the hum / By Bob Doran

Scientist v. Evil Vampires

Jamaican dub master at Mazzotti’s, plus trumpets and break-dancers

(May 1, 2008)  The minimalist, bass-heavy, effects-laden variation on reggae known as dub has some serious aficionados (this writer among them), but not a lot of people listen to it. The exception may be the music of Jamaican dub master Overton Brown, better known as Scientist, or The Scientist. Millions have been listening to his album, Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires, but, for a time, he did not even know about it.

As he explained in a call to his home studio in Southern California, “I was standing in a supermarket one day, and a boy recognized me. He says, ‘Mommy, Mommy, that’s The Scientist. We have his music on our videogame.’ I was wondering what the hell he was talking ‘bout. He says, ‘Yes, your music is on Grand Theft Auto.’ I didn’t know what it was.”

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To be specific, about half of Scientist’s Curse of the Vampires album, recorded in the early ‘80s, was used as content for a radio station called K-JAH in Grand Theft Auto III, a controversial shoot-em-up videogame for Playstation 2 (and other systems) created by Rockstar Games.

The game has sold in the millions internationally, but as Scientist put it, “I wasn’t getting any money.” Not until he hired some lawyers to sue Greensleeves Records, the British label that licensed his music without telling him or giving him a piece of the action.

He admits that he has better name recognition because of GTA, but he has mixed feelings about it. “I’m hoping kids don’t think I’m a gangbanger or that I endorse shooting police officers. I never played the game, but everyone tells me about it. I don’t understand why they have someone who steals a car and shoots up the place, then he’s listening to reggae and Rastafari on the radio.”

Scientist got his start as an engineer (his father was a radio/TV repairman) and as a teen, after training with King Tubby (one the inventors of dub), he took the genre into new realms. He still does engineering work — when we spoke, he was in the middle of designing a circuit board for an amplifier — and when he’s not in court (GTA suits are pending all over the world) he goes on the occasional reggae tour to work as dubwise soundman extraordinaire.

That’s what’s bringing him to Arcata Thursday, May 1, a show at Mazzotti’s: Wild Wild West Reggae Dub 420 Spring Tour ‘08 includes UK reggae stars Michael Prophet (who sings on the Curserecord) and Sammy Dread, Jamaican vocalist Johnny Clarke and Hawaiian Lyon (from Hawaii, of course), all backed by The Raggasouljahs, with Lesterfari of Boom Shaka on guitar, the great Santa Davison drums and a full horn section, all engineered live by Scientist.

Speaking of dub, Heavyweight Dub Champion is back in town for a two-night run Friday and Saturday at the Red Fox. The trio is on what they call a“Deep Deep Dub” instrumental tour, which means no chanters or rappers, just tripped-out dub.

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