From Randy’s Record Store and Studio 17 to Augustus Pablo’s “Java” and the lost tapes of 17 North Parade
MIDNIGHT REGGAE VIBES — UNSUNG HERO
Presented by Fela TuffSoul, C.E.O. of TuffBuzz Entertainment
“AH WE DIG DEM OUT.”
By TrapGAD | The Booth Radio Live
There are people who make records.
There are people who build studios.
There are people who discover artists.
And then there are people who spend their lives protecting the history that everybody else might forget.
Clive Chin is all three.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 14, 1954, Clive Chin grew up inside one of the most important environments in Jamaican musical history: Randy’s Record Mart and Studio 17.
His father, Vincent “Randy” Chin, and mother, Patricia “Miss Pat” Chin, had created a unique musical ecosystem at 17 North Parade — a record shop downstairs and a recording studio above it.
For a young Clive, this was not simply a family business.
It was his classroom.
And the lessons he learned there would eventually place his name alongside the architects of reggae, dub and Jamaican recording culture.
But Clive Chin's story does not end with the music he helped create.
Decades later, he would return to the ruins of that musical past and begin rescuing the original tapes that had been left behind.
His life therefore tells two extraordinary stories:
the creation of Jamaican music history — and the preservation of it.
GROWING UP INSIDE RANDY'S
Before Clive Chin became a respected producer, he was a teenager working in his family's record business.
Randy's Record Mart had become an important destination for Jamaican music, and the studio upstairs eventually became known as Studio 17.
The arrangement was revolutionary in its simplicity:
records downstairs.
recording upstairs.
music everywhere.
Studio 17 became a gathering point for musicians, producers, engineers and artists.
Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Peter Tosh.
Lee “Scratch” Perry.
Dennis Brown.
Gregory Isaacs.
Burning Spear.
Augustus Pablo.
And many others passed through its doors or had recordings connected to the facility.
For Clive, these weren't distant legends appearing in history books.
They were people operating within his everyday musical environment.
And he was watching.
Listening.
Learning.
THE APPRENTICE BEHIND THE MIXING BOARD
Clive did not simply inherit his father's business.
He learned the craft.
In an interview, he described his early studio duties: setting up microphones, connecting cables, checking equipment and learning how the recording system worked before gradually moving toward the mixing desk.
That hands-on education was crucial.
There was no YouTube tutorial.
No digital audio workstation.
No unlimited undo button.
No software plug-in capable of recreating a vintage sound with one click.
The studio itself was the school.
And the people around him were the teachers.
One of the most important was Errol “ET” Thompson.
Thompson became chief engineer at Randy's and was renowned for his ability to achieve exceptionally clear, balanced recordings. His work with Clive Chin would become particularly important in the development of early dub.
Together, Chin and Thompson became part of a generation that was discovering that a recorded rhythm could become something entirely different once it passed through the mixing desk.
And that discovery would help change music forever.
THE BIRTH OF DUB
Dub did not emerge from a single moment or a single person.
It developed through the experimentation of Jamaican producers, engineers, musicians and sound-system operators who began manipulating recorded tracks — stripping away vocals, emphasizing bass and drums, and using echo, reverb, delay and other effects to transform familiar recordings.
Clive Chin and Errol Thompson were among the important figures in this early development.
Their work demonstrated that the mixing desk itself could become an instrument.
A recording did not have to remain fixed.
It could be reconstructed.
Reinterpreted.
Deconstructed.
And rebuilt.
The Guardian's account of Thompson's career places his work with Chin at Randy's at the heart of the emergence of early dub, including the recordings surrounding Augustus Pablo and the Java material.
That concept would eventually influence generations of producers around the world.
Today, manipulating stems, vocals, drums and effects is normal.
At Randy's, people were pioneering those ideas with analog equipment and imagination.
THEN CAME “JAVA”
In 1971, Clive Chin produced the recording that would change his career:
AUGUSTUS PABLO — “JAVA”
The artist was Horace Swaby, better known to the world as Augustus Pablo.
Interestingly, Pablo and Chin had known each other from school.
Pablo's distinctive melodica became one of the defining sounds of the recording.
The combination of the melodica, rhythm section and Chin's production helped create something unlike the conventional instrumental records of the period.
“Java” became an international success and established Clive Chin as a producer of considerable importance.
The Independent describes “Java” as Chin's first major hit and one of the early examples of dub-reggae, while also highlighting the enduring importance of the This Is Augustus Pablo album.
But “Java” was only the beginning.
THIS IS AUGUSTUS PABLO
The relationship between Chin and Pablo produced more than a hit single.
