The first record of Creation Rebel was released in 1978. Forty years later the band performed on a Belgian stage for the first time. Mixing of course was their spiritual father: Adrian Sherwood. Rarely has On-U Sound sounded so mighty, and dub so powerful.
Creation Rebel's records are among the oldest in my collection. With increasing amazement and admiration we were then, at the end of the 70's, listening to those extravagant dubs. We had barely discovered King Tubby, and Lee Perry. Jamaican dub was so far removed from mainstream pop music that almost every release was a revelation.
Creation Rebel and Adrian Sherwood went one step further. They explored a sound universe where no producer or engineer had gone before. From the deepest roots of reggae and with the energy of the rockers-style that reigned at the time, they created dub from outerspace. And so the foundations were laid for the most inventive and groundbreaking sound in the UK: On-U Sound.
Four of the original members were on stage in Liège. Drummer Charley 'Eskimo Fox' was replaced after the first album ('Dub From Creation') by the regretted Style Scott - much better known from Roots Radics - but demonstrated here in a convincing way why he was a sought-after British session musician in the golden years of reggae. He played with Alton Ellis, Dillinger, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and many others. In 'Starship Africa' (or one of the "sections" on that groundbreaking album) he evoked the spirit of his ancestors, with drum patterns coming straight from revival and pocomania, the religious movements that fed Rastafari.
Creation Rebel opened with 'Dub From Creation' (from the LP of the same name), still firmly rooted in the Jamaican style. The riddim is reminiscent of Althea & Donna's 'Make A Truce' for Joe Gibbs, and also has the same irresistible drive. But with Adrian Sherwood on the mixer, even the most rudimentary dub gets the aura of a spectacular fireworks display. Here is an echo, there is a reverb, not programmed but instinctively mixed live. Sherwood himself plays on all kinds of pads with percussion, samples and very special effects. A sharp, powerful sound, never too loud or on the edge of the pain line, but unavoidable and all-pervading. Superior dub such as superior dub should sound. Where were they, all those dubheads? This was the real thing, the forerunner of steppers and other UK roots dub, in a sublime live performance.
It got even better when I recognized the intro of my all-time favorite Creation Rebel-tune: 'The Dope', from one of my favorite reggae records ever 'Psychotic Jonkanoo'. I did miss Deadly Headly's imploring saxophone but keyboardist Cyrus Richards (Ras Ites) felt completely at home as a youngster of 37 in the On-U Sound universe and was given a free hand by the band to freewheel, and occasionally play melodica (following the example of British Dr. Pablo in the early years of the label). Guitarist Crucial Tony sang a few lines of the song but then wisely kept his mouth shut. Better not than foul singing and in the end it was about the dub. Also Mr. Magoo limited his vocal input to a few words and cries, and concentrated for the rest on his percussion, in the sound of On-U Sound traditionally one of the cherries on the cake.
After an hour, Creation Rebel left the stage. Much too short, you would think, if it were not for the fact that the Master himself also had a set in store. The sounds from the pads now colored old and new dub plates. In the case of Sherwood, these are unpublished remixes or completely new tracks. The fans know that they will always be surprised and never disappointed. There were astonishing songs from the new, soon to be released On-U Sound record by Lee Perry, a top tune of Congo Natty, an embellished Marley, a fantastic mix of Ini Kamoze's 'Hill & Gully Ride', the original of Desmond Dekker's 'Fu Man Chu' but more beautiful and purer than I've ever heard anywhere else, and to end a crackling Bombay dub, with penetrating tabla's and female vocals.
Creation Rebel's first concert on Belgian soil attracted only about fifty visitors to the Reflektor in Liège, a cool club with top-class acoustics. On-U Sound has always been a niche of a niche (dub) of a niche (reggae) and fortunately also has fans in other music circles; otherwise we might only have been there with five. For me this was certainly the perfect dub evening, with in the lead some of the most important figures in my musical consciousness: mixing table wizard Adrian Sherwood and the band that would later evaporate in Singers & Players and even later in Dub Syndicate: Creation Rebel, named after a foundation tune of Burning Spear, in itself a very fine reference. I can only hope that you will be there next time.
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