by osmosis

When discussing dub, the conversation invariably turns to King Tubby, Lee Perry and the Scientist. And of course, each of those producers deserves his due deference, but very frequently, Lloyd ‘Bullwackie’ Barnes is ominously absent for the aforementioned discourse.

Barnes found himself amongst the legions of kids hangin’ around Studio One and Treasure Island during the initial blooming of ska in the early ‘60s. He counted many stars of that period as his friends and even sang back-up on a few singles. Barnes, though, quickly realized he was not going to make a career out of singing.

Immigrating to New York during the late ‘60s from Kingston, Barnes quickly mounted a sound system and began playing parties – even taking his equipment on trains in order to make it to gigs. After playing a show that necessitated him to repair his equipment due to stray gun shots, Barnes decided to get in to the recording of records seeing as playing them had become a bit too burdensome.

Beginning in 1973, Barnes began building a studio in the Bronx. And at this early date, many consider him to be the first producer working with dubs outside of Jamaica. There was an initial reticence to recognize his work seeing as it was being done outside of the cloistered island, but shortly, Barnes would count Wayne Jarrett and Stranger Cole on the ever ballooning Wackie’s roster.

Part of what attracted these singers to the Wackie’s studio was the care with which Barnes constructed his tracks. The sound he’s been able to coax out of his musicians is at once as dry and heavy as anything coming from Perry’s Black Ark, but augmented by the brightest sounding horns on any dub album. Some have referred to the sound as lo-fi, but that portends a lackadaisical attitude, which Barnes certainly doesn’t posses.

While Barnes still records – splitting time between Kingston and New York – much of the Wackie’s catalog has been out of print for some time. Only recently has a German label undertaken the task of restoring Barnes’ legacy. Beginning around the turn of the millennium, Basic Channel reissued a great many of these lost Wackies classics including Creation Dub, Horace Andy’s classic Dance Hall Stylee and a few discs from the Love Joys. But if those names don’t resonate, take trip over to Satta Massagana and have a look around.

Wackies Samplers: Vol. 01, Vol .02, Vol. 03