| A Known Unknown
Time is the master in the Ras Muffet story |
 
"I've decided to come out in the open," I was under the impression that the Roots Studio sessions that the Mighty Tabot outfit had been playing all over East London had been the beginning of this process, but the information I was about to receive made it clear that these could barely be described as a warm up.
Before we get to the latest news, I've got to explain what this unknown entity means to the people who are at the heart of the UK dub scene. We're parked outside the Brixton Recreation Centre before the start of the latest University Of Dub session and Muffet is talking about something that happened here a few months ago. "February of this year when Iration Steppas were playing with Earthquake, I was having a chat with Aba-Shanti and Mark Iration stopped in the middle of the dancehall and said "when the dance finish I want to talk to you!" I wasn't sure who he was speaking to, but he pointed at me and said "yeah man, you!" Well it bugged me all night, but after the dance finished he came to me and said "you're Muffet innit, you used to have a sound called Jah Marcus" and then he name-checked some of the tunes that were my very first productions dating back to 1981. Turns out he's been following what I've been doing from that time. He was a teenager then and he's remembered me all these years!" Mark Iration, a serious student of the UK scene, had trouble keeping tabs on Muffet's activities and was only able to match the name to the face this year, so its no surprise that he was given the 'unknown entity' tag. His story is long and has many twists and turns, but one thing is for sure, his initial 'apprenticeship' couldn't have been better.
In the 1970's he was part of Jah Shaka's crew, traveling the country and playing seven nights a week. in '78 he took his musical and technical expertise back to his native Wolverhampton and built up a sound called Jah Marcus that played successfully across the north and the midlands. At the turn of the eighties he switched to production and opened the Fari Studio. "The first stuff I did, I gave to Shaka. A few years down the line I got a phone call from a bredrin named Zeb asking me if it would be OK to give Aba-Shanti a few of my tunes. I was just sitting in my studio building tracks in Wolverhampton, so I said it was alright" Some of these have become cherished dub-plates that have been played on the sound for years. However an unrelated music business venture lead to the demise of the Fari set-up. "In '94 I got disillusioned and jacked it all in. Sold my studio, moved down to Brixton and lived the normal nine to five life. Buying records on the weekend, that's all I did for six years until I ran into Zeb again on Brixton High Street. He said "Muffet I've got a bredrin who wants to meet you." He came down to my yard the next Saturday and brought Aba. Seven years Aba's been playing my stuff at this point, but this was the first time he's seen me face to face. Aba said "no Muffet, you have to have to get back into dis ting." He twisted my arm, invited me to his studio in East London and I went up there and met Blood, his brother. I sat in Aba's studio, built three tracks and after six years I realised I'd lost nothing. I came back to my yard and decided to build Roots Injection." The Roots injection studio has been responsible for some of the hottest dub plates heard in UK dancehalls in the last couple of years. Muffet has been checking out the biggest sounds and supplying them all with exclusive tracks. "Sounds play different vibes. So certain tunes I give to Aba, certain tunes I give to Shaka; Iration likes all the head banging stuff so I've got a selection like that. Everybody's got a different selection. This is what's brought me back out. I'm producing tunes that the sounds are playing, it's in my interest to be everywhere, providing I've got the strength to get there." Roots Injection record label released 'Dem History' by Lexxy, which quickly sold out and is due for a re-press. In the meantime, Muffet has been building up a new sound system, The Mighty Tabot, with Ras Kinfe and Ras Gabre. "Tabot is coming to promote Roots Injection and new artists. I'm not one for chasing down well known artists, I'm dealing with youts coming up today. Tabot will also be the sound playing the most female artists. Even though we're a new sound, we've got the advantage of years of sound system experience. We've picked up on what's being used today and we're getting ready to come out. The response that all the other sounds get when they play our material makes me realise that when Tabot comes we're going to be a serious force to be reckoned with." The unknown entity will be moving further out of the shadows and into the light and you can check out how the Mighty Tabot are progressing at the new regular Roots Studio sessions at Electrowerkz. But this isn't all Muffet has to tell me. He has a face that looks as if it was made for smiling and the grin is never far away as he takes me through the imminent releases from Roots Injection and I Negus, a label fronted by Coztafari (watch out for a tune called 'Inna England' which sounds like an anthem in the making). Almost as an afterthought he starts telling me about another tune called 'No Peace' which will be released by Channel One. I briefly question whether I've heard him right. Is he saying that he's going to be responsible for the first release from Mikey Dread, who's had twenty five years as a sound system and never yet ventured into production? "Seven months ago I had to find new premises for my studio and Mikey Dread offered me space in the basement of his shop in Leytonstone Road. Me being there has helped him to make a decision about finally releasing some tunes. The past couple of weeks we've designed the label. So 'No Peace' will be on the streets in October."
I'm feeling a bit like a journalist who's stumbled across an exclusive at this point. Kat, who fixed up the meeting, has been letting Muffet do all the talking but she uses a pause in the conversation to provide the exact phrase I'm looking for. "Everything in its time." Precisely.
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