A new book on the origins of dub, Dub Revolution: Jamaica’s Sonic Innovators and the Birth of Remix Culture, by author David Katz (pictured), is set to be published by White Rabbit in July.
The book ‘explores the most innovative and sonically adventurous subgenre of reggae, highlighting its importance in sound system culture and its impact on other music forms’, as a press release put it, exploring how innovative producers such as King Tubby, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Prince Jammy and Scientist used studio techniques to reimagine reggae.
“I had a musical epiphany at the age of seventeen when I attended a sound system session featuring Jack Ruby High Power in my hometown of San Francisco in 1982,” Katz said of the forthcoming book. “The skilful manipulation of reconfigured reggae rhythms with dramatic emphasis on drum and bass radically altered my perception of music production, beginning a lifelong fascination with an art form that repurposed master tapes as part of a metamorphosing process in which the engineer becomes the featured performer.
“Meeting Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry a few years later pushed me deeper into the realms of dub research and as the influence of Jamaica’s dub innovators has been increasingly acknowledged by a range of practitioners active in other genres, writing Dub Revolution allowed me to delve deeper into the evolution of this confounding abstract form, using first-hand testimony gathered during the last 40 years to illuminate the many twists and turns of the tale.”
The book also follows the evolution of dub beyond Jamaica, through diaspora communities in New York (where Lloyd Bullwackie Barnes developed the form further) and London (home to producers such as Dennis Bovell, Mad Professor and Adrian Sherwood). It also links dub techniques to later musical movements such as post punk, hip hop and dance music.
Katz, the author of books including People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, has written about Jamaican music and culture since the 1980s, and has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Mojo and The Wire.
“One of the gifts of being a publisher is we occasionally get to will books into existence that we have long felt the need for in our lives,” added Lee Brackstone, publisher, White Rabbit. “David Katz is the only and natural writer for this subject, which is so foundational to many musical subcultures, so I was delighted when he accepted my proposed commission to write the authoritative book on dub and a book which will stand as the classic and go-to work for many years to come.” You can pre-order the book here.