Mad Professor
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Mad Professor (born Neil Fraser, 1955, Georgetown, Guyana) is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributuing to or producing nearly 200 albums. He has collaborated with reggae artists such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sly and Robbie, Pato Banton, Jah Shaka and Horace Andy, as well as artists outside the realm of traditional reggae and dub, such as Sade, Massive Attack, The Orb, and Brazilian DJ Marcelinho da lua.
Fraser became known as Mad Professor as a boy due to his fascination with electronics. He emigrated from Guyana to London at the age of 13 and later began his music career as a service technician. He gradually collected recording and mixing equipment and opened his own recording studio, Ariwa Sounds, in the living room of his home in the Thornton Heath section of London in 1979. He began recording lovers rock bands and vocalists for his own label and recorded his first album after moving the studio to a new location in 1982. He teamed up with reggae legend Lee "Scratch" Perry for the first time in 1989 for the album Mystic Warrior.[1]
Dub music, which combines reggae music and recording studio trickery, seemed to fit Mad Professor's musical and technical tastes perfectly and his early work remained faithful to the traditional Jamaican dub pioneered by King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Augustus Pablo. Mad Professor's early work was characterized by few vocal tracks and heavy echo, reverb, and phaser effects on the instrumentals. Eventually, he began to experiment with electronic sounds and effects alongside the traditional instruments. Synthesized sounds began to find a place in his mixes. This experimentation caught the attention of artists outside of reggae and dub genres and led to Mad Professor's work with electronic artists, most notably Massive Attack. In 2008, he became well-known his highly experimental remix of 'HAPPY ENDING', a song by pop sensation Ayumi Hamasaki. The song was included on her Ayu-mi-x 6 -GOLD- album.
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[edit] Recordings
Mad Professor has released hundreds original recordings and has worked with a number of reggae and non-regae artists. He is perhaps best known for his 12 installments of the Dub Me Crazy series and 5 albums under the Black Liberation Dub banner. The following is a list of his more accessible original releases, collaborations with other artists, and remixes. A complete discography can be found at Discogs.com.[2]
[edit] Original Recordings
- 1991 – Feast Of Yellow Dub
- 1992 – True Born African Dub
- 1993 – Dub Maniacs On The Rampage
- 1994 – The Lost Scrolls Of Moses
- 1995 – It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Professor
- 1995 – In A Rub A Dub Style
- 1996 – Caribbean Taste Of Technology
- 1997 – RAS Portraits
- 2001 – Dubbing You Crazy
- 2001 – Trix In The Mix
- 2005 – Dub You Crazy With Love
- 2005 – Moroccan Sunrise
- 2005 – Method To The Madness
- 2007 – Dub You Like Crazy 2007
[edit] Dub Me Crazy Series
- 1982 - Dub Me Crazy
- 1982 - Beyond The Realms Of Dub (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.2)
- 1983 - The African Connection (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.3)
- 1983 - Escape To The Asylum of Dub (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.4)
- 1985 - Who Knows The Secret Of The Master Tape (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.5)
- 1986 - Schizophrenic Dub (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.6)
- 1987 - Adventures Of A Dub Sampler (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.7)
- 1988 - Experiments Of The Aural Kind (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.8)
- 1989 - Science And The Witchdoctor (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.9)
- 1990 - Psychedelic Dub (Dub Me Crazy, Pt. 10)
- 1992 - Hijacked To Jamaica (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.11)
- 1993 - Dub Maniacs On The Rampage (Dub Me Crazy, Pt.12)
[edit] Black Liberation Series
- 1994 - Black Liberation Dub (Chapter 1)
- 1995 - Anti-Racist Broadcast (Black Liberation Chapter 2)
- 1996 - The Evolution Of Dub (Black Liberation Chapter 3)
- 1997 - Under The Spell Of Dub (Black Liberation Chapter 4)
- 1999 - Afrocentric Dub (Black Liberation Chapter 5)
[edit] Collaborations
[edit] With Lee “Scratch” Perry
- 1990 – Mystic Warrior
- 1995 – Black Ark Experryments
- 1995 – Super Ape Inna Jungle
- 1996 – Experryments At The Grass Roots Of Dub
- 1996 - Who Put The Voodoo Pon Reggae
- 1997 – Dub Take The Voodoo Out Of Reggae
- 1998 – Live At Maritime Hall
- 1998 – Fire In Dub
- 2000 – Lee Perry Meets Mad Professor
- 2001 -- Techno Dub
[edit] With Other Artists
- 1982 – Rhythm Collision Dub (With Ruts DC)
- 1989 – Mad Professor Meets Puls Der Zeit
- 1990 – Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton
- 1991 – Mad Professor Recaptures Pato Banton
- 1996 – New Decade Of Dub (With Jah Shaka)
- 1996 – Jah Shaka Meets Mad Professor At Ariwa Sounds
- 2004 – Dub Revolutionaries (With Sly and Robbie)
- 2004 – From The Roots (With Horace Andy)
- 2004 – In A Dubwise Style (With Marcelinho da Lua)
- 2005 – Dancehall Dubs (With Crazy Caribs)
- 2008 - HAPPY ENDING (With Ayumi Hamasaki)
[edit] Remixes
Since the '90s he has remixed tracks by Sade, The Orb, The KLF, The Beastie Boys, Jamiroquai, Rancid, Depeche Mode, Perry Farrell and Ayumi Hamasaki. His best-known project, perhaps, is 1995's No Protection, an electronic dub version of Massive Attack's second album, Protection. He also remixed tracks for Japanese pop-star Ayumi hamasaki in 2001 and 2008.
Mad Professor has done three versions for New Zealand electronic group Salmonella Dub
- 1999 - For The Love Of It
- 2002 - Tui Dub
- 2004 - Mercy
Also a version of I&I for New Zealand reggae band Katchafire
