Okay, let’s get this straight before we begin - I hate reggae.

I hate its laziness, its head nodding sameness, and the constant songs about religion and marijuana. But I love dub, maybe it’s the ditching of the feeble vocals and half-arsed guitar lines and the focus on bass and drums and effects; of taking the whole thing and soaking it in reverb and echo and creating a fantastic, substantial headiness. Somehow, it works.

Dub culture emerged in Jamaica in the late '60s as engineers took advantage of the lack of copyright laws and started creating remixes for the b-sides of reggae 45s. These were largely homemade recordings with the analogue tape manipulated using delay and echo and other electronic effects. Legend has it that King Tubby, whilst doing one of these remixes, accidentally left off the vocals and dub was born.

These mixes became the soundtracks to Jamaican dances, played from epic sound systems.

Largely credited with being the originator of dub music, King Tubby’s presence is felt large on this compilation, with 8 of the 20 tracks bearing his name directly and having connections to many of the others. His contemporaries Errol T and Sylvan Morris are also represented.

The sound on this compilation is largely sweet and melodic, with the more progressive adventurous side of dub absent, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Mad Professor being the most glaring omissions. Hopefully this will be remedied in a volume 2 with a full on Dubwize Storm.

A lot of the tracks seem incomplete and empty somehow with a lot ending abruptly at the three minute mark as they’ve only just found their groove, but that is coming from a '90s viewpoint where a lot of acts such as The Orb, Underworld, On-U Sound, and even rock-pop tracks such as Primal Scream’s Dub Symphony stretched out the dub sound to blissful lengths and filled it with a depth only hinted at here.

Two modern acts, Da Grynch and Alborosie are both represented with two tracks a piece but they sadly don’t deliver when compared to the lo-fi authenticity of the originals and are strange additions.

It would have been interesting to include a chronological companion disk charting the progression of the early dub sound here, through jungle/drum and bass to today’s dubstep and beyond.

There is certainly a stoned out dance ability to the sound here and it begs to be cranked out loud with the bass up full. For those wanting a compilation of dub to enjoy on the patio while the barbecue sizzles away, this offers the perfect warm weather accompaniment. It’s a good introduction to the history of classic dub whilst keeping a cohesive sound throughout.

7

Richard Arthur Bennett