In a Dub Explosion

by Chris NicksonIf you were going to make some dub music, the place to have it mixed was King Tubby's, with King Tubby and Scientist at the controls. And that's exactly what Jah Thomas did with these cuts originally recorded at Channel One with the superb Roots Radics (and the open spaces of dub show just how good and tight they were). The mixes are mostly Tubby, with "King Tubby's Moon Dub" a superb take on Thomas' "Show the Rhythm," and "King Tubby's Cloud Dub" a brilliant piece of imagination as he weaves vocal fragments in and out of the sound. Scientist isn't to be outdone, though, and his five cuts show him to actually be the equal of the master, whether on "Scientist's Earth Dub" (a dub of "Mama Say") or "Scientist's Thunder Dub," where the drums sound like thick thunder behind the melody. It's an excellent addition to the King Tubby canon, but more than that, it warrants re-appraisal of Jah Thomas as a producer, and confirms just how good the Roots Radics really are.