Years before Scientist and Jammy battled the space invaders, Tradition dreamt up a sci-fi jazz/dub odyssey in north London.
Captain Ganja and the Space Patrol is one of the most singular dub albums that barely saw the light of day. A conscious effort to create a new breed of dub centred around the cosmic synths and keys of Paul Thompson. Making use of an early Roland sampler, Tradition broke away from the standard drum / bass workouts that ruled the day. With the Captain, dub becomes an atmosphere, a feeling, not a formula - littered with baby's cries, tribal chants, radiophonic noodlings and library soundtracks for space-age bachelor pads.
Originally issued by Venture Records in 1980, this small run was easily lost beneath the weight of their huge vocal LPs for RCA and everlasting lovers-tinged tracks like 'Movin On','Breezin' and 'Summertime'. The experimental strains in one of their early 45s led the BBC to approach them about contributing to the Dr. Who soundtrack, Captial Radio did likewise for the Hulabaloo theme. Neither saw fruition and this facet of the band's sound is easily forgotten by diehard fans.
Crippling bassweight, synthesized eski pre-sets, rootsy chimes and steppas vamps collide on this 12" of future soundsystem artillery from a true dub musical legend.
TNT Roots' contribution to dub is seismic, almost dinosauric, but through some glitch in universe fabric, 'Mighty In Battle' is his first official vinyl release. As half of Earthquake - he's responsible the darkest, most slept-on future dub to grace Bokeh ears. Long unavailable LPs like Revelation in DubandDub Harder Than Steel make obvious an understated lineage flowing from 90s steppas down to jungle, grime, hardcore, darkcore, doomcore - all of the cores really. TNT and Earthquake's rightful place alongside those mystic giants, Iration Steppas, is more than assured by those that know.
Both tracks are presented here inna try 90s 12" fashion with 3 alternative/dub mixes.
