New Music Influenced By Dub

Emika – Double Edged Sword (Pinch mix)

Basic Chanel - e2e4 Basic Reshape

Shackleton - Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos mix)

Good Examples of Dub

King Tubby – A Heavy Dub

King Tubby – Roots of Dub

King Tubby – Soundboy Massacre

King Tubby – Meets The Rockers Uptown 

Jacob Miller - Baby, I Love You So (original version of Meets The Rockers Uptown)

Dub Revolution: The Story of Jamaican Dub Reggae and Its Legacy.

Written by John Bush

link here

Useful Quotes

"The great sound system engineers of Jamaica in the late 1960s and early 1970s pioneered theinstrumental remix and were the first to make the style popular. Using only primitive recording and mixing equipment, the mixing engineer took a lead role in defining the sound of the recording, using the mixing board as his instrument.” (Bush)

“Ruddy played a key role in the initial development of dub, as he was the first to make a public performance of what would become known as version - the instrumental mix of a song without the vocals.” (Bush)

“Scratch later built his own studio, the legendary Black Ark, in 1974 in the Kingston suburb of Washington Gardens. Under Perry’s guidance, the Black Ark became known for its signature sound that was quite different from the other studios. From 1974 to 1979, the Black Ark was a center of creativity in reggae music, with Scratch continuing to experiment in version and dub styles. The Black Ark sound was characteristically heavy yet uplifting at the same time.” (Bush)

The development of the genre dub took place when the engineer would take an instrumental version of a track to the next level, using the effects such as echo, reverb and delay to change the whole sound and texture of the riddim. “This was the turning point in which dub emerged as a unique and characteristic branch of music itself, and can be credited almost entirely to the contributions of a mixing engineer known as King Tubby.” (Bush)

Tubby who was experienced in electronics through his background in TV repairs customised his mixing desk at his studio in the ghetto district Waterhouse in Kingston, adding faders which allowed him to add or subtract the various elements of the tracks smoothly. He also created his own effects units by modifying tape machines to create delays and hitting spring reverb units which created the characteristic thunderclap sound used in dub. “Tubby’s innovations behind the mixing board introduced to Jamaica the idea of the mixing engineer playing a creative role in the music.” (Bush)

Prince Jammy and Scientist who were trained by Tubby at his studio were the next generation of dub engineers. “Prince Jammy, otherwise named Lloyd James, would eventually go on to become one of the most successful producers during the dancehall era that Jamaica was soon to enter.... Using Tubby’s equipment, Jammy’s dubs would have the characteristic sound of Tubby’s studio, but in a style of his own. Jammy’s dubs were often more stripped down than Tubby’s, emphasizing the groove of the drum and bass, or the riddim.” (Bush)

The Representation of Space in Audio and Audiovisual Works. Bates (2007)

ARP Conference Paper

link here

This paper discusses the construction of space with sound and the arrangement of elements within that space, and compares the use of space in audio recording and film sound.

“For example, voices are treated differently in the two media, albeit they cross-pollinate. A reverberant voice in the iconic Chess or Sun rock ‘n’ roll music style is not generally employed in cinema and would not be read the same way. Reverberant voices tend to be used in film voiceovers to represent inner thoughts or might be used to evoke an eerie, uncanny or disembodied threat, or, if synchronised to picture, perhaps a visiting alien or malevolent spirit rather than the teenage angst of the spirited outsider or their chorus.” (Bates 2007 pg.1)

“In the ancient world there were deep linkages between reverberant space and the sacred or magical.” (Bates 2007 pg.2)

“And so, in those early recordings, as Peter Doyle argues, the recordings “came imbued with their own spatial codes; they constructed their own proscenium arch” (Doyle 2005:50) with the various placements of instruments and the content of the music composition constructed to superimpose fictional “sound pictures” onto the playback space- or at least that was the promise.” (Bates 2007 pg.4)

Natural audiotopias: The construction of sonic space in dub reggae. John Baker (2009)

