Since seeing the King Tubby review in these pages I thought it was time to mention his one-time protege, Scientist (or Hopeton Brown away from the mixing desk). A legendary figure in the world of dub.

Starting out as an engineer building amplifiers in Tubby’s legendary Dromilly Avenue studio, Kingston JA, the young Scientist soon learnt the ropes and was ready to take the controls himself. In fact he was just 16 when he first mixed hits for the likes of Barrington Levy and the True Persuaders. Fortunately, not just content with following in Tubby’s footsteps, he found his own style, by stripping down rythms more than ever before, and adding otherworldly effects. By the time he was 21 he cut arguably his most impressive sides up to that point and possibly since. 

With a sleeve devoid of Rastafarian imagery and instead depicting the Scientist as a cartoon hero with a laser gun in each hand mercilessly attacking alien craft, you could be fooled into thinking this is anything but a dub record. Indeed, casting your eye down the track listing you could be none the wiser. Track titles such as time warp, de materialize and super nova explosion do little to give the game away. But this was the scientist breaking with convention, resulting in him giving this collection the title ‘Scientist meets the Space Invaders’ (yet this had nothing on another of his lp’s from the same era; Scientist rids the World of Vampires!). The year was 1981, and the man was at his inventive best at the controls of the legendary Studio 1. Taking a set of top skankin’ riddims from the Roots Radics band and adding a dash of electronic beeps and blips, the Scientist could do no wrong. Pushing the boat out further than many of his contemporaries, this set is perhaps the best example of his unique style at the time.

Largely instrumental, the odd vocal does occasionally break through the ether only to be swallowed up again and drowned in a sea of dub fx such as on Cloning Process where Wayne Wade’s Poor and Humble intonations bob in and out of the mix. Elsewhere there are some of the deepest and most effect laden rhythms imaginable and not a duff track in sight. Although short, clocking in at a shade under 32 minutes, this set went on to inspire the greatest exponents of 80’s digital dub, but that’s another story. For now, this is as much a gem of an album as the scene produced.