BBC Review
...a compelling document that will amply reward even the casual dub archaeologist.
James Cowdery2004
Since acquiring the label in 2001, Sanctuary have mined the rich seam of the Trojan back catalogue. The lively reissue schedule continues apace with a round-up of King Tubby's mid-seventies dub remixes, many of which have never been released outside Jamaica.
Given Tubby's prodigious output any retrospectives claim to be definitive is a bit dubious, but these tracks most deifintely come from the golden period of dub.This collectionfeatures a host of greats including Augustus Pablo, Dillinger and Lee Perry's The Upsetters.
Tubby'sstory is remarkable and mirrors that of an extraordinary period in reggae music. From hi-fi repairman to dub pioneer, he tinkered and reconfigured his equipment and, in so doing, redefined the role of engineer-producer. His trademark touches are everywhere - these tracks zoom in and out of focus, as skittering hi-hats and loping bass-lines are picked out of a fug of reverb. They sound as vibrant today as they would have snaking out of the Tannoy speakers chained to the wall of Tubby's Waterhouse studio.
Naturally, these radical re-works bear scant relation to the originals, yet the quality of the playing still shines through. The ska horns on the Upsetter's classic "Freak Out Skank" remain irrepressibly joyous even after they've been through Tubby's dub mangler. Likewise, Dillinger's vocal floats disembodied over "Dub Organiser" to the accompaniment of skeletal brass - a fragmentary relic of the original.
This is a compelling document that will amply reward even the casual dub archaeologist.
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