"... It was for his Roots Steppers Dub Dance at a place called the family. When I turned up at the address all that was there was a fruit stand. I could hear a heavy bass sound which I followed to a grey door with a flyer taped to it. Upstairs was a run down loft with a somewhat official-looking bar in the corner and a wall of speakers pounding out tremendous depths of Dub music, in a way I had never heard before. Up front was Kush, moving about the mixing board like some wizard behind the decks. It was then and there I understood why he had been expounding for so long the importance of experiencing dub music at a "sound system" party...

...Perhaps Dub is so clandestine because its creators operate in a close community where the spiritual foundations and origins of the music are constantly reinforced. In this way, the New York Dub scene continues to evolve quietly, affecting many other genres of music production, often in a visionary way. Its the music of musicians...

...Today the word 'Dub' is used loosely to describe a genre of music comprised mostly of instrumental remixes and heavily electronically produced music. But true Dub music comes from a style that was born in Jamaica in the late 1960's. Before there were actual Dub recordings for the home, people would congregate at parties on large outdoor fields to hear music played on giant sound systems. As technology improved, engineers learned how to manipulate the sound. Competition for listeners grew more and more serious as each system got better.

Looking for a way to further differentiate their sound, Dub creators went into studios and re-cut popular songs to make them their own. This new song, referred to as a version, would be exclusive to their system. By the end of that decade, a system called Home Town Hi-Fi had a passionate following. It was owned and operated by Osbourne Ruddock, better known as King Tubby, who devised a way to incorporate echo and reverb effects into the music which made his sound entirely unique. While remixing a song for Rudy Redwood at Treasure Isle Studio he accidentally left out most of the vocal track. When the vocal-less version was played that night, the crowd went crazy. They'd never heard anything like it. Dub had arrived and was about to become the next big sound.

Dub's path to New York opened when a man named Lloyd Barnes, known as Bullwackies, moved to the city in his early twenties. Though he had grown up steeped in the Jamaican sound system culture of the 1960's, he couldn't escape other influences.  "I used to get money for my lunch, and I would stop at the Jukebox on the way to school and use my money to punch stuff like Nina Simone," he says. He was determined to bring the music he loved to his new home. In Jamaica, he remembers,the parties were so prevalent that, "when you were lost in one dance, the DJ lifts up his record, you hear everything from the other dance."

Yearning to recreate the same culture in New York, Bullwackies began to set up his sound system in basements and small clubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Before long, the parties were a way for Jamaican transplants to find each other in New York. The music was once again bringing the community together. Bullwackies is the perfect embodiment of the easygoing but complex nature of Dub. One night when I walked into his busy studio in the Bronx he warmly introduced me to everyone there, and casually pointed out his equipment, mentioning technical aspects way beyond my comprehension. There was no pretense about him. We sat and talked long past midnight. He vividly told stories from when he first arrived in New York. "In those days, there wasn't a whole lot of sound system around," he says. "If you met your enemy (rival selector) you'd be happy because there were so few of us. By hearing the sound, I was able to have an idea of who's there." Bullwackies teamed up with fellow Jamaican Kool Herc, who played records on his system. It was this music and style that eventually evolved into hip hop.

Bullwackies went on to create the first American studio built specifically to record Jamaican music, and is now one of the most sought after producers in the world. It was obvious from the start of our meeting how important the 'universal' nature of music is to him. As we talked, he wandered around his studio collecting a pile of music to give to me, including one of three remaining copies he had of a song he had just finished with the German team, Rhythm and Sound. Sharing music is so important to him that he has often found himself searching record shops to find his own recordings because he has given away his last copy.

...He is one of a few people in New York, and certainly America, whose continued belief in the Dub genre has kept it alive. Along with some richly talented and dedicated Dub players, he has helped create a strong community here in New York...

When I spoke with Kush (who is often flown to far fetched places like Tokyo to spin) for this article, he was on his way to his humble bi-monthly party at Swim, a small bar on the Lower East Side, in New York. He talked fluidly and strongly about his involvement with Dub: "What makes Dub so powerful," says Kush, "is that it can say so much without words. Sometimes, there's certain words comin' in, but whether there's words or not, there's always a message... [without] a communication barrier." Bullwackies adds, "It's more about transmitting a feeling... whatever's happenin' in me, that's what's presented."

Traditional Dub music starts with the recording of live instruments on different tracks. Many people argue that this live instrumentation is what gives Dub soul, versus the digitally generated sounds and looping of samples you find in a lot of modern electronic music. Digital instruments have helped producers by giving them a fast tool to make sound with, but Dub makers like Josh Elrod, one half of Phase Selector Sound out of New York, make sure not to rely on programming. "We are bringing an organic approach to digital instruments. All the drums are digital but I play them in real time," Elrod says. Bullwackies is also careful to use digital and effects equipment only as tools. He remembers working with drummer Sly Dunbar when digital drums first came out: "He is real creative, he don't just use the drum, he will use newspaper, cardboard, I've seen him do stuff to the drum, y'know, he'll tape it up, he'll search for different type of sound."

 
Dub has yet to take off in America as it has in other parts of the world. According to Kush, the explosion is long overdue. He explains, "The movement of Dub through sound system...got carried into England and developed. America went from Bob Marley to Dancehall but Dub really never took place here." But new listeners are perhaps being primed by the many popular derivatives of Dub sound. "Jungle and drum 'n bass, trance-those all are children of Dub," says Kush, who has been spinning at parties for over 10 years, and has found that the fans of such modern techno music are becoming more receptive to the powerful sounds of Dub music. When I spoke to Josh Elrod, he agreed: "There's such an obvious influence of Dub on all forms of modern electronic music as far as mixing, bass-lines, drum patterns that when people are exposed to Dub they say 'Oh, I can dig this too because its very similar'." When Kush and his collective Black Redemption play at Roots Steppers Dub Dance, they create an atmosphere similar to the original sound system parties of Jamaica. "We Dub it live, on my own sound system," Kush says, "the way you would make a Dub. We play it in that manner, engineering the instruments as much as we can." Kush also includes Dub's other essential element-the message-using his voice to gently teach lessons on the music's origins and the basic tenets of Rastafari.

Here in New York, people like Bullwackies, Twin Sound, Josh, and Kush are still pushing the boundaries of Dub. They've managed to carve out a communal, hospitable environment for the creation and promotion of this multidimensional music. When I last saw Bullwackies to check on some technical information for this article, in the same spirit that he had piled CD's into my hands he said, "When you come back up, I'll introduce you to some engineers who can tell you a lot more." It is this genuine character and willingness to share that is so inspirational and refreshing. Not much unlike the music itself. "
 

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