Scientist: Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires [DUB MIR]

Why you'll love it

This edition presents the original ten-track album, each mix named after a horror film. Five of its tracks ran on the K-Jah radio station in Grand Theft Auto III, which introduced it to a whole new generation.

This edition

• Original 10-track album
• Original comic-book cover art

About the album

In the early 80s, Jamaican dub albums often came with comic-book covers, and none had a better concept than this: the young mixing engineer Scientist, cast as a hero, saving the world from vampires, werewolves and zombies. The tracks get titles to match, from "Dance of the Vampires" to "Your Teeth in My Neck."

Henry "Junjo" Lawes produced, the Roots Radics played the rhythms at Channel One, and Scientist mixed them at King Tubby's studio, building his dubs from songs by Michael Prophet, Wailing Souls, Johnny Osbourne and Wayne Jarrett. Flabba Holt's bass is enormous, Style Scott and Santa Davis keep the drums crisp, and Scientist drops instruments in and out, splashes on echo and lets the reverb howl. "The Mummy's Shroud," "The Corpse Rises" and "Plague of Zombies" are highlights, and "Night of the Living Dead" rides one of Holt's deepest basslines.

Greensleeves later made it part of its Reggae Classics series. It's an album about fighting off the undead that is, in practice, an excellent way to have a very relaxed evening.

Also at Kops: more Scientist on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On Greensleeves / Dub Mir (cat# MIR100739), a reissue of the 1981 album.