PRINCE FATTY Vinyl & CDs

Review: This album is the sonic distillation of a compelling backstory. Chancing on a vault of archived recordings by iconic reggae producer Bunny Striker Lee, modern dub producer and next-gen icon Prince Fatty (Mile Pelanconi) jumped at the chance to remix the versions in his own image, passing the tracks down to the modern listener (and the spirited torch of Lee's dub zeitgeist in the process). Fatty is said to have fed the audio into the analog realm for a true remixing; feeding each recording through a carefully built audio analog system similar to that used by King Tubby. The result is a crisp, modern dub masterwork, which Fatty himself acknowledging the songs' status as classics, but nonetheless admitting, "it's nicer and fresher to hear a new structure..."

Review: Prince Fatty's new independent record label Lovedub Limited kicks off with a super 7" from the man himself. It is in fact something of an homage to the 1970s jazz-funk of Lonnie Liston Smith but with some hefty dub and reggae treatment. Shniece Mcmenamin stars on vocals and brings plenty of summer soul to the groove which is also lit up with free-flying flute lines over steady reggae rhythms that will sink you in deep to Winston "Horseman" Williams and Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilvie's drums, organ and piano. On the flip is the dub with the iconic Liston-Smith melody leading you through a lazy afternoon in style.

Review: Prince Fatty's 'Mercedes Benz' with Shniece and Horseman is a rub-a-dub version of a 1970s hit from Janice Joplin that now gets a very special and very limited edition pressing courtesy of Lovedub Limited. The A-side kicks off with the spine-tingling and epic original vocal before disappearing into a world of reverb. At that point the dubby low end arrives and brings a different vibe to the stunning vocals but one that really makes a mark next to new bars from Horseman, police sirens and funky riffs. It's a tough sound system groove that is backed with a fine version and has been a firm fixture of Prince Fatty's record box for a while now.