King Tubby

KING TUBBY
100% OF DUB
SELECT CUTS/EFA/CAROLINE

Gunned down by an unknown assailant. That was the tragic 1989 ending for King Tubby, and it made absolutely no sense. Born Osbourne Ruddock, Tubby literally invented a sound made for peace. Rastafarians used his dub music as their soundtrack for religious meditations. For the rest of the world—including everyone from the Clash to Jurassic 5—the mysterious echoes, reverb and heavy bass of dub became rocket fuel for exploring new musical galaxies. That's the simple reason why Tubby's eternally fresh dub has aged so well. On 100% of Dub, some of Tubby's best compositions are gathered, jumping from accessible party tunes such as "Stalawatt Version" to the more contemplative "Lambs Bread Herb" to "Invasion," which could only be described as "futuristica." While Tubby was eventually overshadowed by reggae producer Lee Perry's surreal sonic jokes and freak-out dubs, Tubby's dub always remained creative and diverse. How could it not, though, with Tubby at the controls and the best musicians from dub's golden 1970s—Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Augustus Pablo—playing this astronaut sound originally crafted on equipment that could only charitably be called primitive? Ironic that music created on junk wound up lasting artistically longer than that decade's infamously flaccid pop tunes, all manufactured on pricey studio technology.