Lovers Dub | 03

"Pure Niceness (Flashlight III)" - Death Is Not The End

"Just For Your Love" - Sonia Ferguson

"Echo Valley" - Afternoons In Stereo

"'Cos You Love Me Baby" - Paulette Tajah

"Meet Me In Brooklyn" - Yaya Bey

"African Dub Signals" - Mad Professor

"Moonlight Walk" - Skinshape

"The Dub Father" - Ambient Warrior

"Give Me Your Dub (Dub Mix)" - Soul Sugar meets Dub Shepherds

"Sun Shines Softly" - The Soul Session, Anaj

"Bang Bien (feat. Yasiin Bey)" - Nightmares on Wax

"Osaka Ska" - J.C. Lodge

"Love Has Found Its Way" - Dennis Brown

"East of the River Nile (Alt. Take)" - Zara McFarlane, Dennis Bovell

"Lot Of Love (Waxist Edit)" - Sheila Hylton

“Pure Niceness (Flashlight III)” — Death Is Not The End

Our mix intro is a fragment from Death Is Not The End’s Pure Wicked Tune: Rare Groove Blues Dances & House Parties, 1985–1992, an archival release from 2022 built as a mixtape-style collage of “extracts & cut-ups” taken from DIY cassette recordings that provide a window into the mid-80s to early-90s era where rare groove/boogie/soul selections were played at early-morning house parties in reggae soundsystem style (complete with toasting, sirens, effects, rewinds), largely in South & East London. The MC is hyping and briefly riding The Memphis Horns’ “Just for Your Love,” a 1977 slow jam that became the source of Sonia Ferguson’s Lovers Rock rendition, a sweet, hi-fi soul record as dub plate.

“Just For Your Love” — Sonia Ferguson

Sonia Ferguson’s “Just For Your Love” was released on a 1978 UK 12-inch paired with Delroy Witter’s “Harlesden Skank” on the flip, planting it directly in the North London “Sound of Success” orbit that Witter later became known for through Success Sound System and his D-Roy catalog. Sonia’s debut single identifies the Memphis Horns instrumental as the source foundation, and notes that Sonia’s lyrics are largely her own beyond the chorus, a craft that powered Lovers Rock’s best moments. The 2023 reissue cycle makes the track newly attainable: Rocka Shacka / Drum and Bass issued it in a split 7-inch format with The Heptics’ “Little Girl” on the B-side, and Rocka Shacka’s wider distribution added it to the Lovers Rock Revisited Vol.2 – Delroy Witter & Friends compilation.

“Echo Valley” — Afternoons In Stereo

“Echo Valley” is the brief title-track opener from Afternoons In Stereo’s sixth studio album Echo Valley, released in 2016 on Athens-based Timewarp Music, crediting audiophile analog mastering to Angelos “Timewarp” Stoumpos. Afternoons In Stereo is Canadian producer Greg Vickers, whose early independent work earned Hamilton Music Awards before his longer partnership with Timewarp expanded into albums, EPs, and remix projects. Vickers later hosted the weekly radio show Urban Modernists (2005–2015), curating jazz, soul, afrobeat, downtempo, and related deep-listening lanes that tie directly onto Lovers Rock sensibility.

“‘Cos You Love Me Baby” — Paulette Tajah

Paulette Tajah came to the public’s attention specifically through her sweet cover of Deniece Williams’ “Cause You Love Me Babe,” after a 1983 referral to a local London producer, Sir Lloyd. Tajah subsequently recorded multiple songs for the Raiders label. Deniece Williams’ original is from 1976 on This Is Niecy, with Maurice White and Charles Stepney credited as producers, anchoring the track with Earth, Wind & Fire’s sophisticated soul and funk lineage.

“Meet Me in Brooklyn” — Yaya Bey

“Meet Me in Brooklyn” is a 1:29 micro-single on Yaya Bey’s Remember Your North Star on Big Dada, released in 2022 as the first full-length issued via the relaunched label. Compressed to interlude length, the cut carries a full hook, and pays homage to Bey’s Barbados roots” with the reggae-leaning feel. Hadaiyah Bey is both the lyricist and producer, with Marcus Mims mixing and Max Gilkes engineering the track with a “classic riddims” dancehall loop as an explicit homage to early-’80s dancehall.

