King Tubby

A legendary Jamaican producer, King Tubby became one of the world's first ever remixers, inventing dub and shaping the sound of the Caribbean by producing records for reggae greats Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell and Augustus Pablo. An electrical engineer who repaired radios and built huge speakers for Kingston's sound system crews, Tubby started his own pirate radio station before being recruited by Treasure Isle Studio boss Duke Reid to create instrumental tracks for the local MCs and toasters. By the 1960s his method of chopping up existing records, stripping back the vocals and adding echoing reverb effects morphed early reggae into hypnotic 'riddims' known as dub. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he continued to play a key role in the island's sound, producing and re-mixing scores of local acts and continuing his own sonic experiments from his Waterhouse Studio. Tubby was shot dead outside his home in 1989, but his influence lives on in the trip-hop, grime and post-punk scenes and through artists such as Massive Attack, Diplo and Animal Collective.

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