It produced an album that would become a landmark:
This Is Augustus Pablo
The record showcased Pablo's distinctive melodica and keyboard work while giving Chin and engineer Errol Thompson space to experiment with the sound.
The recording environment itself became part of the creative process.
Chin later recalled experimenting with arrangements and instruments to create textures that would make the music more immersive.
That spirit of experimentation became central to Jamaican production.
The producer was no longer simply documenting a performance.
The producer was shaping the sonic world around the performance.
JAVA JAVA DUB: WHEN THE MIX BECAME THE MUSIC
In 1973 came another important milestone:
Java Java Dub
Produced by Clive Chin and mixed by Errol “ET” Thompson, the project is regarded as one of the early fully developed dub albums.
This is where the significance of Clive Chin becomes particularly clear.
He wasn't simply producing reggae songs.
He was participating in the transformation of reggae into a new form.
The rhythm became the foundation.
The bass became a central voice.
The effects became instruments.
Silence became part of the arrangement.
And the mixing desk became a creative tool.
Dub was becoming its own language.
STUDIO 17: A MUSICAL TIME CAPSULE
Studio 17 was much more than Clive Chin's workplace.
It was a musical crossroads.
During its years of operation, the studio became associated with recordings by an extraordinary range of Jamaican artists, including Bob Marley & The Wailers, Peter Tosh, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, Augustus Pablo and others.
The studio's significance came partly from its location.
The record store downstairs meant music could immediately move from studio → shop → audience.
Clive later described the importance of Randy's as a place where records could be played and customers could discover new music.
It was an early example of a vertically connected independent music business.
Create the music.
Press the music.
Promote the music.
Sell the music.
All under one roof.
WHEN JAMAICA CHANGED — AND THE TAPES WERE LEFT BEHIND
By the late 1970s, Jamaica was experiencing severe political turmoil.
The Chin family eventually relocated to New York, where Vincent and Patricia Chin established what became VP Records.
But Jamaica was left with something extraordinary.
Studio 17 remained behind.
And inside that abandoned musical space were recordings.
Master tapes.
Session reels.
Unreleased material.
Pieces of Jamaican history.
For decades, those tapes remained vulnerable to heat, humidity, neglect, looting and the passage of time.
The studio became almost like a forgotten time capsule.
And then Clive returned.
THE LOST REGGAE TAPES
This is where Clive Chin's story takes an extraordinary turn.
Decades after the family had left Jamaica, the surviving Studio 17 tapes were rediscovered.
The tapes contained recordings made during reggae's formative years.
Some were familiar.
Others were rare.
Some had never been released.
And some contained material that had never been heard by the public.
The documentary Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes tells the story of the Chin family, the studio and the recovery of this extraordinary archive.
But recovering the tapes was only the beginning.
They had to be saved.
SAVING THE SOUND
The tapes were fragile.
Some had deteriorated.
Some were disorganized.
Some had been exposed to decades of difficult conditions.
During restoration and digitization sessions, tapes could literally break while being transferred.
Yet Clive and the engineers continued.
The surviving archive was eventually digitized and catalogued, allowing music recorded decades earlier to be preserved in a form that could be accessed by future generations.
Imagine what that means.
A musician records a performance in Kingston in the late 1960s.
Decades pass.
The world changes.
The musician may be gone.
The studio may be gone.
The original recording may have been forgotten.
And then someone presses play.
Suddenly, the room comes alive again.
The musicians are there.
The instruments are there.
The mistakes are there.
The conversations are there.
The atmosphere is there.
History speaks.
17 NORTH PARADE RETURNS
In 2007, VP Records launched 17 North Parade, an imprint dedicated to reissuing historic recordings associated with Randy's and its musical legacy.
The name itself is significant.
It is the address.
The building.
The studio.
The birthplace of countless recordings.
Clive explained that the imprint was intentionally separated from VP's contemporary dancehall branding so that the vintage material could have its own identity and historical context.
That was more than clever branding.
It was preservation.
The name 17 North Parade became a way of telling listeners:
This music came from somewhere.
This music has a history.
Remember where it started.
THE TRAGEDY OF JOEL CHIN
Preserving music history became even more personal for Clive following the tragic death of his son, producer Joel Chin, in 2011.
Joel had followed the family tradition into music and worked with VP Records.
His death was devastating.
Yet Clive continued his work of preserving the musical heritage that his family had spent generations building.
That makes the archive more than a collection of old tapes.
It is part of a family legacy.
A legacy that began with Vincent and Patricia Chin.
Continued through Clive.
And passed into another generation through Joel.
