Dub Essay
by Nathan Bush
Dub by Nathan Bush
INTRO
During the 1990s, nearly two decades after its
origins on albums mixed by King Tubby, Lee Perry and
Errol Thompson, the term dub was common currency.
Dance mixes that reduced vocals to crowd favorite
catch phrases and stripped music to its base
structure bore its label. While the music was often a
far cry in sound and sensibility from the roots
reggae of the 1970s, the concept behind such dubs,
12" and disco mixes was often one and the same.
According to one version of music history then, the
modern remix began in the early 1970s with the
Jamaican dubplate. Beginning as a novelty played on
the island's sound systems, dub evolved into an art
form when a group of pioneering engineers worked the
mixing console with the skill and inventiveness of
the best session players.
VERSION STYLE
The man credited with utilizing the first dubplates
is Rudolph "Ruddy" Redwood, one-time owner of the
Supreme Ruler of Sound in Jamaica's Spanish Town, one
of the many gigantic, mobile stereo units popular at
the time. Giving Ruddy's operation an edge amongst
the dancehall crowds was a healthy supply of
exclusive titles from Duke Reid's massive Treasure
Isle label, leader of the new rocksteady beat. The
arrangement benefited both a great deal: it assured
that Ruddy would be breaking fresh material, while
allowing Reid the ability to test his product with
the public before official release. One fateful day,
while waiting for Reid's engineer Byron "Smithy"
Smith to finish a new batch of acetates, the sound of
a vocal-less mix of the Paragons' "On the Beach"
caught Ruddy's attention. He asked Smithy to cut him
an instrumental plate, which he took to the dancehall
that very night. When he switched from the already
familiar vocal version to the new mix, the crowd w
ent wild, singing along to the track. Trusting
Ruddy's sound system test as an accurate gauge of
public opinion, a number of Treasure Isle dubplates
were cut. The original vocal tracks were often
replaced by the performances of session musicians
like rocksteady guitar king Lynn Taitt, keyboard
player Winston Wright and original Skatalite
saxophonist Tommy McCook. The new style was so
popular that labels soon began issuing "versions" as
B-sides in place of new songs. Instrumentals like
John Holt's "Stealing Stealing Volume 2", Clancy
Eccles "Phantom" and Joe Gibbs "News Flash, Versions
I & II" (all 1970) largely removed the vocal presence
of the originals and were highly popular.
ENTER KING TUBBY
During the first years of the 1970s, most of the
versions releases followed this basic formula. Record
producers were thrilled as the new phenomena meant
they now received double the value from their
musicians. It would be up to an engineer from
Kingston however, to take the concept to the next
level. A part-time employee of Reid's, Osbourne
Ruddock also operated his own sound, King Tubby' s
Hometown Hi-Fi. Attending one of Ruddy's sets in
1968, he was taken by the sound of the instrumentals
and their success with the crowd. As a direct result,
King Tubby (as he was known) set about expanding his
own operation. The combined forces of his electronic
wizardry and the deejay stylings of a young toaster
by the name of U-Roy (b. Ewart Beckford), who had
joined the set in 1967, made Tubby's sound a major
contender on the dancehall scene. The system had
crisp fidelity and, eventually, a steady stream of
dubplates from his Waterhouse studio. To these the
engineer began
adding fresh touches like splashes of reverb, drum
filtering, echo and other effects that gave the music
a unique and dynamic quality. The blueprint for dub's
innovations had now been established and a number of
producers began enlisting Tubby's skills to give
their versions the winning edge.
THE FIRST DUB ALBUMS
Reggae music in general was undergoing serious
structural changes with the arrival of a new
generation of artists dealing with reality themes
like their African heritage and Rastafarian faith. By
1972 the Abyssinians had struck a deep chord with
their classic "Satta Massa Gana", Burning Spear had
recorded ground breaking conscious material for
Studio One and Big Youth had arrived, eventually
claiming U-Roy's position as the leading cultural
deejay. The new "roots" sound provided the perfect
template for dub and by 1973 a handful of full-length
records in the style began to crop up. It is not
quite clear who made the first mark, as Lee Perry's
Tubby mixed Blackboard Jungle Dub, Clive Chin's Java
Java Java Java and the Herman Chin Loy production
Aquarius Dub all arrived within months of each other.
