Joe Gibbs & The Professionals — Jam Down Rock- Dancehall Dub

Jam Down Rock is a twenty-three-track CD compilation, bringing together early 80s dub/dancehall mixes by respected reggae producer Joe Gibbs  & his band The Professionals. It's a great collection of stripped-back, hard-hitting, and often playfully experimental tracks.

The release appears on Doctor Bird- the retro reggae-focused sublabel of Cherry Red. The disc is presented in a jewel case, featuring on its back & front covers afro men smoking joints in a cannabis field- not sure if these are members of The Professionals or not, but it’s a fitting enough photo for the compilation, often quite trippy/unbalancing sounds. Inside the booklet, we find a four-page write-up about the compilation, and a good selection of pictures/ 45 labels.

We open with “Cast Eye Boy” which is all about a locked/ jiving weave of organ, horns, guitars, and bass- with sudden jarring/ overloaded keys/ bass tones fed over the top, so a nicely grooving/ yet rewarding wrong-footing start to the proceedings. “Tek Time Talk” is all snaking/ slamming beats, on/off jaunting keys, and pared-back dub bass hits. There’s the trippy reverbing organ/ key trails, electro wow-wow tones, on/off male vocal weaves, and tight tip-tapping percussion of “Dancehall Style”.

Moving on to the second half of the compilation, we have the swirling robot hiss/ woosh, tight snapping beats, and minimised key jaunts of “Possie”. There’s the clip-clapping electro tones, spacy synth key quirks, and dubbing bass/ beats of “Chatter Box”. We have “Talk About You” with its stripped ‘n’ warped blend of strutting keys, jiving guitar, compressed beats, vocals, and sudden whizzing sound effects. With the collection playing out with the title track, which finds pared-back bass lines & hiss beats, edged with on/off blends of electro wow-wow fed keys, synth tom hits, and slurred electronica details.

If you enjoyed the more warped/electro-edged side of dub reggae, Jam Down Rock is most certainly a must, as the whole compilation is highly consistent, with some wonderfully brain-scrambling moments along its length.