Dub from the Roots

Though primitive instrumental remixes had been appearing on the flipsides of Jamaican 45s since at least 1967, the production style known as dub didn’t come into full flower until the early ‘70s, when the very first full-length dub albums started to appear in small numbers from producers like Lee Perry, Herman “Chin” Loy, and King Tubby. Tubby’s early productions, drenched in echo and thunderous bass, did much to help define the characteristic sound of this new music. His LP *Dub from the Roots*, which appeared on the Total Sounds label in 1974, stands with equally canonical releases—like Lee Perry’s *Blackboard Jungle Dub* and Keith Hudson’s *Pick a Dub*—as a startlingly innovative example of this radically experimental new production style. This set features Tubby tackling 14 unimpeachable rhythms from producer Bunny Lee and his house band The Aggrovators. Using delay, reverb, and a grab bag of disorienting studio effects, Tubby imbues these sturdy reggae instrumentals with a sense of otherworldly grandeur that was wholly unique at the time of its release—and should prove equally astounding to contemporary listeners.

Though it's a topic of great debate among reggae enthusiasts as to who actually invented the concept and subsequent genre of dub, it's inarguable that King Tubby, if not the creator of dub, is at the very least one of its most valuable innovators.