Monday 16 August 2010

King Tubby and The Dub Rebelution


King Tubby


I started off as a Hip Hop DJ and through Hip Hop I discovered many other genres of music as a teenager. One of these was Reggae and all its sub-genres from Dancehall to Ragga, Roots and Lovers Rock. But it was through Dub that I wandered into the world of the Sound System.

Dub took me to another place and it was the sounds of the late great King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock 1941-1989) that sent me to musical heaven. Tubby is the Dub Master. Skilled in electronic repairs he built his own Sound System "King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi" in the early Sixties and started playing at dances in Kingston. With the legendary U-Roy controlling the mic and Tubby droppin' special after special at the control tower, Hometown Hi-Fi became one of the most popular sounds in Jamaica. Through the success of the Sound System he set up his own studio and developed a new style of mixing the instrumental "the version".

Using a 4 track mixing desk he brings the vocal's of the original song in and out adding some effects with an echo chamber and turn "the version" into "the dub". Tubby is hailed as the man who invented dub, although some claim he wasn't the first. Whether he did or didnt doesn't matter, it was the way Tubby mixed down the songs that made him the King. The Dub Conqueror and the Originator of the Remix.


Dub Echoes Documentary King Tubby


After my first experience of listening to King Tubby I was hooked! The music was 20 years old but sounded so unique I was amazed. I was rinsing out a couple old homemade compilations on tape everywhere I went . At that time, during through the night smoking sessions Hip Hop and Dancehall were replaced with Dub as the music of choice and in particular King Tubby. I went out and bought all the Tubby's vinyl I could get my hands on and begun my Degree In Dub Knowledge.

That was the Summer of Dub and by the middle of Autumn I decided that it was time to get myself schooled in the ways of the dubwise selector, to become a champion selector. So I jumped in the car and headed out into the cold North London night to a popular weekly Roots and Culture event, The Dub Club. Jah Youth Sound were playing in a Dubwise style and that was the start of my Dub Rebelution.


Linval Thompson Whip Dem King Tubby


http://www.discogs.com/artist/King+Tubby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Tubby

No comments:

Post a Comment