Sister Spliff & Demon Dread – Marchena City Dub

Marchena City Dub is an obscure Dutch reggae release from vocalist Myrtha Salesia aka Sister Spliff and Ludwig Wisch aka Demon Dread. Not much information is available about Spliff & Dread, but there is one video online of the singer performing live in 1987 on a program called NOS TV. Reading the comments, there seems to have been a small reggae scene in the Netherlands during the ’80s comprised of Jamaican expats and Dutch musicians. On her lone album Marchena City Dub, Spliff’s vocals have a wonderfully haunting quality with generously applied spring reverb and echo from Demon Dread. The album title is likely a reference to Marchena, a town in Andalusia, Spain. Spliff sings a few lines in Spanish on the title track, making for a very interesting fusion of Caribbean sounds, Spanish lyrics, and Dutch dub production.

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