Sunday, July 10, 2011

PLAY TUBBY FOR ME


The name King Tubby is synonymous with dub, but you knew that right? (If not, here's an excellent profile.) Assuming that you're somewhat familiar with him, you might also know that the Tubby well runs deep. Even if you have a lot of his stuff, even if you're a total obsessive, you're not going to have it everything he's done. After all, it's not like some rock band reissuing something with a few alternate takes. King Tubby's bread and butter was alternate takes. Every time he turned a dial, or moved a fader, and added dub to the title, another version was born. When you take into account material released under his own name, versions he did for other artists, and dub plate sound system exclusives, you come up with a discography that may never be absolutely final.

Earlier this week I received an email from a guy who had seen an earlier post about King Tubby, he actually took the lead, visited Wikipedia to learn more about him, and then procured himself some Tubby sides. As you'd imagine, it made my day. I was already pondering another King Tubby post (because you could do one a week and still not exhaust what's out there), but then I remembered a site I'd bookmarked a few years ago.

The site, Infinite Wheel Presents Dub City Rockers, allows you to play like you're King Tubby. You just start out picking from one of the dub selector options (various starting rhythms), it's take you to another screen and there may or may not be minimal instructions (i.e. what can be achieved with the arrow keys, etc.) but my best advice is to just start clicking away on anything that's blinking or moving. Some have echo effects, some drop out one instrument or more, and some are just a rim shot here, or a reverb kick there. Most have vocals that can be brought up, or dropped out. If you are at all into dub, this site is a something you ought to bookmark. To go through it all would take hours. It'll bring out your inner Tubby.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Play:
Infinite Wheel Presents Dub City Rockers (Interactive dub simulators. Description in paragraph above.)
Listen:
King Tubby - Take Five (dubless) mp3 at 8106
King Tubby Meets the Agrovators - Inspiring Dub mp3 at Salon.com
King Tubby - Dub From the Roots mp3 at Future Shocked
King Tubby - King Tubby Dub mp3 at CubikMusic
King Tubby Meets Lee Perry - Rainy Night Dub mp3 at Cr3ation
King Tubby - King At The Controls mp3 at Walrus Music
King Tubby - A Noisy Place mp3 at Siblingshot On The Bleachers
King Tubby - A Rougher Version mp3 at Gorilla vs Bear
Prince Jammy vs King Tubby - Jah Works mp3 at Siblingshot On The Bleachers
King Tubby & Scientist - Ravin' Dub mp3 at Fat Berri's
King Tubby & Scientist - Copper Shot Dub (Music is My Occupation) mp3 at Siblingshot On The Bleachers
Read:
King Tubby page at Roots Archive
King Tubby profile at Perfect Sound Forever
King Tubby - Discography and dub sources at XRay Music
Earlier posts:
King Tubby & Scientist post
All reggae related posts

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