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Neil Fraser is comfortable talking about revolution - not just from a political standpoint, but also as one of the few independent producers and label owners to be working at the forefront of what remains reggae music's most freewheeling sonic offshoot. "That's the essence of dub, you know," Fraser says from his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is scoping out new talent for his UK-based Ariwa Sounds Ltd., founded in 1979 and still going strong. "Dub has always been a welcoming music of freedom, and everyone who feels the need to be free will seek it out. You don't need words to come in and throw you off what you're thinking. It gives you the space to think, and it gives you the chance to rewrite the canvas, you know?"
Known by his more familiar alias Mad Professor - which he picked up as a kid when his friends noticed how easily he could take apart and reassemble just about any electrical appliance - Fraser has produced or contributed to nearly 200 albums to date, establishing himself as a legitimate heir to the legacy left by such Jamaican studio greats as Lee "Scratch" Perry, King Tubby and Prince Jammy. But even more importantly, Fraser has staked out a claim for an altogether different place in the pantheon - one where, through...