Dub me ...baby one more time
Augustus Pablo - King Tubbys meets Rockers Uptown (1972-75)
King Tubby And Friends - Dub Gone Crazy: The Evolution of Dub at King Tubby's 1975-1979
King Tubby was the key figure in the development of Jamaican dub, and these compilations are important - and, in one case at least, fantastic - documents of the early years of this form of reggae music.
The sleeve notes to Dub Gone Crazy provide a helpful historical overview, and so forgive me if I repeat some of them here. Before dub, there were 'versions', basically the rhythm tracks of reggae tunes played at dancehalls in Kingston and Spanish Town over huge sound systems. It is thought that the dub technique - dropping vocals or instruments in and out of a track as it is mixed - was invented accidentally by Rudolph 'Ruddy' Redwood, when cutting a version at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Studio for his sound system. The results went down a storm when played by Ruddy on his system, which is where Tubby first heard them. A dub is essentially a remix, therefore, and in the hands of a skillful engineer it became an art form, and an incredibly popular one.
Tubby soon established his own studio in the Waterhouse district of Kingston - known as "King Tubby's" - and also his supremacy in the dub technique. He constructed specially-customised equipment with sliders that enabled him to fade in parts of the track smoothly, add echo and huge reverb, and so on.
From the 1970s on, Tubby cut dubs for all the top sound systems and producers. For instance, Tubby mixed Lee Perry's Blackboard Jungle Dub (1973), widely considered the first proper dub LP (Note: the Lee Perry Dub Triptych double CD issued last year by Trojan, and which includes Blackboard Jungle, is a must-own).
Meanwhile, Augustus Pablo, a scion of the more "uptown" Swaby family, aged just 19, had begun producing himself and already knew the sound he was seeking: a minor chord-based music with a "Far East" feel. This is what came to fruition on King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown. Recording of the music that was to eventually form LP began in 1972 at Randy's Studio 17, engineered by Errol "ET" Thompson (a fierce rival of Tubby's in the early days of dub!). Pablo then took the tapes to King Tubby's studio for mixing.
Pablo initially released instrumental, DJ and vocal cuts as 7-inch 45s on his Hot Stuff, Rockers and Pablo International labels, between '72 and '75, but as the vogue for dub albums exploded in 1976, Pablo compiled twelve of his b-side dubs to make this set.
All of the music on Dub Gone Crazy was written and produced by Bunny Lee, Tubby's foremost client. The featured vocalists were Lee-associated artists such as Johnnie Clarke. By the mid 70s, however, Tubby was training other engineers in how to create dubs in the 'King Tubby's' studio style. So four different engineers in fact feature on this compilation, including Prince Jammy and Scientist, as well as Tubby. It is fascinating to hear on this compilation how dub moved forward between '75 and '79. On the opening track, "The Champion Version", Tubby doesn't do much more than drop the instruments in and out and add a bit of echo. But the later recordings are superbly crafted dubs: the closer, "Dub Fi Gwan", is an astonishingly subtle piece of ambient music.
As for ...meets Rockers Uptown, I'd say Pablo's choices as producer make this one of the more musical of the very early dub sets; his distinctive piano and melodica playing also help in this respect. While overall I can't get too excited by the LP, tracks such as "Each One Dub" and "Braces Tower Dub" are certainly examples of King Tubby at his best.
King Tubby And Friends - Dub Gone Crazy: The Evolution of Dub at King Tubby's 1975-1979
King Tubby was the key figure in the development of Jamaican dub, and these compilations are important - and, in one case at least, fantastic - documents of the early years of this form of reggae music.
The sleeve notes to Dub Gone Crazy provide a helpful historical overview, and so forgive me if I repeat some of them here. Before dub, there were 'versions', basically the rhythm tracks of reggae tunes played at dancehalls in Kingston and Spanish Town over huge sound systems. It is thought that the dub technique - dropping vocals or instruments in and out of a track as it is mixed - was invented accidentally by Rudolph 'Ruddy' Redwood, when cutting a version at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Studio for his sound system. The results went down a storm when played by Ruddy on his system, which is where Tubby first heard them. A dub is essentially a remix, therefore, and in the hands of a skillful engineer it became an art form, and an incredibly popular one.
Tubby soon established his own studio in the Waterhouse district of Kingston - known as "King Tubby's" - and also his supremacy in the dub technique. He constructed specially-customised equipment with sliders that enabled him to fade in parts of the track smoothly, add echo and huge reverb, and so on.
From the 1970s on, Tubby cut dubs for all the top sound systems and producers. For instance, Tubby mixed Lee Perry's Blackboard Jungle Dub (1973), widely considered the first proper dub LP (Note: the Lee Perry Dub Triptych double CD issued last year by Trojan, and which includes Blackboard Jungle, is a must-own).
Meanwhile, Augustus Pablo, a scion of the more "uptown" Swaby family, aged just 19, had begun producing himself and already knew the sound he was seeking: a minor chord-based music with a "Far East" feel. This is what came to fruition on King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown. Recording of the music that was to eventually form LP began in 1972 at Randy's Studio 17, engineered by Errol "ET" Thompson (a fierce rival of Tubby's in the early days of dub!). Pablo then took the tapes to King Tubby's studio for mixing.
Pablo initially released instrumental, DJ and vocal cuts as 7-inch 45s on his Hot Stuff, Rockers and Pablo International labels, between '72 and '75, but as the vogue for dub albums exploded in 1976, Pablo compiled twelve of his b-side dubs to make this set.
All of the music on Dub Gone Crazy was written and produced by Bunny Lee, Tubby's foremost client. The featured vocalists were Lee-associated artists such as Johnnie Clarke. By the mid 70s, however, Tubby was training other engineers in how to create dubs in the 'King Tubby's' studio style. So four different engineers in fact feature on this compilation, including Prince Jammy and Scientist, as well as Tubby. It is fascinating to hear on this compilation how dub moved forward between '75 and '79. On the opening track, "The Champion Version", Tubby doesn't do much more than drop the instruments in and out and add a bit of echo. But the later recordings are superbly crafted dubs: the closer, "Dub Fi Gwan", is an astonishingly subtle piece of ambient music.
As for ...meets Rockers Uptown, I'd say Pablo's choices as producer make this one of the more musical of the very early dub sets; his distinctive piano and melodica playing also help in this respect. While overall I can't get too excited by the LP, tracks such as "Each One Dub" and "Braces Tower Dub" are certainly examples of King Tubby at his best.