Roots Dub
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Dub built from roots-reggae riddims and steeped in Rastafari consciousness: deep, meditative instrumentals over one-drop and Nyabinghi-tinged rhythms, with the spiritual weight of the original roots songs echoing through fragments of chanted vocal and mournful horn. Basslines are heavy and slow, the reverb cathedral-sized, the mood ceremonial and contemplative. It is the dub companion to militant, Garvey-and-Jah roots reggae, meditation music for the sound-system faithful. The riddims carry the message even when the words are stripped away.
History
Roots dub crystallised as producers dubbed the roots-reggae output of the mid-1970s: Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey rhythms became "Garvey's Ghost" (1976), Augustus Pablo's rockers riddims yielded "King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown," and King Tubby and Keith Hudson mined the deep Rasta catalogue on sets like "Dub from the Roots" and "Pick a Dub." The idiom flourished at Channel One and King Tubby's, spread to British sound systems and On-U Sound, and provided the template for later UK steppers and dub-poetry backing. Roots dub remains the spiritual, message-bearing heart of the dub tradition.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- I and I Survive(1976) — Burning SpearSpotifyYouTube
- Black Wa-Da-Da(1976) — Burning SpearSpotifyYouTube
- King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown(1976) — Augustus PabloSpotifyYouTube
- Dread Lion(1976) — The UpsettersSpotifyYouTube
- African Roots(1974) — King TubbySpotifyYouTube
- Pick a Dub(1974) — Keith HudsonSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Michael E. Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (2007)
- Lloyd Bradley, Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King (2000)
- David Katz, Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae (2003)