Part II of our series on great reggae bassists focuses on dub
music. Dub was pioneered in the early 1970s in Jamaica by studio
engineers and producers such as King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and
Errol T. Thompson. Today, elements of dub have found their way
into hip hop, techno, house, jungle, ambient, and trip-hop, and form an
important part of the remix culture of today's pop music. For an
excellent treatment of this area, read Michael Veal's "Dub: Soundscapes
& Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae" (Wesleyan University Press,
2007).
Since dub music traditionally involved the isolation of bass and drums
on vocal reggae songs, important reggae bassists - including those
featured in the last installment - have been featured prominently in
dub music, most notably perhaps Robbie Shakespeare.
We will focus here on bassists who are important figures in what can be
referred to as "designer dub" - music that is conceived as dub in the
first instance instead of as a "version" of a recorded song. The
most important producers of this style of dub include Adrian Sherwood,
Neil (the "Mad Professor") Fraser, and Dennis Bovell, all from Britain,
and Bill Laswell from the United States. Among the bassists who
are major figures in this genre are Bovell, Laswell, and Jah Wobble
(also from Britain).
Dennis Bovell
Multi-instrumentalist Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell backed touring
Jamaican artists on their visits to London in the 1970s. He later
formed the Dub Band, which backed dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, and
has worked with artists as diverse as the Slits, the Thompson Twins,
and Fela Kuti. He is best known for his work in reggae and his
pioneering dub albums. Here is short clip of Bovell performing
with the Dub Band at the Boss Sounds Reggae Festival in Newcastle in
November 2006.
