Mad Professor


Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser known by his stage-name Mad Professor, is a British dub music producer, engineer and remixer. He has collaborated with reggae artists Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sly and Robbie, Pato Banton, Jah Shaka and Horace Andy, as well as artists outside the realm of traditional reggae and dub, such as Sade, Massive Attack, the Orb, Gaudi, the Brazilian DJ Marcelinho da Lua, Grace Jones, and Perry Farrell.

Early life

Fraser became known as Mad Professor as a boy due to his fascination with electronics. He emigrated from Guyana to London at the age of 13 and later began his music career as a service technician. He gradually collected recording and mixing equipment, and in 1979 opened his own four-track recording studio, Ariwa Sounds, in the living room of his home in Thornton Heath.

Career

Fraser began recording lovers rock bands and vocalists for his own label and recorded his first album after moving the studio to a new location in Peckham in 1982, equipped with an eight-track setup, later expanding to sixteen. Fraser's Dub Me Crazy series of albums won the support of John Peel, who regularly aired tracks from the albums. Although early releases were not big sellers among reggae buyers, the mid-1980s saw this change with releases from Sandra Cross, Johnny Clarke, Peter Culture, Pato Banton, and Macka B. Fraser moved again, this time to South Norwood, where he set up what was the largest black-owned studio complex in the UK and recorded lovers rock tracks by Cross, John McLean, and Kofi, and attracted Jamaican artists including Bob Andy and Faybiene Miranda. He teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry for the first time in 1983 for the recording of the album Mystic Warrior.

Recordings

Mad Professor has created 12 instalments of the Dub Me Crazy series and 5 albums under the Black Liberation Dub banner. The following is a partial discography of his original releases including collaborations with other artists and remixes.

Original recordings

  • 1983 – In A Rub A Dub Style
  • 1985 – A Caribbean Taste of Technology
  • 1992 – True Born African Dub
  • 1994 – The Lost Scrolls of Moses
  • 1995 – It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Professor
  • 1997 – RAS Portraits
  • 2001 – Dubbing You Crazy
  • 2001 – Trix in the Mix
  • 2005 – Method to the Madness
  • 2007 – Dub You Crazy
  • 2008 – The Dubs That Time Forgot
  • 2009 – Audio Illusions of Dub
  • 2012 – The Roots of Dubstep

    Dub Me Crazy series

  • 1982 – Dub Me Crazy
  • 1982 – Beyond The Realms of Dub
  • 1983 – The African Connection
  • 1983 – Escape to the Asylum of Dub
  • 1985 – Who Knows The Secret of the Master Tape
  • 1986 – Schizophrenic Dub
  • 1987 – Adventures of a Dub Sampler
  • 1988 – Experiments of the Aural Kind
  • 1989 – Science and the Witchdoctor
  • 1990 – Psychedelic Dub
  • 1992 – Hijacked To Jamaica
  • 1993 – Dub Maniacs on the Rampage
  • 2022 – Covid Illusion

    Black Liberation series

  • 1994 – Black Liberation Dub
  • 1995 – Anti-Racist Dub Broadcast
  • 1996 – The Evolution of Dub
  • 1997 – Under The Spell of Dub
  • 1999 – Afrocentric Dub

    Dub You Crazy With Love Series

  • 1997 – Dub You Crazy With Love
  • 2000 – Dub You Crazy With Love
  • 2008 – Bitter Sweet Dub

    Collaborations

With Lee "Scratch" Perry

  • 1990 – Mystic Warrior
  • 1995 – Black Ark Experryments
  • 1995 – Super Ape Inna Jungle
  • 1996 – Experryments at the Grass Roots of Dub
  • 1996 – Who Put The Voodoo Pon Reggae
  • 1996 – Dub Take the Voodoo Out of Reggae
  • 1998 – Live at Maritime Hall
  • 1998 – Fire in Dub
  • 2000 – Lee Perry Meets Mad Professor
  • 2001 – Techno Dub

    With other artists

  • 1981 - Kunte Kinte
  • 1982 – Rhythm Collision Dub
  • 1983 – Punky Reggae Party – Anti Social Workers
  • 1984 – Jah Shaka Meets Mad Professor at Ariwa Sounds
  • 1985 – Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton
  • 1989 – Mad Professor Recaptures Pato Banton
  • 1989 – Mad Professor Meets Puls Der Zeit
  • 1989 – Mad Professor Feat The Man Ezeke Remix an Dub for Sheila Giles
  • 1990 – A Feast of Yellow Dub
  • 1995 – No Protection
  • 1996 – New Decade of Dub
  • 2000 – The Inspirational Sounds of Mad Professor
  • 2000 – Marseille London Experience
  • 2003 – Psychobelly Dance Music
  • 2004 – Dub Revolutionaries
  • 2004 – From The Roots
  • 2004 – In A Dubwise Style
  • 2005 – Moroccan Sunrise
  • 2005 – Dancehall Dubs
  • 2006- Max Romeo Pocomania Songs
  • 2009 – Revolution Feat. Pato Banton And Mr. Professor
  • 2009 – Nairobi Meets Mad Professor – Wu Wei
  • 2010 – Izrael Meets Mad Professor and Joe Ariwa
  • 2010 – Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor
  • 2010 – Rewired in Dub
  • 2011 - Rewired in Dub
  • 2012 – The Roots of Dubstep
  • 2013 – Cedric Congo Meets Mad Professor
  • 2014 - Method to the Madness
  • 2017 - In The Midst Of The Storm
  • 2019 - Massive Attack vs Mad Professor Part II
  • 2019 – Mad Professor meets Gaudi
  • 2025 - Mad Professor Meets Youth

    Remixes

Since the 1990s he has remixed tracks by Sade, the Orb, The KLF, Beastie Boys, Jamiroquai, Rancid, Depeche Mode, Perry Farrell and Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki. In 1995 he produced No Protection, an electronic dub version of Massive Attack's second album, Protection. He has also created a version of I&I for New Zealand reggae band Katchafire, three versions for New Zealand electronic group Salmonella Dub and twelve remixes for Japanese musician Ayumi Hamasaki.
  • No Protection – "Dub version of Massive Attack album Protection"
A second remix album with Massive Attack is slated for release in 2018