"Dub mean raw riddim. Dub jus’ mean raw music, nuttin water-down... is like your creativeness off the riddim, without voice" - Prince Jammy
DUB - either a) a one-off acetate, a 'dub-plate' if you will, b) a remix, taking the vocal track off and replacing it with emphasis on 'drum' and 'bass' (D'u'B), or c) a cottage industry of engineering genius which has revolutionised studio production and musical output for the last 35 years, giving impetus to some of the greatest musical movements from the 80s to the present...
I appreciate some of you probably aren't keen to read through a whole load of history and recs, so for those wanting to paddle instead of swim into the deep end the best overview of dub from the 70s to the present can be found here...
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Like it or not, be you a dread or baldhead (or the sort of twat that puts on fucking Legend to get caned to with your spotty student friends), at least part of your music collection has been touched by dub in one way, shape or form. That's blindingly obvious if you're a skank like yours truly, but without the pioneering efforts of JA's dub forefathers trip-hop, jungle, dubstep (natch), the art of the remix and, most significantly, hip-hop wouldn't be. A bold claim for a sub-genre that comes from an island with just shy of 3 million residents (or 1/3 of the size of NYC's population), but fully justified. And here's why.
ORIGINS
Jamaican music has always been about the dance, and as such the music made by home producers (and imported from workers returning to the island after time spent working in the States) was made specifically to be played at Sound Systems. In the early days there were 3 main players - Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid and Prince Buster (the Big 3, as Marley dubbed them - no pun intended). Their goal? To outdo each other, to get that exclusive record no other sound system would have and to ultimately make the crowd dance their tits off. There was, of course, a much easier way to make sure your rival didn't get hold of that stellar 45 - make your own music. On an island with a new-found zest for self-sufficiency (gaining independence from Britain in 1962), it was by extension that Jamaica's musical kingpins took matters into their own hands, launching the likes of Studio One (Dodd) and Treasure Isle (Reid) as stables to develop their own sounds.
Dub started with the version, essentially the instrumental track of the lead cut of a 45. Created by happy accident (thanks to an engineer for Reid's Treasure Isle leaving the vocals off an acetate of The Paragons' On The Beach), these allowed the resident sound system deejays to toast over the top of the rhythm tracks with careless abandon. Note the below, with The Paragons original followed by the version, toasted over by Daddy U Roy:
With Treasure Isle now enjoying a surge in popularity, it wasn't long before Dodd and Buster were joining in on the act, and before long the B-Side of many a Jamaican 45 was the instrumental 'version' of the A side. Not dub in the truest sense - that would follow a few years later - but perhaps the best use of recycling this side of a bottle bank, and in the 'one riddim' albums that later followed a legacy that still holds to this day. The version ruled the sound systems during the rocksteady era, with deejays such as Count Machuki and King Stitt now the main attraction.
Tubby's A The Dub Organizer
Dub was - and still is - a musical form which doesn't care for the artist. It wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference if Augustus Pablo or Bobby Kalphat was playing the melodica, or if Robbie Shakespeare or Boris Gardiner was on bass duties. And it certainly couldn't give a toss about the vocalist. So it's perhaps little surprise that dub's greatest pioneer, Osbourne 'King Tubby' Ruddock, was no more than a skilled electronics engineer who started out repairing equipment for Duke Reid before starting a small sound system of his own. By 1972, and with U Roy in tow, Tubby's Hi-Fi had muscled in on Kingston's sound system scene, giving Tubby financial clout and allowing him to upgrade his modest studio to a multi-track facility, able to cut vocals and instruments in-and-out of the mix at will. Coupled with his aptitude for electronics and driven by a pursuit for sonic excellence, Tubby's took the riddim and manipulated, tinkered and warped instrumental cuts into a whole new art form. The dub. The remix.
For a chronological navigation of Tubby's enormous contribution to dub, you've got to start with...
Essential set. Perry producing, Tubby in the mix. Wailers cuts such as Kaya and Dreamland, I-Roy and Dillinger popping up with inspired proclamations. Anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should make this a priority listen if they haven't already done so.
Personally, this IS the dub album I prize above all others. Pablo's riddims - Baby I Love You So, Young Generation, even his cut of the Abyssinians' Satta Massagana - are warped with flying snares, snippets of piano, bass thicker than double cream and THAT MELODICA being faded in-and-out at will. One of the greatest instrumental LPs ever.
There's a lot of trash out there with Tubby's name on, but generally anything from Blood And Fire is the best place to head - the Dub Gone Crazy set is well worth tracking down too. The important thing to note here is that Tubby is the engineer, not the producer. Despite all his skill and creativity, Tubby could never turn a turd into a golden nugget.
