I was listening to the radio while on holiday last week (through the telly no less) and the disc jockey played Bag A Wire Dub by King Tubby. It was one of those real 'stop what you're doing and just listen' moments. King Tubby's dub is such strange music and appears to have so little in common with anything that came before it- this one has some chanting about Marcus Garvey, deep bass bubbling up and down, horns coming and going, lots of echo, rim shots. Fluid and free form from Jamaica in 1976. Otherworldly.
Bag A Wire Dub
It might be worth pointing out that the disc jockey who played it was Huey (formerly of Fun Loving Criminals) who often comes across as a bit of a knob but, fair play to him, he played some good tunes that particular afternoon.
I love King Tubby. His dub seems so much more dubby than anybody elses. Growing up in a block of flats with a dealer upstairs who played dub really loudly all the time none of it sounds quite like that except Tubby. Maybe the dealer was playing nothing but him?
ReplyDeleteThis sort of thing always reminds me of my school youth center. The West Indian kids would take over the stereo (after deriding that Bob Marley and his "white man's music") and play really heavy dub 12" singles.
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