These records alone involved the finest engineering
and production talent of the period.
Lee Perry, a former employee of Studio One, had spent
the first years of the 1970s engineering a number of
innovative works for his Upsetter label including a
host of rugged instrumentals and formative works by
the Wailers. Working with Tubby, the pair
collaborated on Blackboard Jungle Dub in 1973. With
Perry producing and Tubby exercising his inventive
mixing techniques on the former's "Bucky Skank",
Junior Byles' "Fever" and a handful of Wailers
tracks, the result was a landmark dub collection that
remains one of the finest examples of the genre.
While Perry continued to develop his own eclectic
mixing style at his Black Ark studio, he focused
largely on vocal productions, relegating the dubs to
single B-sides.
Clive Chin's Java set was partly an attempt to
capitalize on Augustus Pablo's "Java" hit but the
presence of Errol "E.T." Thompson at the controls
prevented it from becoming a mere marketing ploy.
Jamaican producers have never hesitated to recast
classic rhythms, though the best mixers, deejays and
soloists have managed to create distinct results each
time around. In many ways, the multiple versions of
"Java" looked forward to another phenomena that would
proliferate over a decade later: the "one rhythm"
album. Working at the same time as Tubby, Thompson
was deconstructing rhythms at Randy's Studio 17.
Lacking the technology on hand at Waterhouse, E.T.
developed a fresh set of mixing tricks (slowing down
tracks, playing them backwards etc.) and a unique
sound of his own. Thompson would achieve even greater
success in the second half of the decade under
producer Joe Gibbs, engineering recordings for
Culture, Dennis Brown and AR|I')">Price Far I, and
reworking Treasure Isle and Studio One rhythms on the
popular African Dub Almighty trilogy.
A discussion of early dub essentials would not be
complete without mention of Keith Hudson. Producer of
classic singles by Ken Boothe, Horace Andy and
deejays U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone, Hudson also
recorded albums of his own distinct vocal
performances. It's his 1975 version set Pick a Dub
however, a roughhewn classic of rock solid rhythms,
that remains the standout.
KING TUBBY'S REIGN
During the years 1975 and 1976, King Tubby was at his
peak and more prolific than ever, cutting dubs for
producers like Augustus Pablo, Yabby You and Bunny
Lee. Many would argue that King Tubby Meets Rockers
Uptown, Tubby's collaboration with melodica master
Pablo is the place to begin any dub collection. Pablo
began producing his own music in the early 1970s,
releasing the results on his Rockers imprint.
Recording at various studios, he handed the results
over to Tubby for dub wise reductions where the
Rockers' heavy bass and distinct rhythms were
flavored with Pablo's "Far East" melodica sound. The
most famous of these early collaborations was the
reworking of Jacob Miller's "Baby I Love You So".
Re-titled "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown", Island
records released the track as a single, scoring a hit
among the growing ranks of U.K. reggae fans. A
full-length of the same name arrived the following
year.
Another producer who consistently turned to Tubby for
versions was Vivian "Yabby You" Jackson. A Christian
Rasta, Yabby self-produced classic roots material for
his Prophets label. Tubby dubbed a host of Yabby
B-sides, as well as a few extended works, most
notable of which is the 1976 set King Tubby's
Prophecy of Dub, a stripped-down tour through some of
Jackson's finest rhythm constructs. Avoiding the
extravagant mixing techniques Bunny Lee encouraged
him to employ, Tubby delivered a tasteful set that
never seems to draw att ention to its excellence. But
excellent it is as the rhythm foundation of players
like Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace and Robbie
Shakespeare are brought to light by the melodic
touches of guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith, saxophonist
Tommy McCook and others.
