A GIBBS EYE VIEW ON THE WORLD OF DUB

A Small Piece from Springlines Founder Sir Dread Gibsy!!

…."Reggae’s answer to psychedelia ,well that’s how I’ve always thought of it ,discovering dub music for the first time back in ’81/’82 was a joy ,collecting all those ‘dub me crazy’ LPs
Buying everything by Scientist and Jammy, then belatedly discovering the king of them all; King Tubby, every Friday after work going to the record shop and buying everything in sight that was dub and it continued up to ’87. I found the dub sound via my interest in instrumentals or versions as they’re called, normally B sides of vinyl singles, the first being “Double Barrel” and “Liquidator” (both A sides) then via B sides of 2 tone singles such as The Selecter and ‘The Buisness’ by Madness..all these grabbed my ears and I embarked on a search for more, I wanted more from an instrumental, more excitement…which led to dub.
Now not all dub is great, no sah, not all music is great, I would say that it’s very rare to come across an LP where every single song is a stomper, doesn’t exist imo, everyone’s ears are different, but when you came across a stomper of a dub, then, that got played, and played..
And they still do nearly 30 years on….I remember during my teens listening time and time again through headphones at every little tweak and effect that was going on, trying to suss out how they managed it all, completely turning a well known tune upside down and in some
cases changing the vibe so much that it was difficult to actually imagine how the original sounded, they became these dubs original in their own right, they amazed and still do.
Today the dub sound continues in various forms, genres and fusions with underground artist’s such as JAHNO – EL BIB – JACIN – YABASS – The MANOR – EARLYWORM and a host of Others who have taken a slice of their favourite dub era or producer and now themselves create and recreate those sounds using their own unique way of mixing to identify their inspirations and by and large they get it spot on.
It’s now though that a mention must be made of the late great Mikey Dread, Jamaican radio pioneer and dub controller who alongside Lee ‘scratch’ Perry and King Tubby made some truly exciting and commercially viable dub entertainment and by also operating his DATC radio show for a few years gave many of these dub pioneers a wider audience via radio play.
The list of dub pioneers and second wave dub controllers is immense but for me I grew up with the sounds of Scientist, Prince Jammy, King Tubby, Mad Professor, and Lee Perry. It’s these Guys that I owe a gratitude to for giving me hundreds of musical hours of wonderment back in the early eighties..it’s still my favourite reggae genre , cheers".