Steve Mosco AKA Jah Warrior is a towering figure in UK dub. Active on the soundsystem scene from the early 80s, and producing since at least 1990, he has one of the most distinctive styles in all of UK reggae & bass culture. Jah Warrior has worked with countless reggae greats from Horace Andy to Jah Mason, Peter Broggs to Tena Stelin. For his second outing on ZamZam he dug deep in the vaults for unreleased dubs, heavy as lead. In his own words:

“I used to go to Conscious Sounds Studio every week and spend a full day either building new riddims, voicing artists, laying down instruments or mixing. In the spring of 2000 we built a number of riddims one day, all steppers, heavyweight and vicious. Back then most of the riddims were designed to be voiced rather than released as instrumentals, they weren’t always made with a particular artist in mind but I’d just stockpile them anyway for the future. We’d do a quick reference mix & keep them on the list for future use.

As soon as No Racial War was built (though it didn’t have a name yet), I knew it was a killer & held it back for voicing. During that summer Dillinger came to London to tour with the Blood & Fire Sound System. Dom from Blood & Fire put me in touch. That riddim was one of the ones Dillinger voiced and the week after the voicing session it was the first one we mixed.

These dubs were taken from the first mixing session with Dougie Conscious on the board & they are ruff and tuff drum & bass style, before the horns & other instruments were laid for the finished album mixes. I think the results are a good reference point for circa 2000-style UK steppers dubwise. Turn the volume up and set the bass to maximum!”