DON LETTS Late Night Tales presents Version Excursion selected by Don Letts 2LP

“A disciple of sound system, raised on reggae n’ bass culture my go to sound was dub. Besides being spacious and sonically adventurous at the same time, its most appealing aspect was the space it left to put yourself ‘in the mix’ underpinned by Jamaica’s gift to the world – bass. But that’s only half the story as the duality of my existence meant I was also checking what the Caucasian crew were up to not to mention the explosion of black music coming in from the States. That’s why this version excursion crosses time space and genre, from The Beach Boys to The Beatles, Nina Simone to Marvin Gaye, The Bee Gees to Kool & The Gang, The Clash to Joy Division and beyond. You’d think it impossible to draw a line between ‘em but not in my world. Fortunately, the ‘cover version’ has played an integral part in the evolution of Jamaican music and dub covers were just a natural extension.”

There’s a diverse mix of classic and new, with legendary figures like John Holt, The Tamlins and Cornell Campbell, mixed in with British veterans Mad Professor and the irrepressible Dennis Bovell, while (relatively) young striplings Kiko Bun, Emily Capell and Prince Fatty deliver the goods, with laidback Texan groovers Khruangbin also offering an exclusive bass heavy-delight.

The song choices are diverse, from French dubsters’ OBF’s renditions of ‘Sixteen Tons’, the miners’ paean popularised by Tennessee Ernie Ford in the 1950s, to Ash Walker’s refix of Omar’s ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ and ‘All I Do Is Think About You’, immortalised by the ill-fated Tammi Terrell and preserved here by Quantic (the latter two both exclusives). Being a Rebel Dread compilation, there’s a cover (by Wrongtom Meets The Rockers) of The Clash’s ‘Lost In The Supermarket’ while Don’s exclusive, naturally, is a rendition of Big Audio Dynamite’s debut hit, ‘E = MC2’.

“Truth be told I’ve wanted to work with the Late Night Tales crew from the get go. We’re talking nearly two decades such was the allure of their musical aesthetic typified by curators like Nightmares on Wax, The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Trentemoller, Khruangbin and countless others. Now being as old as rock n’ roll (born in ‘56) and having nearly 20 years of Culture Clash Radio under my belt I figured I was tooled up to musically juggle with the best of ‘em. But I wanted to carve out a space that was distinctly my own – something that reflected my musical journey and the culture clash that’s made me the man I am today.”

1 Ghetto Priest – Hercules (North Street West ‘Late Night Tales’ Dub) *Exclusive Remix
2 Prince Fatty & Shniece McMenamin – Black Rabbit
3 Wrongtom Meets The Rockers – Dub In The Supermarket *Exclusive Remix
4 Gaudi Meets The Rebel Dread ft. Emily Capell – E = MC2 *Exclusive Track
5 Rude Boy – Superstylin’ *Exclusive Remix
6 Capitol 1212 ft. Earl 16 – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Full Vocal Dub) *Exclusive Remix
7 Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno – All I Do Is Think About You (Far East Dub) *Exclusive Remix
8 Zoe Devlin Love ft. Tim Hutton – Caroline No
9 John Holt – You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine (Mad Professor 2021 Dub) *Exclusive Remix
10 Cornell Campbell – Ital City Dub *Exclusive Remix
11 Matumbi – (I Can’t Get Enough Of) That Reggae Stuff (Dennis Bovell Remix) *Exclusive Remix
12 Gentleman’s Dub Club ft. Kiko Bun – Use Me (Ben McKone Dub)
13 Black Box Recorder – Uptown Top Ranking
14 OBF – Sixteen Tons Of Dub
15 Yasushi Ide – Ain’t No Sunshine (Space Dub Mix) *Exclusive Remix
16 The Tamlins – Baltimore
17 15 16 17 – Emotion (Dennis Bovell Remix) *Exclusive Remix
18 Ash Walker – There’s Nothing Like This *Exclusive Track
19 The Senior Allstars – Slipping Into Darkness
20 Easy Star All-Stars – Within You Without You
21 Khruangbin – Dern Kala (Khruangbin Dub Mix) *Exclusive Remix