The dub album reached its international pinnacle of popularity during the late 1970s, when Joe Gibbs and the Professionals’ African Dub Chapter 3 (mixed by Errol Thompson) became the rage amongst reefer-smoking college students in Britain for its ringing doorbells, banging gongs and flushing toilets. The championing of reggae and dub by John Lydon, the Clash and their deejay pal Don Letts led to dub techniques being adopted by punk and post-punk acts such as the Ruts, the Slits, Generation X and Killing Joke. Initially, ‘foreign’ dub was made by transplanted Jamaican sound system operators such as Lloyd ‘Bullwackie’ Barnes in New York, plus Ken ‘Fatman’ Gordon and Jah Shaka in London.
Then came a series of highly inspired British dub albums from Guyanese immigrant Neil ‘Mad Professor’ Fraser, and Barbados-born Dennis Bovell, along with Adrian Sherwood, the white English reggae devotee who had distributed Jamaican imports and worked with Prince Fari, prior to the formation of his On-U Sound label, even being responsible for the ground-breaking Cry Tuff Dub Encounter series with Fari. “I did my first-ever dubs when I was like 18 or 19, when I did Creation Rebel, which evolved into a band”, Sherwood recalls. “Then I started working with Fari, making the dub stuff a little more interesting, because I was aware there was a big demand for dub amongst black and white sound system fans. A lot of the white smoky bears were smoking spliffs listening to dub music.” Dub was widening its audience, largely through the efforts of these pioneering figures, its appeal making perfect sense in London’s multicultural environment. Brian Eno caught its influence as well, noting that the Jamaica producers treated the mixing desk as an instrument, and drawing directly on their techniques for his ‘ambient’ releases.
Back home in Jamaica, as the dancehall style took over during the early 1980s, it seemed dub’s death knell was sounded by ‘Sleng Teng,’ Jamaica’s first totally computerised hit. Prince Jammy actually cut an album called Computerised Dub in 1986, yet the digital format was detrimental, being less conducive to dub’s mixing peculiarities than the sound of live instruments captured on analogue equipment. But with such strong demand for dub overseas, and with the cost of home recording gear reducing, it was only natural that a new legion of international mixers would spring up abroad, creating bedroom recording spaces of their own.
The Disciples, two white English dub fans making largely digital dub in a suburban bedroom, began crafting their own dubs in the late 1980s, after being inspired by the religious energy at Shaka dances. Alpha and Omega and the Bush Chemists began gaining currency in the 1990s, along with techno-based practitioners such as Zion Train and Dreadzone. Following on from Adrian Sherwood’s experiments with Creation Rebel, dub music began to be made overseas that was not related to a previously-issued vocal recording, changing the purpose, as well as the format, of dub in the process.
Nevertheless, its influence continued gathering steam, as shown when Massive Attack fed directly on the classical Jamaican dub style, roping in Mad Professor for the dub recasting of their Protection album. The Beastie Boys had referenced Lee Perry’s Revolution Dub on their sample-heavy Paul’s Boutique album, and brought further kudos to dub by collaborating with the man on Hello Nasty. The Prodigy transmuted Max Romeo’s Perry-produced ‘Chase The Devil’ for their massive ‘Out Of Space,’ and by the time Kanye West sampled the same tune for Jay Z’s Black Album, it was entirely clear that dub was fully entrenched in the broader popular culture of the western world.
Dubbing Is A Must Playlist
Bob Marley & The Wailers – ‘Put It On’
Lee Perry & The Soulettes – ‘Run and Squeeze’
Bob Marley & The Wailers – ‘Rudie’
Roy Richards – ‘Green Collie’
The Upsetters – ‘Return of Django’
Glen Brown – ‘Merry Up’
Herman Chin-Loy – Aquarius Dub Side 1
Joe Gibbs & The Professionals – ‘Angolian Chant’
Prince Far I – Cry Tough Dub Encounter Chapter 1
For more information on dub’s evolution, check David Katz’s book Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, published by Jawbone.
