T-Jah Meets Fikir Amlak

T-Jah Fikir Amlak
The Tree Of Life Sessions

In March 2018 Blackwood Soundsystem hosted a dubplate session with King Alpha and Fikir Amlak in Lahr (Germany). Fikir Amlak voiced a dubplate called “Ancient Man” for Tree Of Life Soundsystem on the “Harder Than The Rest Dub”, a heavyweight version of Culture’s “Holy Mount Zion” from 1978.
This dubplate marks the birth of the “Tree Of Life Sessions”. The raw dubplate material was sent to T-Jah to get the final mix. He was inspired by the lyrics and the art of singing so that besides mixing fyah hot dubplates he produced an own version of “Ancient Man”, which is featured here with two additional dubs.
The song’s trademark sounds are the playful erhu and zither theme, a bansuri flute and a kalimba that create the unique atmosphere of the tune.

Later Fikir Amlak also rerecorded his tune “Ekos”, another King Alpha production, for Tree Of Life Soundsystem. This time Clive Chin’s & Errol Thompson’s “Extraordinary Version”, based on “Ordinary Man” by Lloyd Parks, builds the foundation for the dubplate. Again T-Jah cut an own version inspired by the original bass melody from 1972. T-Jah invited some guest musicians to spice up the tune. The guitars were played by the Dub Shepherds. Hazel Dub added sweet melodica vibes to the dubby second mix. Plug Dub Soundsystem’s own Señor C recorded a mystical flute that echoes throughout the final version of the record.

Limited to 500 copies worldwide, hand stamped sleeves with insert.