A number of rhythms produced by Bunny Lee's
Aggrovators were likewise broken down by Tubby's
hand, appearing on 45s. Original vocals by Johnnie
Clarke, Cornell Campbell, Wayne Jarrett and others
were greatly excised; caught in the trap of Tubby's
echo almost as soon as they entered the mix. The
alliance also resulted in a series of full-lengths
including Creation of Dub and Dub From the Roots.
Furthermore, Tubby's mixes for Lee provided the
perfect templates for deejays like Dillinger, Jah
Stitch, Prince Jazzbo and Dr. Alimantado. Each of
these toasters produced additional cuts of the same
classic rhythms, furthering the connection between
the version and the deejay.
The success of Tubby's studio was further assured by
the mixing work of his young apprentices. "Prince"
Philip Smart, Hopeton "Scientist" Brown and Prince
Jammy all began assisting at Waterhouse during the
second half of the 1970s. Scientist and Jammy in
particular achieved great prominence once they struck
out on their own. For now though, they remained
employed by Tubby and, by the final years of the
'70s, with the senior engineer happy to delegate
duties, Jammy became the mixer of choice for Bunny
Lee. No matter who was working the controls, the
results were always superb even as they became
increasingly bizarre at Lee's request. The engineers
began throwing sounds like frequency test tones and
machine guns into the mix and striking the spring
reverb unit for genuinely startling effects.
In addition to their creative merits, releases like
those mentioned above, proved that dub's popularity
was such that full-length collections were highly
profitable. Just as reggae audiences would seek out
singles emblazoned with the Tubby brand, LPs were
received in a similar manner. Engineers moved into
the spotlight as albums began being credited to them
rather than the original singers. The second wave of
dub releases included stripped-down rhythms by
producers like Harry Mudie, the Morwells, Winston
Edwards, Tappa Zukie and Winston Rodney. Though these
albums maintained a high quality, the records that
followed failed to capture the public's imagination
in quite the same way.
FRESH BLOOD
During the final years of the 1970s a younger
generation of players entered the fold breathing new
life into the genre. Among these were Waterhouse
alumn i Prince Jammy and Scientist and a deejay named
Michael Campbell. Though he initially covered much
the same territory as his mentor (mixing tracks for
Bunny Lee and Yabby You), Jammy began to develop his
own sound on long playing dub sets for Horace Andy (
In the Light Dub), Gregory Isaacs ( Slum) and
himself. Eventually making the decision to focus on
production work, he went on to become the leading
producer of the late 1980s.
In addition to stretching out on a series of his own
dub sets with appropriately wild titles like
Scientist Meets the Space Invaders, Scientist spent
residencies under the Hookim Brothers and Henry
"Junjo" Lawes. Lawes productions often employed the
Roots Radics, the group of session men most in demand
during the period. The group's rhythms, constructed
by bassist Errol "Flabba" Holt, drummer Lincoln
Valentine "Style" Scott and guitarist Eric "Bingy
Bunny" Lamont, became a favorite target of the
Scientist's dubs. The two former Tubby understudies
even went head to head on the 1980 set Scientist Vs.
Prince Jammy.
Michael "Mikey Dread" Campbell initially made name
for himself as the record spinner of the Dread at the
Controls radio program. The show offered up a blend
of Jamaica's own dancehall favorites and Studio One
classics. Following initial singles voiced at Lee
Perry's Black Ark, Dread began dabbling in dub.
African Dub Anthem and Mikey Dread at the Controls
Dubwise both showcased the producer's rhythms in dub
style with mixes from the islands finest, including
both Tubby and Jammy.
THE DECLINE OF DUB, NEW ROOTS
The work of these three producers, along with a
handful of other discs, represented the last great
dub creations before dancehall supplanted roots as
the music of choice amongst Jamaican record buyers.
The great King Tubby continued to make occasional
appearances on vinyl during the new decade. He
established a new studio in 1985, yet just four years
later, he was shot and killed near his home in
Kingston, thereby signaling the symbolic end of dub.
Though the music's heyday was now largely over, the
seed it had planted continued to flower in the
decades that followed. The emerging Dancehall hits
were based almost exclusively on recycled rhythms
with the new deejays riding instrumental tracks, just
as U-Roy, Big Youth and others had before them.
