King Tubby/Roots Radics: Dangerous Dub [GREENSLEEVES]

Why you'll love it

This Greensleeves Dub Master reissue brings back an album first issued in 1981. Jah Screw and Ranking Joe produced, the Roots Radics laid the rhythms at Channel One, and King Tubby took them apart at the mixing desk.

This edition

• Greensleeves Dub Master series

About the album

King Tubby started out repairing radios and building amplifiers for Kingston's sound systems, and he never stopped treating the mixing desk as an instrument. By the early 1980s the Roots Radics were among the busiest session bands in Jamaica, so pairing them with the man often credited with inventing the remix was a fairly safe bet.

It was a Time One production, with the Radics cutting tight, heavy rhythms and Tubby stripping them back to drum and bass before letting echo, reverb and stray horn lines drift in and out. "Loud Mouth Rock" and "Up Town Special" swing hard, "Shepherd Bush In Dub" and "London Bridge Special" roll along on deep bass, "Earthquake Shake" lives up to its name, and "Knife And Fork Dubwise" brings the meal to a close.

Greensleeves first reissued it in 1996 and it has stayed a cornerstone of the dub shelf ever since. The bass will reach your neighbours before you do, so we'd suggest introducing yourself first.

Also at Kops: more King Tubby on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On Greensleeves (cat# GREL 229), a reissue of the 1981 album.