Toppa Top 8: Don Corleon Selects His Favorite Dub Records + Exclusive Interview

Words by Jesse Serwer

Donovan “Don Corleon” Bennett’s Dub in HD, out today on iTunes, Amazon and other online music retailers, is the first dub album by a major Jamaican producer that we’ve heard of in years. Corleon, the producer behind some of the largest riddims of the last decade, told us the project is meant not as a money-making proposition but specifically to expose the next generation of reggae/dancehall fans and producers to the sound and technique. We quizzed Corleon about the project, but–this being Toppa Top 10 Tuesdays and all—first we asked him to break down some of his all-time favorite dub LPs.

8. Chalawa, Exodus Dub

I’m not even sure when this is from [but] Protoje made me hear it, and I love it. Protoje is very big in dub. He has everything he’s one of the people who really influenced me to do this dub album, too.

LargeUp: What made you decide to make a dub album in 2011?
Don Corleon: Basically my love to experiment in reggae music and learn the whole culture and history about everything. As far as that, I usually listen to dub a lot. From there, I just said, Yo…I want to do this thing. From a long time ago, I haven’t been letting out my riddim versions so everything on this album is really hard to find. That was the plan from a very long time ago.

LU: Dub is a Jamaican form but it’s rare to hear dub from Jamaica anymore. The dub records you hear tend to come out of Europe. Do you think there is a market for it?
DC: I’m not doing it to sell music. I’m doing it to preserve my culture, understand me? Me being a very influential producer to certain young producers too, that’s why I decided to continue this thing that these people did like Scientist, Mad Professor and King Tubby’s. I would like to continue that type of legacy in the business.

LU: When you were a young music fan would you seek out dub versions?
DC: I wasn’t really big into dub back then but a couple of them.

LU: How can young reggae/dancehall producers add to their skill set by familiarizing themselves with dub?
DC: It’s a skill that was created in Jamaica through reggae music. And also it can teach a lot of things about dynamics, about shaping sounds–how to set reverb properly. Because dub delay has a very intricate role in dub. Those things teach you to improve your craft. Put it this way, you may not be doing dub, but when I set an EQ, I just think dub and it really helps me in that way.

LU: What are the the tools a producer needs today to make dub?
DC: Actually, the whole of my album was made straight in ProTools, hence the name Dub In HD. I love what all these producers like Tubby’s and Scientist and people were doing. I wanted to keep it original so I had to add a likkle something to it. Basically you have to have a good delay, vintage reverb plug-ins. You can find things like that on the Internet—a dub reverb or delay.

LU: What are you doing differently when you’re making a dub version versus building a typical riddim track?
DC: Normally, I tend to drive the drum and bass really heavy in the mix. Well, different than I always do. It all has to do with effects, delay. It depends on the vibe—sometimes I phase stuff, I put delays on the pianos or the guitar or snare even.

7. Lee “Scratch” Perry’s ‘70s dub records

He made a lot of good dub records. If you listen to Protoje’s new record, you’re gonna hear a cover of one of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s dub records. When you hear it you’re gonna say, Whoa. I don’t know about his newer stuff but I like everything from [back in the ‘70s]. Anything from him in those times were good.

6. Sly & Robbie, A Dub Experience

How can I forget this one—”Demoliton City.” Just the intro alone on this album is just sick.

5. Scientist, Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires

Sometimes you can hear just a hi-hat and you can tell which [dub engineer] it is. Scientist, now, he has a different feel than Mad Professor. He used more filtering.

4. Anything by Jah Shaka

I also rate everything by Jah Shaka. I saw him in Europe. Jah Shaka was spinning in the sound, and the way that he had the crowd, I was like, Hold on, this is bigger than even an artist working. I was like, No! This man is wicked.

3. Anything by Mad Professor

Everything from Mad Professor I rate 100 percent. It’s spacey and way beyond the time when [he] did all that stuff. When we posted the first Youtube video for this dub project, Mad Professor linked Protoje, and said he loved what he was hearing. I was talking to him and he said, “I normally don’t like digital but this sounds good digital.” We’re talking and he says he wants to do a dub album with me and him, so you can look out for that in the future.

2. Aswad, Dub Fire

I just like the sound and dynamics of this record–[especially] how the drums sound.

1. Augustus Pablo/King Tubby, King Tubby’s Meets Rockers Uptown

My favorite of all of them is King Tubby’s. Just for the low end…how he sets that bass and that kick. No matter which King Tubby’s, it has more bottom end than all of them. Even when I listen to on my Mac laptop I say, How did he get the kick like that?  And King Tubby’s is coming from an older time than all of the other people. Even the equipment that he used just have a sound. That eight-track board has a sound. Mad Professor is cleaner and crispier–it sounds good–but King Tubby’s has a rusty, dirty sound. Like an 8-bit.