Though styles had changed (the new deejays emphasized
live skills) dub remained an essential precursor.
With the advent of the "one rhythm" album in the
ragga era, full-length LPs would be constructed
around different versions o
f one song.
During the '80s in '90s a number of British artists
revived the music's latent spirit once again. Reggae,
beginning with ska, had found a substantial a udience
in the U.K. through a homegrown dancehall scene.
Sound system operator Jah Shaka's late '80s dub
volumes like Commandments of Dub and Dub Salute were
informed by a strictly roots philosophy that won fans
weary of ragga's digital dominance. Reflecting a more
modern sound, however, was the work of two extremely
prolific producers. Guyana born Neil "Mad Professor"
Fraser released a multitude of twitching, bleeping,
electronic dubwise sets in popular series like Dub Me
Crazy and Black Liberation Dub. Even more eclectic
were the sounds of Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound
label, a brew of dub, reggae and dance music by
groups like African Head Charge and Dub Syndicate.
Though these works seemed to fly in the face of Jah
Shaka's purist approach they accomplished what no one
had in years. Simultaneously inventive
, respectful and irreverent, they expanded the scope
of the music itself, greatly increasing its
possibilities while bringing it forward, into the
21st century.
Foundation Dub: 10 Recommended Albums
1. Blackboard Jungle Dub, Lee Perry
2. Pick a Dub, Keith Hudson
3. Dubbing With the Observer, Winston "Niney" Holness
Productions
4. Forward the Bass: Dub from Randy's, 1972-1975,
Impact All-Stars
5. King Tubby's Prophecy of Dub, Yabby You
6. King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, Augustus Pablo
7. Dub Gone Crazy, King Tubby and Friends
8. African Dub All-Mighty, Vols. 3 & 4, Joe Gibbs &
Errol Thompson Productions
9. ^Harry Mudie Meets King Tubby's in Dub Conference
ol. 1, Harry Mudie Productions
10. Living Dub Volume 1, Burning Spear
Nathan Bush
Dub by Nathan Bush
INTRO
During the 1990s, nearly two decades after its
origins on albums mixed by King Tubby, Lee Perry and
Errol Thompson, the term dub was common currency.
Dance mixes that reduced vocals to crowd favorite
catch phrases and stripped music to its base
structure bore its label. While the music was often a
far cry in sound and sensibility from the roots
reggae of the 1970s, the concept behind such dubs,
12" and disco mixes was often one and the same.
According to one version of music history then, the
modern remix began in the early 1970s with the
Jamaican dubplate. Beginning as a novelty played on
the island's sound systems, dub evolved into an art
form when a group of pioneering engineers worked the
mixing console with the skill and inventiveness of
the best session players.
VERSION STYLE
The man credited with utilizing the first dubplates
is Rudolph "Ruddy" Redwood, one-time owner of the
Supreme Ruler of Sound in Jamaica's Spanish Town, one
of the many gigantic, mobile stereo units popular at
the time. Giving Ruddy's operation an edge amongst
the dancehall crowds was a healthy supply of
exclusive titles from Duke Reid's massive Treasure
Isle label, leader of the new rocksteady beat. The
arrangement benefited both a great deal: it assured
that Ruddy would be breaking fresh material, while
allowing Reid the ability to test his product with
the public before official release. One fateful day,
while waiting for Reid's engineer Byron "Smithy"
Smith to finish a new batch of acetates, the sound of
a vocal-less mix of the Paragons' "On the Beach"
caught Ruddy's attention. He asked Smithy to cut him
an instrumental plate, which he took to the dancehall
that very night. When he switched from the already
familiar vocal version to the new mix, the crowd w
ent wild, singing along to the track. Trusting
Ruddy's sound system test as an accurate gauge of
public opinion, a number of Treasure Isle dubplates
were cut. The original vocal tracks were often
replaced by the performances of session musicians
like rocksteady guitar king Lynn Taitt, keyboard
player Winston Wright and original Skatalite
saxophonist Tommy McCook. The new style was so
popular that labels soon began issuing "versions" as
B-sides in place of new songs. Instrumentals like
John Holt's "Stealing Stealing Volume 2", Clancy
Eccles "Phantom" and Joe Gibbs "News Flash, Versions
I & II" (all 1970) largely removed the vocal presence
of the originals and were highly popular.
