Super Ape

Back when I was in college I used to listen to a lot of Dub. This album, King Tubby, The Congos. All that groovy stuff. Maybe if this had been on the jukebox at the bar I went to I would've gotten a little more action.

Great album.

I didn't get dub. As a genre. I've tried it maybe 5 or 6 times. Every time I'm waiting for something interesting to happen. For me the same thing happened here.

Yooo ptit reggae gratos de même?

Favourite songs: Zion's Blood, Dread Lion, Curly Dub, Three in One, Underground Least favourite songs: Croaking Lizard, Super Ape 3/5

After two gigs in two days and the second being particularly damaging to my old-before-their-time knees (the Wonder Stuff), there is nothing so fine to generate this fine Saturday morning as an excellent dub album to chill and experience horrible aching pains to. As with all the best dub, it creeps into you over time.

Really love dub and there wasn't enough of it in the original list. This was so good for a stressful Sunday.

It's the genre. I get nothing out of it.

Typical reggae.

Bra grejer det här. Har lyssnat på några av låtarna tidigare men aldrig hela albumet. Riktigt vasst och givetvis blir det högsta betyg.

It's alright! Reggae isn't my thing, and this album didn't sound better or worse than any of the other albums already on the list.

I was hooked from Zion's Blood. A nice, lazy album to sit back and coast along with. Along with the opener, the other standouts were Dread Lion, Three in One and Super Ape.

Hell yeah - there's a heat wave in the UK today and this is the perfect soundtrack 😎 Fave tracks - "Croaking Lizard" and "Super Ape"

Man, that album art! I don't love reggae but this classic era is pretty great.

Today I learned about dub! I’m pretty sure dub didn’t make the original list, but Super Ape was a good choice considering Lee “Scratch” Perry was a dub pioneer. To my untrained (read: white) ears, I don’t hear much of a difference between reggae and dub. I wish I did. But I enjoy reggae and I found Super Ape to be as chill as anticipated. Some tracks had next to no lyrics, which allowed me to be immersed in the music. The use of horns was just right. Sometimes it was too repetitive for me, but this is still a worthy entry.

I was not familiar with the differences between reggae and dub. Ultimately, dub is a subgenre that is heavily toyed with in studio protection to have less vocals and more forward percussion. So, today I learned! Reggae and its subgenres aren't something I usually seek out, but I find them to be nice enough to listen to, and this album was no exception. Despite this group's MANY albums, I had never heard of them, so I appreciate an opportunity to hear something new to my ears!

Good Reggae backing music, kind of felt like it was missing something overtop.

Solid Reggae album, and not enough Reggae on the original list. Good pick.

I really wish I was more excited by Dub music and Lee Scratch Perry in particular. It always seems like it would be pretty interesting as an experimental off-shoot of reggae. Yet I really struggle to get into it. But thanks for submitter for another opportunity to try. Maybe one day I'll be in the right mood and something will click for me. Until then I'm giving a generous 4 stars for the album's significance in the genre.

Makes me feel like I'm listening to my local college radio station. I like a bit of dub. Strong four stars.

not exciting

The Upsetters was a band that backed up Bob Marley and The Wailers. But really, do you want to hear an album of just... the Wailers? It's like buying an album of the Pips, or the Hearbreakers or... well, you get the idea. There wasn't a strong presence to really stand out on it. The album cover was kinda cool, though. NEXT.

Classic dub album here.. Great chill out record.

Wasn't bad, but it just became background to me.

I liked listening to some dub!

Super indeed. A lot of the backing here is recognisable from Perry's seventies Black Ark output, which made this even more enjoyable, and a great intro to his amazing production work. A particular highlight is Dub Along and its bittersweet vocal refrains, but this is a brilliant record from start to finish.

A delight to listen to, from start to finish. The thing with any Lee Perry album is that you think you already know it, even those most of the tunes are fresh. No one makes a sound like him, stretching out every note, yet still holding the rhythm. This music works best when the sun is shining and you have optimism for what is ahead. Monday was one of those mornings. Aye.

