Dub Reggae
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The full-length album form of dub built directly on reggae riddims: roots-reggae rhythm tracks reworked into bass-and-drum-driven instrumentals where the engineer sculpts space with reverb, echo and dramatic drop-outs. One-drop and steppers drum patterns anchor a booming bassline while fragments of the original song, a horn line, a snatch of vocal, a guitar skank, surface and vanish in the effects. Deep, meditative and dancefloor-heavy, it is reggae turned inside out into pure sound and weight. The riddim's skeleton becomes the whole point.
History
As dub matured through the mid-1970s it became a standard album format, with producers issuing a vocal LP and a companion dub set cut from the same rhythms; King Tubby's "Dub from the Roots," Lee Perry's Upsetters productions, Keith Hudson's "Pick a Dub" and Burning Spear's "Garvey's Ghost," a full dub of "Marcus Garvey," exemplify the practice. Augustus Pablo's melodica-led rockers dubs and Scientist's Channel One-sourced sets extended it into the 1980s, and Jamaican and British labels kept the LP-length dub alive as a roots institution. Dub reggae became the contemplative, bass-forward counterpart to vocal roots, and the direct ancestor of every later dub subgenre.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Super Ape(1976) — The UpsettersSpotifyYouTube
- King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown(1976) — Augustus PabloSpotifyYouTube
- I and I Survive(1976) — Burning SpearSpotifyYouTube
- Blood on His Lips(1981) — ScientistSpotifyYouTube
- Dub from the Roots(1974) — King TubbySpotifyYouTube
- Pick a Dub(1974) — Keith HudsonSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Michael E. Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (2007)
- Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae (2004)
- David Katz, Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae (2003)