CD BOXSET REVIEW: Armagideon Time – When Punk Met Dub (Cherry Red Records)
Armagideon Time is a 3CD boxset bringing together 57 tracks documenting punk and post-punk’s collision with dub reggae in the UK in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
It’s well documented that DJs like Don Letts used to play reggae records in what became London’s punk epicentre, as there simply were no punk records to play.
The resulting fusion was explored in 2024 on the excellent Cherry Red set Roots Rock Rebels (reviewed here), and Armagideon Time is something of a companion volume.
It includes all the big names you’d expect; PIL, Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts, and, of course, The Clash, the latter with their 12in version of Jamaican artist Willie Williams’ song which gives the set its name.
They weren’t the only ones to adopt dub rhythms and production techniques into their sound, and anybody who was anybody tried their hand at sparse, reverb-laden vocals, heavy basslines and laidback rhythms.
Some of the names will be familiar – XTC, The Slits and The Boomtown Rats, plus the likes of The Specials, The Selecter and Bad Manners from the burgeoning ska revival, and reggae artists like Steel Pulse, Dillinger and Aswad.
These experiments in dub were often tucked away on B-sides, or hidden away on albums, and some pulled it off better than others, with The Jam’s Pop Art Poem (originally given away on a magazine flexi) and Thompson Twins’ A Dub Product among those I’d say were more miss than hit.
Standout tracks for me include Prince Far I’s Throw Away Your Gun (Dub), The Ruts’ Love In Vain, and The Twinkle Brothers’ Free Us (Dub), but every listener will have their own favourites, as well as discovering lots of new artists they want to explore further.
For every household name you’ll find an artist you’ve never heard of in this typical deep dive by Cherry Red archivists. Hence we get the likes of English Black Boys, the excellent sole 12in single by Manchester band X-O-Dus, which was their one and only release for Factory Records.
As well as the big names, George Dekker, the half-brother of Israelites singer Desmond, makes an appearance with The Other Side Of Atlantic Road (Dub), and it’s surprising how often the name Dennis Bovell crops up as producer, testament to the influence he had on music at this time.
Of course, some of it is plain bizarre, like Shoes For Industry’s Sheepdog Trial Inna Babylon and Chicken Granny’s dub-funk offering Quit The Body, but there’s something for most tastes here.
With a foreword by PIL bassist and dub afficionado Jah Wobble (who also contributes a track, with Can founders Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit), this is a collection fans of post-punk, dub and reggae shouldn’t ignore. 7/10.