Not my scene but legitimate bit of music history

Reggae is not in my comfort zone, and I'm sure about it. However, this album is quite calm and soulful, so I ended up enjoying the ride. Also, it deserves another credit to represent this genre, so underrepresented on the original 1001 list (even not enjoying it, I can recognize that only 10 or 12 albums may fit well in a reggae category, and it's a shame for the book), and this one looks like an important one to be missed.

Dubtastic!

So good.

This was cool and a really cool origin story for dub, it sounds so modern.

I was not expecting a reggae album today, but overall I really enjoyed it. Just super chill, playing in the background, but I felt like it kept my attention. Also, my theory about me liking an album based on how obnoxiously they use delay pedals continues to bear out. The delay pedals are kinda obnoxious here, and I kinda like this album. Crank those pedals up to a Butthole Surfers level of obnoxious, and I'm all in. 4/5

It's good, but some songs are too long. There is some reggae in the book, but this is different and good enough. It could have been included.

hell yeah, love me some goodass reggae <3 10/10

Not necessarily a reggae fan but this is quite good

Not bad

First user submitted album as I just completed the the main list! Its appropriate as I dig dub reggae and went down the dub rabbit hole. King tubby, Scientist and more of Lee Scratch Perry including the return of super ape. Not sure what else to expect from the user list but I say bring it on! For each user submission I will decide if I believe it was submitted to "correct the record" and deserves inclusion on the main list or if its more of a personal favorite or pet album of the user. This one is great and I deemed it list worthy!

maybe the most overrated album of all time

Fucking fantastic

Absolutely exceptional. Should be in the main list. Standout track - Rastaman Shuffle.

Lee Perry is without a doubt the biggest omission from the original list. From reggae to dub to dubstep to second wave ska, to countless electronic subgenres all trace their influences to this incredible mad genius.

Lee “Scratch” Perry needs all the love for his contributions to music the world over. Dub might not be my favourite music genre but I enjoyed this more than other dub albums on this list.

I always think that the guitarists in reggae bands must get really bored.

It's fine as far as 70s dub music goes, I guess?

Like I could see this being on the 1000 list, but for someone’s one and only choice it doesn’t make sense to me. Because it’s just meh.

Honestly didn't think I was gonna like this - sometimes it's not a good idea to read about it beforehand, bc "dub" threw me off - but this was actually really cool to work to. I'm not a big reggae fan overall (hence the personal semi-mediocre 3 stars) but I could listen to this again. 7/10 3 stars. IMO: Belonged in the book? No.

Reggae sencillo y fácil de escuchar. Variedad en el estilo. Un tanto relajado. Para los muy amantes del género. Sin embargo, es un contrapunto y no sienta mal escucharlo.

Loved it

Fun dub album from one of the progenitors of the subgenre. Well worth a listen.

Its pretty joyous and hard to be critical in any way.

What the hell, do I like dub now? This was perfect for both focused work and Friday night chill. Impressive.

Man, Lee “Scratch” Perry is cool. Super Ape is excellent for having some rumbling bass rhythms in the background, but I would still prefer a great reggae album over dub any day of the week.

Nice rasta feel

There are some albums that are great because of how innovating they are. They're experimental and change the direction of the genre. That's nice, but then there's another type of album that exists so comfortably inside the genre that it's just a delight to listen to. Like, "Yeah, this is some fuckin reggae right here". It is. It is some fuckin reggae. It isn't changing the world, but it's a solid album. Strong foundation. They knew what they were doing and weren't trying to do anything more than have fun. I respect that. 4/5

I suppose I respect this to some extent, and some of it works for me, but by the end I wanted off the trip.

At first, I groaned because I’m rarely in the mood for reggae. But this band had some great instrumental songs.

