Fuji Dub

Fuji — "Ferocious Urban Jungle Intensity" — a music named (so the story goes) by its first master, Alhaji Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, when he saw a postcard of Mount Fuji in an airport transit lounge and felt it graphically represented the essential peace lying at the heart of the music — "were," a music expressing Islamic faith that helps act as a wake-up call to morning prayer for Yoruba Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, the roots of fuji.

Fuji Dub: Five tracks from a Fuji master recorded in Brooklyn, U.S., remixed in Brixton, U.K.

"The idea behind this was that I was fed up with all the various dance albums which used African or Arabic samples as a bit of exotic fluff on the top of a purely conventional (and boring) four-on-the-floor dance beat. Why not do it the other way round? Use African music as the meat beat and studio dub techniques as the exotic bit."

Nice idea in theory — not so easy in practice. Not least of which is that fuji music (heavy-duty Nigerian urban percussion) races along, whereas reggae gently lopes. Oh well, fun to do, and it has achieved cult status in certain quarters.

And who is the artist who wishes to remain anonymous? Simple - he even gets a name check within the first 30 seconds of the first song. He was fine for the remixing to be done. He was just concerned that it might confuse his audience as it's remixes of existing releases, so him remaining anonymous was part of the deal. (Iain Scott) —Courtesy Calabash Music