ENTER KING TUBBY
During the first years of the 1970s, most of the
versions releases followed this basic formula. Record
producers were thrilled as the new phenomena meant
they now received double the value from their
musicians. It would be up to an engineer from
Kingston however, to take the concept to the next
level. A part-time employee of Reid's, Osbourne
Ruddock also operated his own sound, King Tubby' s
Hometown Hi-Fi. Attending one of Ruddy's sets in
1968, he was taken by the sound of the instrumentals
and their success with the crowd. As a direct result,
King Tubby (as he was known) set about expanding his
own operation. The combined forces of his electronic
wizardry and the deejay stylings of a young toaster
by the name of U-Roy (b. Ewart Beckford), who had
joined the set in 1967, made Tubby's sound a major
contender on the dancehall scene. The system had
crisp fidelity and, eventually, a steady stream of
dubplates from his Waterhouse studio. To these the
engineer began
adding fresh touches like splashes of reverb, drum
filtering, echo and other effects that gave the music
a unique and dynamic quality. The blueprint for dub's
innovations had now been established and a number of
producers began enlisting Tubby's skills to give
their versions the winning edge.
THE FIRST DUB ALBUMS
Reggae music in general was undergoing serious
structural changes with the arrival of a new
generation of artists dealing with reality themes
like their African heritage and Rastafarian faith. By
1972 the Abyssinians had struck a deep chord with
their classic "Satta Massa Gana", Burning Spear had
recorded ground breaking conscious material for
Studio One and Big Youth had arrived, eventually
claiming U-Roy's position as the leading cultural
deejay. The new "roots" sound provided the perfect
template for dub and by 1973 a handful of full-length
records in the style began to crop up. It is not
quite clear who made the first mark, as Lee Perry's
Tubby mixed Blackboard Jungle Dub, Clive Chin's Java
Java Java Java and the Herman Chin Loy production
Aquarius Dub all arrived within months of each other.
These records alone involved the finest engineering
and production talent of the period.
Lee Perry, a former employee of Studio One, had spent
the first years of the 1970s engineering a number of
innovative works for his Upsetter label including a
host of rugged instrumentals and formative works by
the Wailers. Working with Tubby, the pair
collaborated on Blackboard Jungle Dub in 1973. With
Perry producing and Tubby exercising his inventive
mixing techniques on the former's "Bucky Skank",
Junior Byles' "Fever" and a handful of Wailers
tracks, the result was a landmark dub collection that
remains one of the finest examples of the genre.
While Perry continued to develop his own eclectic
mixing style at his Black Ark studio, he focused
largely on vocal productions, relegating the dubs to
single B-sides.
Clive Chin's Java set was partly an attempt to
capitalize on Augustus Pablo's "Java" hit but the
presence of Errol "E.T." Thompson at the controls
prevented it from becoming a mere marketing ploy.
Jamaican producers have never hesitated to recast
classic rhythms, though the best mixers, deejays and
soloists have managed to create distinct results each
time around. In many ways, the multiple versions of
"Java" looked forward to another phenomena that would
proliferate over a decade later: the "one rhythm"
album. Working at the same time as Tubby, Thompson
was deconstructing rhythms at Randy's Studio 17.
Lacking the technology on hand at Waterhouse, E.T.
developed a fresh set of mixing tricks (slowing down
tracks, playing them backwards etc.) and a unique
sound of his own. Thompson would achieve even greater
success in the second half of the decade under
producer Joe Gibbs, engineering recordings for
Culture, Dennis Brown and AR|I')">Price Far I, and
reworking Treasure Isle and Studio One rhythms on the
popular African Dub Almighty trilogy.
A discussion of early dub essentials would not be
complete without mention of Keith Hudson. Producer of
classic singles by Ken Boothe, Horace Andy and
deejays U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone, Hudson also
recorded albums of his own distinct vocal
performances. It's his 1975 version set Pick a Dub
however, a roughhewn classic of rock solid rhythms,
that remains the standout.
