Some albums have to be heard to be truly believed, and so it is with Keith Hudson's Nuh Skin Up, the dub companion to his 1979 vocal album, From One Extreme to Another. That title was even more apt for the dub set, so far removed is it from anything else being produced in Jamaica (or anywhere else for that matter). As a vocalist, Hudson was no great shakes, and although an emotive singer, his vocals sounded a bit like a strangled cat. But as a producer he had no peers, and on From One Extreme to Another he led his studio group, the Soul Syndicate Band, down brooding, bluesy byways they never navigated on their own. But it was with the dubs that he and the band seemed to leave this planet entirely. On Troubles, the group steams straight into a swamp -- imagine Delta blues done steppers style or John Lee Hooker born Jamaican on a number with an unstoppable rhythm, as Earl Chinna Smith's guitars flicker out of the Spanish moss-lined gloom like St. Elmo's fire. The equally magnificent Ire Ire has an upbeat feel but quivers with militancy, its disjointed rhythm continuously throwing the listener off balance, the off-kilter feel heightened by the instrumentation that seems totally out of whack with the rhythm itself. That dub is driven by the beats, while Dreadful Words Dub is powered by Fully Fullwood's thick-as-a-stump bassline -- a big, bold dub that echoes and reverberates into the ether. The title track follows a similar trajectory, but ladles on the effects, juxtaposed against bright splashes of organ. Mercy, in contrast, is a masterpiece of deconstruction, as Hudson strips down the original vocal track, then feeds the various elements back in one by one.

1		Ire Ire
2		Troubles
3		Dreadful Words Dub
4		Nuh Skin Up Dub
5		Mercy
6		Bad Things Dub
7		Keeping Us Together
8		Desiree Dub
9		No Commitment
10		Words Dub
11		Bad Things Dub [Version 2]

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