“African Dub Signals” — Mad Professor

“African Dub Signals” appears on Mad Professor’s The First Dubs Are The Deepest: 40 Years of Dub Pt. 2 as a contemporary Ariwa cut. The studio’s history pins its origin to 1979 in Thornton Heath, named from a Yoruba word meaning “communication,” before expanding into the South London operation that made Mad Professor a cornerstone of dub’s second wave and, later, a sought-after remixer well beyond reggae circles (including the No Protection project with Massive Attack). Soul Jazz/Sounds of the Universe frame this track as cut at Mad Professor’s South London Ariwa Studio with reggae session royalty in the lineup, including Black Steel, Angus Gayle, Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, and Tony Benjamin.

“Moonlight Walk” — Skinshape

“Moonlight Walk” is track 4 on Skinshape’s Nostalgia, released in 2022 on the Lewis Recordings label. William Dorey is credited as composer/author/producer/mixing engineer, with Jon Moody credited as music arranger, Caspar Sutton-Jones on mastering, and Mike Lewis listed in the A&R admin line. In press coverage around the album, Spill Magazine describes the Nostalgia album’s guiding aesthetic as cinematic, explicitly nodding to Quincy Jones and Ennio Morricone, shaped by the sights and sounds of Swanage in Dorset, and singles out “Moonlight Walk” as “dub-flecked.”

“The Dub Father” — Ambient Warrior

“The Dub Father” appears on Ambient Warrior’s Dub Journey’s, a cult UK “Balearic dub” LP originally released in 1995 on Lion Inc, then reissued by Isle of Jura in 2021, fully remastered from the original DAT tape. Ronnie Lion created Ambient Warrior with studio engineer and multi-instrumentalist Andreas Terrano as a deliberate outlet for influences that didn’t fit Lion’s Brixton roots-label lane, and Lion explicitly points to Terrano’s Italian, Armenian, and Russian heritage filtering into the music, with tango and bossa nova touches emerging over a dub/reggae foundation and an international cast of players pushing it beyond UK reggae orthodoxy. “The Dub Father” instrumental cut credits Umran Ali on bass and Scratchy Fingers on drum programming.

“Give Me Your Dub (Dub Mix)” — Soul Sugar meets Dub Shepherds

“Give Me Your Dub (Dub Mix)” is the heavyweight B-side to Soul Sugar meets Dub Shepherds’ 7-inch Give Me Your Love via Gee Recordings, released in 2025. The underlying composition is Curtis Mayfield’s “Give Me Your Love,” first released in 1972, continuing a cover tradition tied with Jamaica’s longstanding Mayfield affection, including the oft-repeated claim that the Wailers modeled aspects of their harmony style on The Impressions. Soul Sugar is Guillaume “Booker G” Méténier, already established as a producer/keyboard player who specializes in soul standards rebuilt as reggae, amongst earlier conversions of Timmy Thomas, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, and Mayfield with vocalist Leo Carmichael.The Dub Shepherds’ core trio consists of Jolly Joseph (rhythm guitar, vocals), Dr Charty (bass), and Jahno (drums/percussion), plus lead guitarist Sam Isoard. The recording was tracked live at Blue House Studio by Christophe “French kiss” Adam, then dubbed at Dub Shepherds’ Bat Records Studio and mastered by Paul Kozmik at The Curve Studio, with the dub mix recorded on 24-track analog tape.

“Sun Shines Softly” — The Soul Session feat. Anaj

“Sun Shines Softly” is the feature cut from two (Agogo Records, released in 2017), the second Soul Session album, continuing Ralph Kiefer’s Munich-based “modern souljazz” approach as a multi-instrumentalist/producer with roots in Poets Of Rhythm and Hipnosis, building “global soul music” that openly blends jazz, soul, hip-hop, and some electronic texture. Kiefer’s method uses loop-born sketches that evolve through a meditative recording process, often built via a mobile studio approach and finished collaboratively with guest vocalists who sometimes record in their own rooms. Anaj’s presence fits the session ethos, a respected Berlin artist working across disciplines (including design and sculpture) before stepping in as vocalist, using her voice as instrument, and not just a featured hook.