ABSTRACT 

Dub reggae is widely regarded as an early form of the remix. Dub artists modify 
previously recorded reggae songs by manipulating a song’s individual tracks with a 
mixing board and layering them in aural effects such as reverb and echo. These effects 
are fundamentally spatial in quality, giving the listener an impression of vast open space. 
This paper is an analysis of the techniques utilized in dub’s construction of sonic space as 
well as an investigation of the cultural meaning of those spaces. My analysis utilizes 
Josh Kun’s theories about “audiotopias” (temporary aural spaces created through music) 
in order to study how sonic spaces create “new maps” that allow an individual to analyze 
their current social predicament. These “new maps,” therefore, engender a “remapping” 
of reality, a reconstitutive process that parallels dub’s emphasis on modification and 
alteration. This paper also argues that dub’s audiotopias are implicitly natural, although 
they are constructed through modern recording technologies such as the echo chamber 
and the reverb unit. A final chapter applies these analytical techniques to one of dub’s 
most popular musical offspring, hip hop.1 

Written by John Baker

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Department of American Studies. College of Arts and Sciences. University of South Florida.

link here


Quote and annotations;

“In order to study how sonic spaces create “new maps” that allow an individual to analyze their current social predicament. These “new maps,” therefore, engender a “remapping” of reality, a reconstitutive process that parallels dub’s emphasis on modification and alteration.” (Baker 2009 pg.ii)

"In 1976, Melody Maker published an article by music critic Richard Williams entitled “The Sound of Surprise.” Williams’ essay was a short but prescient description of the still-shockingly-new phenomenon of dub reggae. Williams prophetically noted that “there are possibilities inherent in this aberrant form which could perhaps resonate throughout other musics in the years to come” (145). (Williams 1976 quoted in Baker 2009 pg.5). 

This statement demonstrates that from the beginnings of early dub an interest was taken in its innovative production techniques and how these techniques could possibly influence future music. EDM is a good example of a genre that has taken influences from dub's use of space and spatial effects and used it to create new sonic spaces, soundscapes or audiotopias. 

Baker (2009 pg.27) describes Tubby's reverb technique in the following way "Tubby’s percussive use of reverb “widens” the track, giving the listener an impression of deep canyons and limitless plains."

"Doyle’s assertion that natural reverberant spaces can possess sacred qualities has particular implications for Jamaica’s Rastafarians, whose belief in the “ital” (natural) stresses humanity’s spiritual connection to the earth." (Baker 2009 pg.23).

Dub artists with a strong connection to the Rastafarian religion were looking to create this connection with “the other” or to create something new and unheard before which could give them the edge in a "sound clash" between two competing sound systems.

Baker (2009) uses “Josh Kun’s theories about “audiotopias” (temporary aural spaces created through music)” to describe dub’s soundscapes created with the use of echo and reverb effects. “In order to study how sonic spaces create “new maps” that allow an individual to analyze their current social predicament. These “new maps,” therefore, engender a “remapping” of reality, a reconstitutive process that parallels dub’s emphasis on modification and alteration.” (Baker 2009 pg.ii). The use of reverberation and delay effects along with creative mixing and soundstage techniques combined an extra spatial dimension creating strange dub soundscapes that had not been heard before and with an emphasis on the rhythm section, this has become the characteristic dub sound. "Dub artists utilized reverb to construct sonic spaces that sounded as if they were free of human impediment and therefore full of possibility." Baker (2009 pg.26).

Baker then goes on to describe how dub’s audiotopias can be described as natural which is problematic as these alternate spaces which are created, serve to remove the listener from the everyday, therefore cannot be described as natural. Also Baker contradicts himself with this statement by talking about giving the listener an impression of deep canyons and limitless plains. The spaces created through the creative use of effects in dub were never meant to be natural, with the help of the previously mentioned effects Dub artists were able to create impossible soundscapes or audiotopia’s which do not relate to any real world acoustic spaces.

"Dub’s rhythmic decentring,"..."can be read as simply another example of the genre’s emphasis on fragmentation. Dub’s echoic alternate rhythms are never fully established, after all. They do not overtake the rhythmic foreground but instead remain within the song’s defining background, influencing the listener’s awareness of sonic space. They are incomplete, offering only a hint at the possibilities offered by the audiotopia." (Baker 2009 pg.41).