DUB
Reggae pulled apart and rebuilt with bass, space, echo and the mixing desk itself.
Dub is two things at once: a Jamaican music and a way of working in the studio. Around 1968–72, engineers cutting instrumental B-sides — “versions” — began treating the mixing desk as an instrument: dropping voices in and out, flooding drums with reverb, carving space with EQ and echo. King Tubby, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Errol Thompson made silence itself musical; Scientist carried that craft forward. As a music, dub gave us some of reggae’s deepest records. As a way of working, it traveled further than any one style: through UK sound systems into UK dub and steppers, and into jungle, drum & bass, dubstep and remix culture — teachers, not parents of those musics.
Dates for the first fully realized dub mixes are usually given as a range (c. 1968–72), not a single night.
Find DUB among the roots
See how they stand with the music around them.
Hear this era in the Riddim Deck →