King Tubby

This set does a huge service to every fan of Jamaican dub music -- it puts back into print the first two dub albums from King Tubby, which is the equivalent of making the entire Rosetta stone available to lawyers and scholars. The two discs, The Roots of Dub and Dub from the Roots, are among the Ur-texts of the genre. Granted, most of the tracks have appeared on innumerable compilations, but to have them in their entirety is a gift indeed. Even by today's standards, these records from 1974 and 1975 are remarkable, not just for the use of delay and reverb, but for Tubby's ability to isolate and alter sounds -- listen to what he does to hi-hats and rhythm guitars throughout, for example -- with equipment he'd mostly built himself. If you consider dub to be the first remix style, as is generally accepted, then Tubby was one of the first genius remixers with his own specific style, evident in "Dub from the Roots" and "The Immortal Dub" in particular. With classy packaging (each album is given its own CD), about the only thing missing is a truly authoritative essay about Tubby and the dub on these albums. Instead, there's a relatively generic biography of the man. But you can't have everything, and as long as the music's intact, that's the most important part. With King Tubby, it's the sound that speaks. And while Bunny Lee might be listed as producer, there's no doubt that the genius here was Tubby. These are milestones, not just of reggae, but of music in general. ~ Chris Nickson, All Music Guide