Hopeton Brown better known as Scientist and sometimes known as Overton Brown, from Kingston, Jamaica was a protégé of King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock), one of the originators of dub music. The Scientist burst onto the reggae scene in the mid ’70s with a reckless mixing style that seemed to outdo even King Tubby’s wildest extravaganzas. He began his career as an engineer at Studio One and soon after at Tubby’s in the late 70’s. Shortly afterwards, he gained a reputation with a distinctive mixing style. Scientist will perform on the stage of the 17th Seasplash Festival along with two other legends of dub reggae: Scientist and Mad Professor.
He left King Tubby’s studio in 1982 and became the principal engineer for Channel One Studio, giving him the chance to work on a 16-track mixing desk rather than the four tracks at Tubby’s. He came to prominence in the early 1980s and produced many albums, his mixes featuring on many releases in the first part of the decade. In particular, he was the favourite engineer of Henry “Junjo” Lawes, for whom he mixed several albums featuring the Roots Radics, many based on tracks by Barrington Levy. He also did a lot of work for Linval Thompson and Jah Thomas. In 1983 he left Channel One to work at Tuff Gong studio.
He made a series of albums in the early to mid 1980s, released on Greensleeves Records with titles themed around Scientist’s fictional achievements in fighting Space Invaders, Pac-Men, and Vampires, and winning the World Cup. The music on these albums was played by Roots Radics, his most frequent collaborators.
