Climbing in distinction from merely
Prince Jammy to
King Jammy, this student of
King Tubby started out as Lloyd James, learning the tricks of dub production from one of the masters over the course of working on countless reggae productions throughout the '70s.
Dub Kings collects some of
Jammy's standout mixes, rugged rocksteady rhythms with a focus on sharp horn sections, especially notable on cuts like "Wreaking Dub" and "Pride and Ambition Dub." These 18 tracks were all engineered at
King Tubby's studio by
King Jammy in the late '70s, and have an especially swimmy quality to them, awash in the type of echo trails, reverb, and generous negative space that made the sounds coming out of
Tubby's studio worthy of royalty. ~ Fred Thomas