Latest Release
- 10 MAY 2024
- 1 Song
- At Channel One · 1997
- The Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Intergalactic Vampires! · 1981
- The Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Intergalactic Vampires! · 1981
- In a Revival Dub · 2009
- Dub from the Ghetto · 1976
- In the Kingdom of Dub · 1981
- Scientist Meets Hempress Sativa in Dub · 2018
- Scientist Meets Hempress Sativa in Dub · 2018
- The Scientist Dub Landing · 2015
- Scientist Meets Hempress Sativa in Dub · 2018
Essential Albums
- There’s a hallucinatory quality to Scientist’s early-'80s work—the sense of a weird, mysterious world emerging from a fog of echo and effects. Nowhere was this in fuller swing than on 1981’s Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires. As with all dub worth its spring reverb, the music here is both minimal and ultra-evocative, filled with horror-movie interjections (“I WANT BLOOD!”, “I AM THE LIVING DEAD”) and strange sound effects that skitter across the mix like shadows in a dim room. You think you heard it. But did you?
- Though Overton Brown earned the nickname Scientist for his knack with cutting-edge technology, he injects an enormous amount of soul into his dub tracks. From the yearning organ line pitted against an onslaught of echoing percussion on "Black a Shade of Dub" to the deliciously deconstructed guitar all over "East of Scientist Corner (II Pieces)", Scientist creates a spacey but groove-heavy zone all his own. And when he lends his otherworldly effects to the Bee Gees' "Words" for "Words of Dub", the effect is downright poignant.
Artist Playlists
- Dub deconstruction and otherworldly drum sounds.
- These dubs are filled with little sonic experiments.
- Dub experiments make their way into dance music and R&B.
- These dub innovators turned reggae inside out.
Appears On
About Scientist
A protégé of legendary dub innovator King Tubby, Scientist (born Hopeton Brown) was not yet in his twenties when he established himself as among the most in-demand mix engineers in Jamaica. The son of an electronics repair technician, Brown took to servicing hi-fi’s for mobile DJ’s, leading to his employ under King Tubby’s sound system. A mixing session, cut short by one of Tubby’s assistants, saw the adolescent Brown enlisted as a substitute and before long he joined the ranks of Tubby's other pupil, Prince Jammy. Under Tubby’s apprenticeship Brown developed a highly idiosyncratic mixing style; his cavernous dubs, shot with blasts of sci-fi effects and feedback, earned the young upstart the title, Scientist. By the early-‘80s, Scientist became the preferred engineer of Henry “Junjo” Lawes, the dominant producer during reggae’s proto-dancehall period. Throughout the ‘80s, Greensleeves released a spate of popular sci-fi- and superhero-themed albums featuring Scientist’s most popular mixes; the series, went far in securing the Scientist brand, and became popular with reggae and non-reggae fans alike.
- HOMETOWN
- Kingston, Jamaica
- BORN
- 18 April 1960
- GENRE
- Reggae