King Tubby - Soundclash Dubplate Style Vol. 1 + Vol. 2 (vocals + dubs)

King Tubby - Soundclash Dubplate Style Vol. 1 + Vol. 2 (vocals + dubs)
Label: Sonic Sounds
Record date : 1985-89
Album style : Dancehall, Digital Dub, Lee Library, Tubby
Notes: Released approximately 1990; this is by far the best collection of soundbwoy tunes. Live recordings from dubplates with intros by the legendary Fuzzy Jones!

KING TUBBY and THE FIREHOUSE REVOLUTION

By the early eighties dub was no longer perceived as a cutting edge music and its innovations had long been assimilated into the musical mainstream. Tubby realised that the days of his now classical production techniques were over and decided to take a new step: in 1985 he build a new studio in the heart of the Kingston ghetto,the Waterhouse District. During the run up to elections gunshots would echo throughout the neighbourhood with such alarming frequency that the area was renamed FIREHOUSE by its local residents. The new studio there was then equipped with lots of new technology like a bigger mixing desk - and digital synths and drum machines.

After the studio-producer Professor went to the USA to study electronics and computer Peego and Fatman followed and a man named Phantom, who built riddims at Channel One before. The sound they created is - especially from today's point of view - a completely new dimension of reggae and dub: it's 100% bone-dry digital music (due to the sound of the machines used for production) but it's also a pure, hypnotical and new form of dub, a paradox really. It took a while for me to like that special sound, but then the tracks are made to play them loud at sound systems and when I heard 'SOUNDCLASH DUBPLATE STYLE', THE classic digital King Tubby-LP, loud it got to me. The bass is extremely powerful and kicking while the drums gain a completely new quality, simply because they all of a sudden were not shuffling anymore but set straight to a beat grid. These releases have been highly influential for what we're doing here at JAHTARI and we picked up the trail from there!

The first big hit for Tubby with his new studio was Anthony Red Rose's 'TEMPO', a riddim versioned over and over until today and many other promising 7inches followed. While Tubby did a completely different approach on music and the whole marketing side of it than Jammy (music being always in the focus for him and no compromises were made for that!) also commercial success came and SOUNDCLASH DUBPLATE STYLE sold 45.000 worldwide. But then in 1989 the day came and this whole promising process stopped - when King Tubby was shot down in front of his house, the killer was never found. And with Tubby's death - this can be said from today's perspective - the complete history of Reggae and Dub as we knew it ended and was replaced by RAGGAMUFFIN.

Strangely enough Tubby and Jammy themselves (especially Jammy's 'PUNAANY' by Admiral Bailey) paved the way for that and established the rhythms. But in the end Raggamuffin and its 100% mass-market oriented productions cut the last connections to Reggae and Dub and sold out their musical heritage. After Tubbys death, his daughter ran the studio then, the firehouse crew produced some more fine music, but without a guy like Tubby holding everything together that soon went down too. ~jahtari.org



Tracklist:
1. King Everald - Kill Ole Pan
2. Johnny Osbourne - Line Up
3. Trevor Levy - Nah Run From No Clash
4. Banana Man - Take A Lick
5. Michael Batis - Die You Die
6. Gregory Isaacs - The Ruler
7. Little John - Fade Away
8. Sugar Minott - Play Me
9. Conroy Smith - Original Sound
10. Pad Anthony - Charge Dem
11. Kill A Pan Dub
12. Tan Good Dub
13. Nah Run Weh Dub
14. Lick Shot Dub
15. Death Row Dub
16. We Rule Dub
17. Fade Out Dub
18. Play Play Dub
19. Brand New Sound Dub
20. Make Them Pay Dub

Produced by: King Tubby

download pt. 1
download pt. 2