing steppers track. Back into the weird shit for the dance floor. Vocals warped and modulated , drums stepping, wicked bassline turning up the heat, filtered hi hats running the show. Big tune has me bouncing.

H2SO4 is like a Mad Professor medley. Starts off in reverse and we’ve got this simple keyboard and bass and drums it grooves through for a few minutes and then the mix completely changes gears. I love it, is this even the same song? Ha! Who fucking cares. Such a hard turn in the middle of a track. So this one is like a heist movie where I’m trying to explain it to my friends but don’t want to spoil it because the ending is great. What a track!

Dub De Hart, a Starky Banton track comes in a sweet digital burner. Mirroring elements of the previous track is cool. This record has an awesome flow. I love how the tracks are really playing with these hard cuts and then blends and mirroring elements throughout the entirety. It’s vibey and never remains stagnant. Dub de heart fits in nicely. Catchy guitar licks, snappy drums, still keeping the groove.

REEEEEWWWWIIIINNNND! Hippamuffin from Ragga Doll Pulling samples and broken drums speed it up and it’s jungle. Sound effects shoot in and out to destroy your linear thought process. Things scrape by, things is a good word for that. Chopped up and in full experimental mode. Nothing makes sense here, yet it all makes sense— like a storm of chaos you didn’t know you needed. The production on this sounds like it’s from earlier tapes. I like that it feels vulnerable like it was found in a corner pile of unreleased material.

Cook up Rice from Professor Doppler is punching at you from below the belt with a driving beat and oddly wobbling bass. Ticking and vocal samples, writhing drum machines with minimal melodies and harmonies. The best thing is we’re pretty far away from music, but we’re still musical. And Prof. Doppler has this whole mix swirling. The Doppler mix.

Disco dude pulls us back to some semblance of reality, congas and swampy synth or reversed horn lines. This track could be on an ESG album or some obscure Mancuso mixtape that someone happened to bootleg in 1981. Sounds fly in and out— sparse basslines that sound like they’re lost in a room down the hall.

“This is not mono, this is not stereo, this is for folks with more than two ears.” Kathmandu Dub has us stepping straight forward. Pulse little bubbly coming in and out. Reverbs and delays makeup just as much of the melody as the synth lines and little samples. Filters bring the wash of the effects. This is a sound system destroyer. My head is there; my ears are expanded.

Hong Kong Flew! Hit us with some yodeling. Oh yes, you did hear me correct. We got the yodeling track. This level of humour showcasing a pure love of sound we’re all over the place here. Count me the fuck in. Let me say that these are only two elements over this rippy little Robotiks track complete with plenty of noises and horns taking the lead on melodies while they get mangled, whilst a groover of a bassline chugs away in the background holding it all together like a syrup.

Miss Mood has us in some smokey territory; it’s like a call and response answer to the yodelling. Only in its right mind would some steel drums and slide guitar make sense, half Hawaiian slack key, half just slack. Indeed a smoked-up tune, heavy groove. Everything makes sense when you’re in it, but it for sure has me smiling.

I hope there’s a volume II of Dubs & Cuts because somehow we’re on our last track. Aisha’s Can You Feel It wraps this bombastically charged album of surprises and suspense nicely, a whole other perspective from the Ariwa sound. Even here with this cut, it feels like an accident waiting to happen, and that’s not a bad thing, it’s tension and there’s always a release. We’re either foreshadowing the next volume or we’re just reminded that Mad Professor is also a bit of a pop wizard crafting catchy tunes regardless of flavor.

As we come to an end, I realize that my version of a left turn may be your version of a right turn. So with this, I’ll say that either way you look at it, when you turn into oncoming traffic, it’s a more dangerous than when you don’t, and depending on how willing you are to take chances, you might cut it close or get T-boned, but you might take a chance and get to where you need to, just fine. In my version, it’s a left turn that takes those chances, not giving a dick about getting t-boned. This album is filled with chances, and while it feels good to live dangerously, it feels even better to listen to dangerous music while you’re doing it.

Another high recommendation that won’t disappoint. Can't wait for Vol 2.

'Cuts & Dubs – Volume 1' by Mad Professor is available HERE on Test Pressing Recordings.