Dub

Dub on vinyl: bass, echo and the mixing desk as an instrument

In short: Dub was born in the Kingston studios in the late sixties and seventies: producers such as King Tubby, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Bunny Lee took reggae recordings apart, brought drums and bass to the front and let voices and instruments vanish into reverb and echo. Later dub shaped punk, electronic music and trip-hop. The Vinyl Room currently has 102 dub records.

What is dub?

Originally dub was the “version” on the B-side of a reggae single – the same rhythm, remixed. Here Bunny Lee with “Creation Of Dub”, Gregory Isaacs with “Slum In Dub” and Lee Perry with “Disco Devil” show the Jamaican roots.

Then dub went out into the world: Serge Gainsbourg recorded “Aux Armes Et Cætera” in Kingston, The Clash and Primal Scream brought the sound into rock, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, The Orb, Muslimgauze and Modeselektor into electronic music. On “Radiodread” the Easy Star All-Stars recreated Radiohead’s “OK Computer” as reggae and dub.

What to look for

Seventies Jamaican dub albums exist as original pressings and later reissues. What you get is noted with each copy.

From our stock

First pressings

New in

→ Muslimgauze · The Orb · Roots reggae · Reggae on vinyl · Electronic on vinyl · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained

FAQ

What is dub? Reggae remixed in the studio: drums and bass to the fore, lots of reverb and echo.

Who shaped dub? Jamaican producers such as King Tubby, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Bunny Lee.

What is a “version”? The B-side of a reggae single with the same rhythm and little or no vocal – the origin of dub.

What influence did dub have? It shaped punk, electronic music and trip-hop – here, for example, The Clash, The Orb and Muslimgauze.