A Dub Odyssey: A Week with 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown'

Reggae is so much more than Bob Marley. I don't mean anything snarky or antagonistic by this statement. Bob Marley is an one-of-kind artist who put the music of a third world country on the global stage to be enjoyed by millions, if not billions, of people. He is one of my favorite artists and has released some of my favorite albums of all time. His songs have become part of the musical tapestry of the world and he will endure in the minds of many people as a true legend and pioneer in music. He deserves it; Bob Marley completely and totally rules. But unfortunately for many people, reggae equals Bob Marley; full stop. And that is shame to me because some much more worthwhile and rich reggae music exists beyond the Marley-sphere. Bob Marley is a perfect and essential starting point in exploring reggae as a genre, but there is so much more out there as my own quest into reggae (and this week's record) has taught me. Whether its Peter Tosh or The Congos or Burning Spear or Culture or Toots & The Maytals or Black Uhuru, an embarrassment of riches exists within the genre and its always exciting when I discover another record that furthers my love of reggae.

'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' is one of the those reggae records that really dug its claws into me this past week and made me remember why I love reggae so much (The record is also known as 'King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown' due to a misprint on the original sleeve adding that extra 's'). It also served as a nice introduction to dub music which is a sub-genre within reggae that I have spent much time with thus far. What is dub, you ask? Well, dear readers, in the late 60s dub began simply as instrumental versions of reggae singles placed on the b-side of those singles. Shortly thereafter, producers began doing more to the tracks than simply just stripping out the vocals and reducing the track to drums and bass. They started adding effects to these b-side dubs like echoes, delays, and reverb to give each track its own unique feel apart from the single, as well as to put their own producer stamp on it. These quickly caught on in dance-halls throughout Jamaica because it allowed the DJ of the night to add his own vocals ("toasting" they called it) over the dub track creating an entirely new experience from night to night. This "toasting" is seen by many as one of the many precursors that lead to the formation of rap & hip-hop in the late 70s. By 1973, thanks to pioneers on the mixing board like Errol Thompson, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock, and others, dub was a fully realized sub-genre within reggae. Producers became musicians themselves and the sound board was treated as an instrument; no longer relegated to straight forward sound mixing. Dub quickly moved from being confined to b-sides to having full length LPs of pure dub tracks. 

King Tubby

Though credited to Augustus Pablo, 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' is a sort of meeting of the minds of a few big players in the reggae/dub world of the 70s; featuring all-star reggae players like Robbie Shakespeare on bass and Augustus Pablo himself who helped put the melodica on the map as a legitimate instrument in reggae music. Both Pablo and King Tubby handle producing/mixing duties on the LP and the results are simply magical; especially when you consider that this was made in 1976, completely analog and without any of the help that modern digital recording brings. It's a true testament to the record that the wonderfully foggy, nebulous, and bass-heavy production makes these songs seem effortless; as if they are simply popping into existence as I'm listening to them.

What struck me over and over again as I listened to the LP this week was just how well-crafted this record is and how well it works on multiple listening "levels". On the one hand, 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' is a perfect album to throw on your choice of player, kick back, and just let the music and sounds wash over you. But alternatively, it's also a record that really rewards active listening with subtle production effects and sounds that you may not catch otherwise; like when you discover the weird, scraping-echoey-something on Skanking Dub is actually an extremely muffled, delayed, and distorted guitar strum. This only adds to the depth and re-playability of the album for me. The record is a totally immersive experience from the first bass thump and drum kick of the opening track, Keep On Dubbing, to the expansive closer Satta Dub; and at 31 brief minutes the record never overstays its welcome. As vocals echo and melodica melodies fade in and out and hazy rhythms are built, Pablo and Tubby display track after track the transportive power of music to really put the listener in another mindset. Truly awesome stuff.

As with all records after multiple listens, favorites begin to form in my mind as well as tracks which don't quite gel with me. 'King Tubby Meets...' is a record with very few flaws and the flaws that I find are mainly that of  my own personal preference.  Tracks like 555 Street Dub and Brace's Tower Dub No. 2 are wonderful in and of themselves but when held up to the high standards that surround them, I feel like Augustus Pablo and King Tubby could have pushed the production just a bit more and given them that extra edge. They just seem a little plain or even tame when compared to the out-there dub stylings of the stand-outs on the LP and they keep 'King Tubby Meets...' from being a truly perfect record in my eyes.

In a record full of stand outs, a couple tracks stand head and shoulders above the rest for me. The first being Each One Dub, which is one of the few tracks of the record to incorporate vocals into its production. But here they are used as merely another effect, another coat of hazy paint on Pablo's and Tubby's dub tapestry. My favorite moment on the whole record comes when the vocals, in one of the few intelligible lines, sing, "Tomorrow might not be the same-say-say-say-say-say" and that last half of the word "same is drawn out and reverb-ed into the stratosphere. Oooh, its great. The title track, King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, is probably the best overall track on the record and probably the first place I would point someone interested in hearing first-hand what dub music is. It's an education all unto itself.

So if reggae is new territory to you, first, go out and purchase Bob Marley's 'Legend' and once you have worn that out, you could find few better albums to follow it up with than 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown'. Putting this record on and just letting my mind wander and relax has been an absolute joy and pleasure and I can only hope that a few of you will go out and seek the wonders that Augustus Pablo and King Tubby have brewed up for you. A truly, truly enchanting and out-of-this-world album that deserves its place in dub and reggae history along with a place on every music lover's shelf.

The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown, Each One Dub, Satta Dub
Let-Downs (but not really): 555 Street Dub, Brace's Tower Dub No. 2
Rating: 9.5/10

Up Next: We are heading into the present day this week with a 2013 release that I have been hearing nothing but positive buzz about: Chvrches (pronounced 'churches') debut album 'The Bones of What You Believe.' Time for some synthpop goodness!