Updated on July 11, 2012
Culture vs. the Internet
It was late and hot on a recent Saturday night and I was geeking out on one of my favorite roots reggae groups, Culture, and marveling at the power of the web to find music that otherwise cannot exist.
My find stems from a great Culture dub track, “Dog Eat Dub,” which I heard while driving (thanks to a free XM trial in my new Subaru). Likely breaking some California hands-free laws, I picked up my iPhone to find Shazam. In my experience, Shazam has rarely been good at knowing deep reggae tracks but I gave it a try and it surprisingly knew this one. When I got home, I Googled it and unsurprisingly found it on Youtube. It’s here:
So I did some more searching. The track above is a version of a song called “Dog Ago Nyam Dog,” from the album Africa Stand Alone. It’s out of print, and the album is better explained in this interesting Wikipedia entry.
The album, Culture in Dub is not on iTunes or Mog, but the entire dub album is online (natch) and can be streamed for free, ripped from LP. It seems you can buy variations of the album, but not the real thing seen here. It’s a crime it’s out of print, it’s so good. I first found it here, but thankfully the stream is also available as an embed:
Dub tracks from groups like this are often versions of more standard tracks with vocals, so I kept looking. The Intertubes also tell me that the first “Dog Eat Dub” track above is indeed the version of another track on a Culture album called Africa Stand Alone, which was never released (yet seems to be everywhere but iTunes) and is also on youtube, of course. Both albums are amazing. The dub LP has other versions from Culture’s also-classic Harder Than the Rest album, with great songs like “Iron Sharpening Iron” (“Iron Sharp Dub” here) and “Holy Mountain Zion.”
I think the Africa Stand Alone album is all within this youtube playlist. Here’s the “Iron Sharpen Iron” track:
Like I said, I was geeking the hell out. This is all classic roots reggae from one of the best reggae bands ever, and it’s a shame one has to search so hard to find it. Until now.
You’re welcome.
