1. Sly Repatriated Dub
2. Silky Dub
3. Yabby U
4. Figure Me Out Dub
5. Unification Dub,
6. Dub With Righteousness
7. Robbie Dubbing Through
8. I.L.A. Dub
9. Zion Dub
10. Chanting Dub

Release info :

Everyone who used to listen to reggae music during the Seventies remembers the sound of a band called The Revolutionaries. The nucleus of the band was Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare one bass (sometimes Ranchie McLean on bass). This band started off at the, then brand new, Channel One studios in Jamaica, supplying the musical backing for countless hits by a variety of Jamaican artists. The band was known for its unique, new sound featuring Sly Dunbar’s innovative and revolutionary drumming. When the Seventies became the Eighties Sly and Robbie started their own Taxi label, supplying their own backing tracks, rather than to work for other producers. They made big hits with Yellowman, Ini Kamoze and many more. Furthermore they became involved in working with non-reggae artists more and more. In New York they worked on various projects mixing reggae with funk, hip-hop, and rap. A well known hit from that period is their version of “Boops”.

Then Sly & Robbie were more and more producing and playing in Jamaica again, however, because the sound had changed, they didn’t play on “live” instruments but computerized mid-systems. The demand for Sly & Robbie playing “live” on records became bigger and bigger by countless reggae fans all over the world. However most producers, and Sly & Robbie themselves, were hesitating to record such an album. It took an experienced and genius producer to convince them to do so.

This producer is the inspired Yabby U, a veteran on the Kingston music scene, who is responsible for having produced some of the finest reggae music ever to come out of Jamaica over the past 20 years. The Mixing Lab studio was booked and some of Jamaica’s finest musicians were called in. On guitar the great Earl “Chinna” Smith who plays on all Yabby U sessions, keyboards aare provided by Mixing Lab musician Danny Brownie, the youngest brother of the Brownie Bunch. Hand drumming on some tracks by the great percussionist Scully. To flavour the sound Sly & Robbie’s long time associates, Dean Fraser’s Rass Brass, were called in to play the horns. But… the focus is, of course, on the drums and bass. Sly plays as revolutionary as before and Robbie perfectly matches the drums with his bass lines.

Text : Robert “Jah Robbie” Kuijpers

Review by Chuck Foster, published in The Beat : 

“Yabby U Meets Sly & Robbie At The Mixing Lab” has apparently been around awhile, but this is the first time I’ve heard it. The Taxi crew dubs up Yabby U in a mix that features – surprise – mostly bass & drums. Although not the deranged King Tubby romp implied this one is more suited to the dub lovers and less to the instrumentalists’ taste. Some of the tracks were done for Michael Prophet albums produced by Vivian Jackson (aka Yabby U), some for his own albums.