Reggae music in many ways reminds us of America’s Motown records.The music comes out of its stable fast and furious we tend to know the songs, the artists,the studio but who ? are the players.The unsung hero’s that in many cases, cut most of our favourite tracks.One such band this applies to in the Reggae field is the Soul Syndicate Band. Each Jamaican record producer would have their favourite set of musicians they would use,availability permitting.Although several musicians crossed over into different named bands.For example a set of players working with Producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee would go under the guise of The Aggrovators.The same group working with Producer Joe Gibbs would work under the name The Professionals.Soul Syndicate were the band of choice for Producer Niney the Observer, who used them for his own recordings and when you put that aside the other artists Niney produced,Dennis Brown,Max Romeo,Michael Rose,I Roy,The Ethiopians,Barry Brown,Gregory Issacs and Freddie McGregor.To name a few and not necessary all, you begin to see the amount of material this set of musicians played on.

Built around the rhythm section of Calton 'Santa' Davis and George 'Fully' Fullwood,drums and bass respectfully.They were usually accompanied by Earl 'Chinna' Smith,Tony Chin on guitars,Keith Sterling,Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderstone,Bernard 'Touter' Harvey,organ / keyboards and Noel 'Skully' Simms,percussion.Niney's tracks tended to be rhythm heavy and thus Sound System favourites.But when brass was needed / called for ,this was provided by the likes of Tommy McCook, Bobby Ellis,Felix ' Deadley Headley' Bennett. Niney not having a studio of his own at the time used most of Kingston's studios, again availability and money providing.But most of these cuts selected for this release were cut at Channel 1 and a few exceptions at Randy's Studio 17 and at Joe Gibbs studio at Burns Avenue. .

Niney also worked closely with King Tubby on his dub plates, so tracks after the recording sessions were taken to King Tubbys for reconstruction and sometimes re-voicing over an existing rhythm.These were then used as version sides to the vocal cuts,but most importantly used to nice up the dances,being played out on King Tubbys Home Town Hi - Fi Sound System.We have pulled together a selection of such dub plate specials cut by the Soul Syndicate band for this release.Dub sides that emphasise how well the band worked together, and with Niney at the reigns and the added bonus of some Tubby magic sprinkled on top.Please see our Niney the Observer at King Tubbys 1973 - 1975[ JRO11] for further examples of this work.

We at Jamaican Recordings hope we are not alone in saluting the musicians, that played such a big part in producing many of our favourite Reggae Sounds.Having released titles by The Revolutionaries [ JR003 ],The Aggrovators [JR005 ],Sly and Robbie [JR006 ], we are now pleased to release a selection of rare Dub cuts by another one of Jamaica's finest, the Soul Syndicate band to our catalogue... Respect Jah Floyd.

1.FITTEST OF THE DUB FITTEST.
Barry Browns dubbed vocal can be heard over this heavy rhythm, the vocal version being Barry's 'Fittest of the Fittest '.

2.DUB IN HEAVEN.
A King Tubby Sound System Dub favourite.Working over Horace Andy's 'You are my Angel ' rhythm.

3.RUFF GAL DUB.
The 'Ruff Girl' rhythm gets the dub treatment.

4.NINEY'S DUB CROWN.
Niney licked this rhythm and afterwards King Tubby took a cut and put Augustus Pablo and Johnny Clarke on it.King Tubbys national anthem,Augustus later cut it as '555 Crown Street'.This is the first version nice....

5.RASTA MAN IN DUB.
Cut at Randy's Studio 17,King Tubby worked it into a dub special...

6.DUB CHAPTER.
An unreleased dub to the 'Ten to One' rhythm cut at Channel 1. .

7.A DUB REVIVAL.
Augustus Pablo and Glen Brown cut on this Niney rhythm which was a version of the 'Swing Easy' rhythm.

8.THE KING & THE OBSERVER IN DUB.
King Tubby and Niney worked this Soul Syndicate rhythm together to produce this rockers style dub....

9.DUB 100.

10.RUNAWAY DUB.
The Runaway rhythm dubbed up again by Mr Tubby, for his Sound System...

11.DUB IN PARABLES.
Santa.. biblical.. mouth organ lead,phased dub.. sounds great.

12.OBSERVERS DUB.
This organ lead Niney rhythm still has it

13.A DUB CLASSIC.

14.DUB A LONG.