The tiny Version City studio in New York City, spiritual home to many of America's finest traditional ska and reggae bands, has produced some of the best old-school reggae of the last five years. Jeff "King Django" Baker, who divides his time between a solo career and leadership of both the Stubborn All-Stars and Skinnerbox, is the guru and benevolent despot of the Version City kingdom, and given his obvious affection for classical dub and reggae, an album of dub versions based on tracks by various Version City artists comes as no surprise. This collection consists of twelve tracks (arranged in four three-track "rounds"), all of them dub versions of tunes by the Stubborn All-Stars,
Victor Rice, and probably a few other bands, though it's hard to say for sure -- annoyingly, there are no liner notes and nothing to help the listener locate the standard versions of these dubs. The consistently high quality of the music itself soothes that irritation pretty quickly though, from the heavyweight, bassy groove of "Dub Ho" to the stately rock steady of "Green Dub." This one's all killer, no filler.