Completely new to me and I absolutely love it! Thank you sharer this album is definitely going into rotation. I had a nice chat with Claude about it and it told me "While reggae tells stories through song, dub tells stories through sound manipulation and space" which I thought was pretty good.

This is a record that I’ve seen talked about a lot, but never really bothered to check out because I’m not a big Reggae fan, but as I’m listening to it now (and loving it) all I can think is: How is this record not on the original list? It seems like a pretty egregious omission, if you take into account influence and the excellent music here. Kudos to the user who submitted it, an excellent choice.

Pretty good, nice background music

It's baking today, so this feels very relevant.

I think this is my first Dub sighting on either of the lists. It's adjacent to the kind of thing I normally gravitate to (sparser and lower BPM than I prefer), but really enjoyable.

influential, but some of the tracks are very samey

Enjoyed that. Love the flow of the record.

More dub actually from Jamaica, please

Yes, more dub! Another user was kind enough to submit King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, but it would be remiss to not include some of Lee "Scratch" Perry's production work. On one side of the pond, Perry helped produce early Wailers records that would define the sound of roots reggae. On the other side of the pond, the Clash would take inspiration from Perry's work on their first album. So what's the big deal? Chilled out, maximum vibes dub. Production so thick it lives in a haze. Jamaica was the place to be if you wanted to step up your sound in the '70s. This is what it's all about. Catch the rhythm and let is take you away. I'm gone. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: Oh yeah.

Just what one wants from dub – deep, steady chill, with just enough darkness to freak one out if one gets too stoned.

April 24, 2025 HL: "Zion's Blood", "Dread Lion", title track Incredible album cover There really is a strange lack of dub on the original list. Sure you hear its influences a lot, in the Specials, the Sabres of Paradise, David Holmes, Public Image Ltd.- the list goes on. Kinda like another album within the genre, East of the River Nile (Pablo), I spaced the hell out while listening to it, but in a good way :)

Yea, nice.

I have not listened to a lot of dub albums in my life (I mostly own a couple of compilations dabbling in that genre, aside from *Super Ape*). Yet I can confidently say that this Lee "Scratch" Perry And The Upsetters LP is my favorite one in that reggae substyle. Actually, I find it way more imaginative -- and, yes, way more *melodic* -- than the King Tubby album selected by someone else in this users' list. Odd to read that it's the opposite for some other users here. What makes someone fully enjoy a piece of music is so mysterious sometimes... The first two cuts, "Zion's Blood" and "Croaking Lizard" are very memorable and I also absolutely love "Dread Lion" and "Three in One" at the start of side two, thanks to all their trippy details. The title track closing the original album is great as well. That weird obsessive flute gets stuck in your head just like ganja smell gets stuck in your fingers after smoking hemp. Everything in between the titles mentioned up there might be a little secondary, but I guess a good dub album is about *moods* first and foremost, and not necessarily a vehicle for a string of absolute bangers that goes from track one to ten. And under the right (smoky) circumstances, I'm pretty sure those other cuts can reveal their wonders. So potential fillers get a pass here, which won't happen so easily in other music genres, lol. I'm not too fond of the three bonus tracks added in more recent editions of the album, however (bonus tracks displayed in that Spotify link, by the way). Those extra cuts sound less imaginative to my ears, and it feels like they were recorded for a different session / project. Were they? Too lazy to check today. But anyway, the original album is great, and each time I listen to it, the more I can find endearing details in those tracks. So for me, it's a no-brainer: *Super Ape* must go and rip off trees from the ground of my top-tier list. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 4.5) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 13 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 16 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 30

I don’t know if dub music is something for me, I just couldn’t get into this one. It wasn’t bad just nothing stuck out to me.

I like Reggae and I love Dub and this is a fine example. Varied and mesmerizing. It's a great candidate and should be on the 1001.... It seeps into your pores and you can't stop nodding your head and moving your feet. There should be more on the 1001. Superb. NB: looking at the credits on bass is Boris Gardiner who was responsible for cheesy 80s Lovers Rock numbers! I never knew! Result!!

