The sound of dubs mixed by King Tubby (Osbourne Ruddock) in Jamaica in the early to mid-1970s has long been legendary in reggae. Those who explore the origins of electronic dance music or hip-hop will inevitably encounter this formidable legacy. Tubby is also a household name among recording engineers across genres, as his approach to mixing was groundbreaking—seeing the vocal mix of a song as just the beginning of sonic possibilities, not the final product.
“Nobody had ever heard remixing done to the extent that dub was deconstructing these vocals,” explains musicologist and Blood & Fire A&R man Steve Barrow. “That was Tubby’s genius. In a sense, King Tubby gave the world new ears to listen to music.”
From 1968-1975, Ruddock ruled one of the most revered soundsystems in Jamaica, Tubby’s Home Town Hi-Fi out of Waterhouse. It was sidelined by violence in 1975, the same year Dub From The Roots and The Roots of Dub were released. Tubby’s soundsystem became the most celebrated in the history of Jamaican music due to its power (heard for miles), sonic quality (purportedly crystal clear), and exclusive music (much of which was produced by Bunny Lee), mixed and cut to acetate (i.e., dubplate) by the exacting owner himself. Add to that the finest emcees of Kingston to liven up the dances, and Tubby’s Home Town Hi-Fi was the complete package.
Out of context, these five-decade-old LPs might sound minimalist today, but at the time of their release, they embodied the essence of soundsystem music that dominated Jamaican dancehalls. Emcees like U Roy, I Roy, Big Youth, Jah Stitch, Prince Jazzbo, and a new generation honed their craft with these riddims in the live dance setting. The mixes on these records were some of the most sonically progressive coming out of Jamaica at the time, far surpassing the simple instrumental versions and basic processing of earlier dub albums.
The predominant rhythmic style of reggae in 1973-1974 was flying cymbals or fliers, epitomized by Johnny Clarke’s hit for Bunny Lee “None Shall Escape The Judgment.” According to Bunny Lee biographer Noel Hawkes, “Striker asked Soul Syndicate drummer Carlton ‘Santa’ Davis to build a new style of rhythm: ‘Santa, I want something that sounds like it’s come from outer space!’”—based on the Philadelphia disco sound of an open and closed hi-hat.
These two albums are quintessential fliers dub albums. Mixed from material voiced for Lee’s now-iconic stable of artists, The Roots of Dub features riddims first touched by Cornel Campbell, Johnny Clarke, and Linval Thompson, with many compositions originating from Studio One, Treasure Isle, or High Note. Dub From The Roots draws on tracks voiced by John Holt, Johnny Clarke, Jackie Edwards, and Horace Andy, among others.
Largely instrumental, the voices are almost entirely submerged in a sea of phasing, high-pass filtering, echo, and reverb—the core elements of dub effects. These mixes also set the standard for isolating and recombining the four main channels of the mix (rhythm, drums, bass, horns, and vocals), creating new sonic possibilities.
Prominent in these dubs is the loping bass of Familyman Barrett, Fully Fullwood, and a young Robbie Shakespeare. These mixes hint at the impact the music would have had when unleashed through Tubby’s Home Town Hi-Fi or the hundreds of smaller sounds proliferating at the time.
Ruddock’s career was tragically cut short when he was murdered in 1989 at the age of 48, just as he was entering a new creative phase in the digital era. His untimely death led to a critical reassessment of his work in the 1990s, elevating him to First Citizen status in the history of soundsystem culture, now globally recognized as a key influence in popular music.
—Written By Carter Van Pelt
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