THE CHIN FAMILY: A MUSICAL DYNASTY
Few families have been as deeply woven into Jamaican recorded music as the Chins.
Vincent “Randy” Chin helped establish the record-store and production infrastructure.
Patricia “Miss Pat” Chin helped build and expand the business and became one of the great figures in Caribbean music.
Clive Chin became a producer and helped pioneer early dub.
Joel Chin continued the production tradition before his untimely death.
And the family business eventually became VP Records, one of the most important independent reggae and Caribbean music companies in the world.
The story is remarkable because it spans multiple eras.
Ska.
Rocksteady.
Roots reggae.
Dub.
Dancehall.
Digital music.
And the modern age of music preservation.
CLIVE CHIN'S REAL CONTRIBUTION
It would be easy to define Clive Chin simply as:
“The producer of Java.”
But that would be far too small.
His contribution reaches across several layers of Jamaican music.
PRODUCER
He helped create important recordings during reggae's formative years.
DUB PIONEER
His work with Errol Thompson helped develop the studio techniques that contributed to dub's emergence as a distinct musical form.
STUDIO ARCHITECT
At Studio 17, he worked in an environment where some of Jamaica's most important musicians and producers were creating music.
ARCHIVIST
He returned to the abandoned Studio 17 and helped rescue its surviving master recordings.
PRESERVATIONIST
Through the 17 North Parade imprint and archival projects, he helped bring historic material back into circulation.
HISTORIAN
Through interviews, documentaries and archival work, he has helped tell the story behind the recordings.
That combination makes Clive Chin unique.
THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO LET THE MUSIC DISAPPEAR
There is a powerful lesson in Clive Chin's story.
Music history is fragile.
A recording can be lost.
A tape can deteriorate.
A studio can disappear.
A musician can pass away.
A generation can forget.
But preservation can interrupt that process.
Clive Chin became one of the people standing between history and disappearance.
He didn't simply look backward.
He went back and recovered what was almost lost.
And because of that work, future generations can hear pieces of Jamaica's musical past that might otherwise have remained silent forever.
WHY CLIVE CHIN BELONGS IN THE UNSUNG HERO
The biggest names in reggae are often the artists whose voices became famous around the world.
But behind those voices were producers.
Engineers.
Record-store owners.
Studio operators.
Distributors.
Archivists.
People who worked quietly while history was being created.
Clive Chin belongs in that conversation.
He helped create some of the sounds.
He helped develop the production culture.
He worked with musicians who would become legends.
And decades later, he helped recover the evidence.
That is an extraordinary contribution.
FROM 17 NORTH PARADE TO THE FUTURE
Think about the journey.
A young Clive Chin walks into his family's record business.
He learns how to connect microphones.
He watches engineers work.
He learns the mixing board.
He works with Errol Thompson.
He produces Augustus Pablo.
“Java” travels beyond Jamaica.
Dub begins developing into a powerful international musical language.
Political turmoil changes the family's life.
Studio 17 is abandoned.
The tapes remain.
Decades pass.
Clive returns.
The tapes are recovered.
They are digitized.
The music comes back.
And 17 North Parade becomes a name once again associated with Jamaica's musical heritage.
That is not simply a career.
That is a circle.
THE LEGACY OF CLIVE CHIN
Clive Chin's story reminds us that reggae history was never created by artists alone.
It was created by families, producers, engineers, musicians, record-store owners, sound-system operators, entrepreneurs and archivists who collectively built the culture.
His greatest contribution may ultimately be found in two places:
the music he helped create — and the music he refused to let disappear.
From the revolutionary sounds of Augustus Pablo and “Java” to the fragile master tapes of Studio 17, Clive Chin has spent a lifetime connected to the heartbeat of Jamaican music.
He was there when the sound was being invented.
And he was there when the history needed to be rescued.
That is why his name deserves to be remembered.
Not simply as a producer.
Not simply as a member of the Chin family.
But as one of the custodians of Jamaica's recorded musical memory.
WATCH FULL VIDEO BELOW:
CLIVE CHIN
THE PRODUCER • THE PIONEER • THE ARCHIVIST • THE CUSTODIAN
He helped create the sound.
He helped preserve the story.
And he helped make sure the tapes would speak again.
THE LEGACY • THE STORY • THE CONTRIBUTION
THIS IS WHY WE DIG DEM OUT.
MIDNIGHT REGGAE VIBES — UNSUNG HERO
Presented by Fela TuffSoul, C.E.O. of TuffBuzz Entertainment
The Booth Radio Live
From The Roots, We Survive.
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