I don't like dub.

Second dub album, hell yeah. A genre that was sorely missing from the original list. Not as good as the King Tubby album I had a few weeks ago, but still - hell yeah. This ape is so super, dude.

This was a really good reggae album. I am surprised I never heard of it before seeing how it is solid and that I've heard of Lee Scratch Perry before. I really loved the heavy dub influence on the album. A couple of moments that I thought were a bit weaker, but overall something I will definitely go back to. 8.5/10

I understand Super Ape is supposedly foundational and historic reggae but it's not for me, I don't say it with too many genres but reggae is legitimately one where everything sounds like the same 2 or 3 songs no matter who did it or how far apart they were. I liked Underground but that's like saying I liked Dread Lion or the title track, there's nothing really between any of them that I can discern. 2.

It's a long album. As I've said before, you really need to be in the mood to listen to reggae. And I suppose I'm never that stoned. Not that a little occasionally is a bad thing (I mean the music). But a whole album needs something. Pass the dutchie on the left hand side, please.

I was definitely in the right mood for this album... a chill dub/reggae vibe... echoy and chill. Though it does start to blend together after an hour of it, it hit the right breezy tropical beach bar vibe for me.

Not a weed guy personally

Lee "scratch" Perry

Reggae has been hit or miss for me through the whole list but I quite enjoyed this one. Very groovy and fun without getting annoyingly repetitive.

Good beat. But forgettable

A solid and groovy dub record that’s very laid-back and atmospheric, but ultimately a bit too samey throughout to keep me hooked

This gives the feel of walking through a stuffy record shop in the 90s. This is clerk's favorite 70s dub record and you can see why they like it but it's not for you.

Not really my type of music but enjoyable enough. I don't think there were any dub albums on the original list? If there were I've forgotten them. I know there was some reggae on the original but again it felt quite obvious and not super in depth. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Definitely. There is a clear influence on Jamaican music that has lasted.

Not available on Apple Music.

Great reggae album, I actually have this from a record club I used to be in. Very relaxed energy, strong stuff though. 3.5/5

I am female, Middle Aged, and as white as can be. I’m not quite at Ugg boot wearing level but I do love me a Starbucks. Yet give me some reggae and I feel something different. The feet tap, the head bobs, I feel warm inside. Still not sure when I’d put this music on though.

Enjoyed this, second dub album on this additional list, and would be happy for this to have been included on the main list.

This list needed more reggae. Thanks.

I really don't care for the genre and this did nothing to change my mind. So much of it is kind of samey. There's decent moments and I wouldn't say it's terrible I just get fatigued of this sound very quickly. The album art is great.

My own entry on this list. Of course it's one of the greatest (reggae/dub) albums ever made and of course it should have been on the original list.

Sigh. I really want to enjoy dub music, and I do for a time, but a full album of it always causes me to stare off into the middle distance by the end. This is clearly a solid album, because I did enjoy listening to it, just not entirely my schtick. Favorite track: "Underground"

This is a 3.5 but I'm going to round up because I learned the difference between Dub and Reggae, and I liked it.

Not really my jam, although I liked the instrumentation on a lot of these and the cover is certainly interesting. It kept me more interested than reggae usually does when played for an hour, so rounding the score up.

How was this not on the actual 1001? I mean, that's about all I have to say on this. You could bin Kid Rock, The Waterboys or one of the ever present Elvis Costello albums and have some dubby perfection instead!

Nice. Good!

Dub. Aburrido. Un 2.

Oh yeah. This is a great choice, thank you selecta

This was a great dub album. For the breadth of its influence on popular music, it’s surprising that the Jamaican subgenres were not well represented on the original list. I’m not as familiar with them as I should be either so I don’t feel qualified to evaluate this album, but it enjoyed it quite a bit. Dub in general is very rhythm focused so the music has a stripped down driving quality that became very influential.