70s Dub LPs - other highlights
In addition to Blackboard Jungle Dub, the first dub LPs of the early 70s bridge the gap between the original version and the sonic mutations that followed. Prime example being:
A personal favourite. Despite producing Althea and Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking", Gibbs was a stellar producer who, in Errol Thompson, had an engineer who had the wizardry of Tubby and the daring of Scratch. You like your dub accompanied by cheap effects? Doorbells? Head here. Interesting to note the opening track - "Chapter 3" - is also a dub of Baby I Love You So, which Tubby dubbed on King Tubby Meets Rockers. Worth noting the different styles adopted - each engineer has their own 'sonic signature' of sorts.
...two others worth a listen, although either poorly distributed or unreleased at the time:
It's a strange paradox that a name most would immediately associate with 70s dub did not have the output to match. Although a sonic alchemist, Perry also had his own studio, his own acts, and produced some amazing LPs in the 70s, specifically Heart Of The Congos, War Inna Babylon and Police and Thieves. His most well-known dub album was...
...on which he manipulated his own riddims, adding Prince Jazzbo's deejay skills to the dub of Chase The Devil ("Croaking Lizard"). I've always found Super Ape a very limp effort, especially when compared to...
...which on a personal level is a much stronger set.
Scientist - the Apprentice In The Arena
Hopeton "Scientist" Brown was every bit the student to Tubby's professor. With a father who used to repair radios for a living, the precocious understudy got his break with Tubby following a spot of welding, praising the master's mixes and building amplifiers. Scientist stepped out of Tubby's shadows in the late 70s with some stonking sets on Greensleeves, taking Junjo Lawes and Linval Thompson's early dancehall riddims and morphing them into thematic albums, the best two of which being:
Although both the above are stellar, I personally prefer this set. There's more echo, more reverb and a lot more going on, even without the (albeit slightly corny) horror overtones of the aforementioned. The best drum and bass album of the 80s
Aside from the Greensleeves sets (of which there are 5 - the 2 above, ...World Cup, ...Pac Man and Dub Champion), Scientist continued his rich vein of output well into the mid 80s and beyond, even at times when his more traditional dub style was perhaps seen as antiquated in the face of new competition. For example, these sets are total treats:
Jammy also jumped on Scientist's bandwagon with a themed dub-set that coincided with the VHS kung-fu boom in the 80s. I've just sold this LP to some dude in Glasgow - Shaolin Temple is a great cut:
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Prince Far-I's sets are also worth a look, the best being:
With the Jamaican diaspora taking roots in major metropolitan areas around the world, the spread of both reggae and dub soon started to impact outside the mixing desks of Kingston:
Mixed by Dennis Bovell, also responsible for producing The Slits. Reggae/Dub and punk were happy bedfellows in the late 70s/early 80s, both representing the downtrodden classes against the forces of a hopeless government/babylon which didn't speak either for or to them. c.f. Clash's White Riot, Guns Of Brixton, cover of Police and Thieves, etc.
And don't forget the Wackies stable from NYC. Some of the best dub to come out of anywhere in the 80s - thick, sparse production values akin to the Black Ark in its heyday. Witness:
Interesting to note with Wackies the growth in stature of the 'Showcase' LP, which cobbles the vocal track and a dub version together side-by-side on one LP. Best examples naturally being:
Cockney Translation and Police Officer have to be heard to be believed. Amazing snapshots of life in 80s London, also famed for being allowed to utter the word 'ganja' on TOTP c. '85
The One-Riddim Album
Dub taken to its logical conclusion, from a Jamaican perspective at least. Note the birth of ragga thanks to this, which was based on a demo setting on a Casio keyboard and supposedly was a rip-off of Something Else by Eddie Cochran (believe that if you must!):
Cheers for this, you put some effort in there, I love the stuff I'm familiar with (Augustus Pablo, Joe Gibbs, Scientist and a few others), but it's always an area I've wanted to explore more and haven't known where to really approach it from.
Also reminded me I bought that Massive Attack about 5 years ago when I had more money, must be somewhere in my stash of CD's so I'm give that a listen if I can dig it out, been awhile. _________________
Covered virtually all of my favourites (particular shout-out to Mikey Dread's African Anthem for being the first dub album I heard and loved), with a couple of things in there for me to check out. Only glaring omissions I can see are Augustus Pablo's dub version of Hugh Mundell's (also excellent) Africa Must Be Free By 1983 and a couple of other Hudson albums (Playing It Cool; Nuh Skin Up Dub). Fantastic stuff all round. May add a small chapter on the dubbier end of dubstep at some point, but this is a superb introduction that will hopefully lead to increased interest in one of my favourite genres. Big up Jimbo. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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