To me to you
Dub has been present in popular music since its early 70’s Jamaican reggae roots, also filtering into dance music in later decades, but never widely acknowledged for what it is: a truly groundbreaking conceptual art form equal in significance to other giant aesthetic leaps such as Cubism or jazz. It abstracts the essence of music and allows its creator to redefine and reshape boundaries for what might otherwise be a predictable form of expression. – Francois Kevorkian
Before there was dubstep – there was dub. Development of soundsystem culture took the pioneering Jamaican sound of Lee Perry and Errol Thompson and threw it into the social mix of early 1970s UK dance halls. A hallmark of dub music is the massively low-pitched bass and swirling sound effects which could be augmented live by DJs. The multi-layered sounds with echo and variation in volume create soundscapes, drawing attention to shape and depth, the space between the sounds.
Soundsystem design was competitive, with different crews building bigger, badder and deeper systems in order to outdo one another. One of the original protagonists in the field, Jah Tubbys, is still alive and well today. You know when a company is producing amplifiers with names such as the “Annihilator MegaAmp” – they mean business. Have a look over at their site. For the full range of amps and effects units.
Jahfx
Jah Warrior has a list of the “Top Ten Baddest Roots Dubplates”. It has audio samples of old 7″s which would rock nights such as Dub Club in Tufnell Park and Aba Shanti at the Blue Note. The battering-ram basslines would become trademarks of the roots sound in the late 70′s. “I began collecting records, ones which cost little then but have since come to be worth a small fortune. Dances were different in those days. They were more dread, with very few outsiders, unlike the wide audience which roots dances attract now. Most of the sounds were much heavier – you’d be literally gasping for breath because the bass put so much pressure on your chest.” – Steve Mosco.
Roots Rock Reggae return to heal our nation, cut out the negative rap vibration, bring again the Jah Sensation. Jah Rastafari!
Tags: Audio, Dub, Francois Kevorkian, Jah, Jah Tubbys, Roots
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