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KING TUBBY- ‘THE ROOTS OF DUB’

Born Osbourne Ruddock, Tubby was a Jamaican radio repairman turned sound system technician who then ascended to reggae royalty with his mad scientist use of reverb, echo and delay — ruling the B-side of Jamaican 45s and freaking the dancehalls for decades. In his hands, roots reggae songs on one side would become interplanetary affairs on the flip: All the familiar instruments had their spacetime continuums chopped and screwed. This 1975 album, one of the earliest in his daunting catalog, nimbly chews up the music of the Agrovators. And you can hear him sampled on Centipede Hz‘s “Mercury Man.” Panda Bear: You mentioned watery sounds. I have a tape of my friend Jesse’s King Tubby record, The Roots of Dub. And I just wore that tape out. It’s all I would listen to. It’s still one of my favorite records. I was in my second year in college, I had it on a walkman and I would just walk around listening to it all the time.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JWEvskcyGtU

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