“Bang Bien” (feat. Yasiin Bey) — Nightmares On Wax

“Bang Bien” is Nightmares On Wax’s 2025 collaboration with Yasiin Bey, released as the lead single from Echo45 Sound System, with Nightmares On Wax producing, Nightmares On Wax/Yasiin Bey/Mos Def credited as composers, and Henry Sarmiento credited as mixing engineer. The Echo45 Sound System framing is tied to Leeds sound system culture and pirate-radio memories, presented as a continuous “sound system journey” that blends soul, roots, hip-hop, dub, and electronic textures with a rotating cast of collaborators. George Evelyn traces the track title to a battered speaker box he bought as a child for a fiver, a moment that he links directly to meeting Kevin Harper and the beginnings of Nightmares On Wax as a working unit. For this cut, the pair began by exchanging ideas remotely, then worked face-to-face after Bey traveled to record, with their conversations about ancestry and indigenous lineage steering the track toward something closer to a mantra rather than conventional “feature verse.” The official video is a loosely autobiographical Leeds time-travel, packed with local landmarks, Evelyn’s breakdancing crew Soul City Rockers, and deliberate “Easter egg” details.

“Osaka Ska” — J.C. Lodge

“Osaka Ska” is on J.C. Lodge’s Love For All Seasons (1996), a Mad Professor–produced set that treats Lovers Rock and Dub as fully interlocked rather than separate vocal vs. dub versions. J.C. Lodge is a British-Jamaican singer with an unusually broad arc, with early international pop success (including a breakthrough hit that became the best-selling single of 1982 in the Netherlands), plus a parallel life as a fine artist and teacher. The title “Osaka Ska” nods to the Ariwa label’s longstanding relationship with Japan, with the label’s catalog listing a Japan-centered live showcase entry and the album itself circulating via Japanese editions.

“Love Has Found Its Way” — Dennis Brown

“Love Has Found Its Way” was released in 1982 as the title track of Dennis Brown’s A&M album Love Has Found Its Way. The song was written by Dennis Brown and Yvonne Brown, and was recorded at Joe Gibbs Studio in Kingston, engineered by Errol Thompson, with remix work also credited to Thompson and additional remix locations listed as Quad Radio and Miami Sounds. The session included Jamaican all-stars, with Sly Dunbar on drums, Lloyd Parks (plus Bagga and Val Douglas) on bass, Willie Lindo on lead guitar, Winston Wright on organ, horns including Dean Fraser (sax), Nambo (trombone), and Chico (trumpet), and backing vocals from Pam Hall, Cynthia Schloss, and Dawn Forrester. In the UK, the single peaked at #47, while in the U.S. the song reached #42 on Billboard’s Black Singles chart (now the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart), becoming one of Brown’s biggest stateside chart moments. The tune has become a reggae standard, with cover versions by Gregory Isaacs (2005), George Nooks (2005), and Jamelody & Ikaya (2016).

“East of the River Nile (Alt. Take)” — Zara McFarlane with Dennis Bovell

“East of the River Nile (Alt. Take)” is an extended, improvisation-friendly cover featured on Zara McFarlane’s 2019 East of the River Nile EP for Brownswood Recordings, a four-version suite that reinterprets Augustus Pablo’s 1977 classic with wordless vocals carrying Pablo’s melodica topline. The recording sessions featured the ensemble of Nathaniel Cross, Moses Boyd, Jay Darwish, Ashley Henry, Junior Alli-Balogun, and Binker Golding. Boyd and Golding are central figures in London’s new jazz wave (Golding also known for the Binker and Moses duo with Boyd). Dennis Bovell, a foundational figure in UK Dub and Lovers Rock, produced the second layer of echo and space with his heavy sound-system perspective.

“Lot Of Love (Waxist Edit)” — Sheila Hylton

Sheila Hylton’s “Lot Of Love” is a late-’70s masterstroke of Lovers-era translation that ultimately traces back to Neil Young’s original “Lotta Love,” but the version that turned the song into a mainstream standard was Nicolette Larson’s recording, released as a single from her debut album Nicolette and produced by Ted Templeman. Larson’s “Lotta Love” peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart in February 1979. Hylton’s reggae-disco adaptation followed in 1979, widely catalogued in the Harry J / Jaywax orbit and treated over the years as a serious collector 45, with modern Japanese reissue circulation further cementing its “must-own” status in the Rock A Shacka “Reggae Funkyfied” universe. The “Waxist Edit” is a later extended rework, an 8:13 long edit released in 2013 by Lyon-based Waxist, a DJ/collector whose “Red Stripe Disco” project is explicitly built around Jamaican disco, modern soul, and funk excavations, turning this already-hybrid original into a longer, slow-burn piece of late-night Lovers Dub delight.

Listen to: Lovers Dub | 01