[^^ Up] - [jahsonic.com] - [Next >>]
The mixing desk as an instrument and the DJ/remixer as an artist John McCready
[..] There is a good case to be made for dub as the genesis of remix culture. The early hip hop block parties in New York manned by those such as Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash are obviously derived from the sound system scene in Kingston. Early disco heroes like Walter Gibbons and Arthur Russell; Francois Kevorkian, Larry Levan and Shep Pettibone's owe the madness of their dub crazy angel dust soundscapes to the experimental genius of the Jamaican pioneers. The idea of the mixing desk as an instrument and the DJ/remixer as an artist in his own right derives directly from dub. Larry Levan came into contact with dub when he worked with Sly and Robbie for the Peech Boys album on Island records. In his History Of House, Phil Cheeseman calls the predecessing twelve inch Don't Make Me Wait: "... took things in a different direction with its sparse, synthesized sounds that introduced dub effects and drop-outs that had never been heard before."
[...]Dub music had to come from somewhere, and the consensus is that it came from the mind and four-track mixing board of Osbourne Ruddock, known far and wide as King Tubby [...]
Collaborations with Lee Perry (Blackboard Jungle Dub) and Augustus Pablo (King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown are neccesary staples in any musical resume of the last 40 years.