KING TUBBY'S REIGN
During the years 1975 and 1976, King Tubby was at his
peak and more prolific than ever, cutting dubs for
producers like Augustus Pablo, Yabby You and Bunny
Lee. Many would argue that King Tubby Meets Rockers
Uptown, Tubby's collaboration with melodica master
Pablo is the place to begin any dub collection. Pablo
began producing his own music in the early 1970s,
releasing the results on his Rockers imprint.
Recording at various studios, he handed the results
over to Tubby for dub wise reductions where the
Rockers' heavy bass and distinct rhythms were
flavored with Pablo's "Far East" melodica sound. The
most famous of these early collaborations was the
reworking of Jacob Miller's "Baby I Love You So".
Re-titled "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown", Island
records released the track as a single, scoring a hit
among the growing ranks of U.K. reggae fans. A
full-length of the same name arrived the following
year.
Another producer who consistently turned to Tubby for
versions was Vivian "Yabby You" Jackson. A Christian
Rasta, Yabby self-produced classic roots material for
his Prophets label. Tubby dubbed a host of Yabby
B-sides, as well as a few extended works, most
notable of which is the 1976 set King Tubby's
Prophecy of Dub, a stripped-down tour through some of
Jackson's finest rhythm constructs. Avoiding the
extravagant mixing techniques Bunny Lee encouraged
him to employ, Tubby delivered a tasteful set that
never seems to draw att ention to its excellence. But
excellent it is as the rhythm foundation of players
like Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace and Robbie
Shakespeare are brought to light by the melodic
touches of guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith, saxophonist
Tommy McCook and others.
A number of rhythms produced by Bunny Lee's
Aggrovators were likewise broken down by Tubby's
hand, appearing on 45s. Original vocals by Johnnie
Clarke, Cornell Campbell, Wayne Jarrett and others
were greatly excised; caught in the trap of Tubby's
echo almost as soon as they entered the mix. The
alliance also resulted in a series of full-lengths
including Creation of Dub and Dub From the Roots.
Furthermore, Tubby's mixes for Lee provided the
perfect templates for deejays like Dillinger, Jah
Stitch, Prince Jazzbo and Dr. Alimantado. Each of
these toasters produced additional cuts of the same
classic rhythms, furthering the connection between
the version and the deejay.
The success of Tubby's studio was further assured by
the mixing work of his young apprentices. "Prince"
Philip Smart, Hopeton "Scientist" Brown and Prince
Jammy all began assisting at Waterhouse during the
second half of the 1970s. Scientist and Jammy in
particular achieved great prominence once they struck
out on their own. For now though, they remained
employed by Tubby and, by the final years of the
'70s, with the senior engineer happy to delegate
duties, Jammy became the mixer of choice for Bunny
Lee. No matter who was working the controls, the
results were always superb even as they became
increasingly bizarre at Lee's request. The engineers
began throwing sounds like frequency test tones and
machine guns into the mix and striking the spring
reverb unit for genuinely startling effects.
In addition to their creative merits, releases like
those mentioned above, proved that dub's popularity
was such that full-length collections were highly
profitable. Just as reggae audiences would seek out
singles emblazoned with the Tubby brand, LPs were
received in a similar manner. Engineers moved into
the spotlight as albums began being credited to them
rather than the original singers. The second wave of
dub releases included stripped-down rhythms by
producers like Harry Mudie, the Morwells, Winston
Edwards, Tappa Zukie and Winston Rodney. Though these
albums maintained a high quality, the records that
followed failed to capture the public's imagination
in quite the same way.
FRESH BLOOD
During the final years of the 1970s a younger
generation of players entered the fold breathing new
life into the genre. Among these were Waterhouse
alumn i Prince Jammy and Scientist and a deejay named
Michael Campbell. Though he initially covered much
the same territory as his mentor (mixing tracks for
Bunny Lee and Yabby You), Jammy began to develop his
own sound on long playing dub sets for Horace Andy (
In the Light Dub), Gregory Isaacs ( Slum) and
himself. Eventually making the decision to focus on
production work, he went on to become the leading
producer of the late 1980s.
