[SIGNED] Dub Revolution: Jamaica’s Sonic Innovators... by David Katz - Book

Eagerly anticipated new book from David Katz examining the history and influence of that most storied of Jamaican musical forms; dub.  Katz's two previous books People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Solid Foundation: An Oral History Of Reggae are both essential additions to any musical library, full of revelatory detail and first hand testimony and refreshingly free of hyperbole and opinion.  Katz lays out the facts and lets the protagonists tell their story in their own words as they see it.  

Here, he begins by outlining the origins of dub in the sound systems and studios of Jamaica, the tentative steps that led from random experiments and happy accidents to the full epic sonic flowering at the hands of King Tubby, Lee Perry, Sylvan Morris, Errol Thompson and many others during the seventies and ends with an in depth examination of the international dub scene that emerged in the UK centred around the late sound system legend Jah Shaka.

In between he takes a deeper look at dozens of classic dub albums and outlines the music's stealthy influence in the music scene worldwide. The Jamaican dub of the seventies and early eighties golden age was never created for the sake of it, it was always an afterthought, studio men like Tubby's and his apprentices, Prince Jammy, Scientist et al applied their craft to recordings often already utilised in the standard fashion; finished backing tracks with vocals or lead instrumentation prepared for release, imaginatively deconstructed to surprise and delight, especially so if the original was familiar. In the UK and elsewhere during the late eighties and on into the present, dub often became an end unto itself, the proponents of dub creating dub for dub's sake from tracks conceived to no end other than dub. Katz relates all of this without prejudice, and in so doing provides the most rounded overview of dub in all its permutations.

Number of pages:  384

Hardback