In addition to stretching out on a series of his own
dub sets with appropriately wild titles like
Scientist Meets the Space Invaders, Scientist spent
residencies under the Hookim Brothers and Henry
"Junjo" Lawes. Lawes productions often employed the
Roots Radics, the group of session men most in demand
during the period. The group's rhythms, constructed
by bassist Errol "Flabba" Holt, drummer Lincoln
Valentine "Style" Scott and guitarist Eric "Bingy
Bunny" Lamont, became a favorite target of the
Scientist's dubs. The two former Tubby understudies
even went head to head on the 1980 set Scientist Vs.
Prince Jammy.
Michael "Mikey Dread" Campbell initially made name
for himself as the record spinner of the Dread at the
Controls radio program. The show offered up a blend
of Jamaica's own dancehall favorites and Studio One
classics. Following initial singles voiced at Lee
Perry's Black Ark, Dread began dabbling in dub.
African Dub Anthem and Mikey Dread at the Controls
Dubwise both showcased the producer's rhythms in dub
style with mixes from the islands finest, including
both Tubby and Jammy.
THE DECLINE OF DUB, NEW ROOTS
The work of these three producers, along with a
handful of other discs, represented the last great
dub creations before dancehall supplanted roots as
the music of choice amongst Jamaican record buyers.
The great King Tubby continued to make occasional
appearances on vinyl during the new decade. He
established a new studio in 1985, yet just four years
later, he was shot and killed near his home in
Kingston, thereby signaling the symbolic end of dub.
Though the music's heyday was now largely over, the
seed it had planted continued to flower in the
decades that followed. The emerging Dancehall hits
were based almost exclusively on recycled rhythms
with the new deejays riding instrumental tracks, just
as U-Roy, Big Youth and others had before them.
Though styles had changed (the new deejays emphasized
live skills) dub remained an essential precursor.
With the advent of the "one rhythm" album in the
ragga era, full-length LPs would be constructed
around different versions o
f one song.
During the '80s in '90s a number of British artists
revived the music's latent spirit once again. Reggae,
beginning with ska, had found a substantial a udience
in the U.K. through a homegrown dancehall scene.
Sound system operator Jah Shaka's late '80s dub
volumes like Commandments of Dub and Dub Salute were
informed by a strictly roots philosophy that won fans
weary of ragga's digital dominance. Reflecting a more
modern sound, however, was the work of two extremely
prolific producers. Guyana born Neil "Mad Professor"
Fraser released a multitude of twitching, bleeping,
electronic dubwise sets in popular series like Dub Me
Crazy and Black Liberation Dub. Even more eclectic
were the sounds of Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound
label, a brew of dub, reggae and dance music by
groups like African Head Charge and Dub Syndicate.
Though these works seemed to fly in the face of Jah
Shaka's purist approach they accomplished what no one
had in years. Simultaneously inventive
, respectful and irreverent, they expanded the scope
of the music itself, greatly increasing its
possibilities while bringing it forward, into the
21st century.
Foundation Dub: 10 Recommended Albums
1. Blackboard Jungle Dub, Lee Perry
2. Pick a Dub, Keith Hudson
3. Dubbing With the Observer, Winston "Niney" Holness
Productions
4. Forward the Bass: Dub from Randy's, 1972-1975,
Impact All-Stars
5. King Tubby's Prophecy of Dub, Yabby You
6. King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, Augustus Pablo
7. Dub Gone Crazy, King Tubby and Friends
8. African Dub All-Mighty, Vols. 3 & 4, Joe Gibbs &
Errol Thompson Productions
9. ^Harry Mudie Meets King Tubby's in Dub Conference
ol. 1, Harry Mudie Productions
10. Living Dub Volume 1, Burning Spear
Nathan Bush
posted by Luiz Carlos | Quinta-feira, Outubro 06, 2005
|
1 comments
links to this post
