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INTRODUCTION
A significant body of academic literature and music journalism has examined the historical trajectory of Jamaican dub music and its innovative use of audio recording technology. Previous analyses have highlighted the similarities between dub remixing and acousmatic electroacoustic music (Veal 2007; Partridge 2010; Williams 2013). For example, ethnomusicologist Michael Veal notes that, in purely sonic terms, dub resembles certain works by the electronic composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Vladimir Ussachevsky (Veal 2007: 39). Such comparisons are informed by the fact that both dub and electroacoustic pioneers employed analogue electronic recording technology (e.g. magnetic tape machines, mixing consoles) as their primary instrumentation. Furthermore, many electroacoustic composers subjected pre-recorded musical materials to electronic manipulation, which is a primary feature of dub music (Veal 2007: 39). Therefore, the novel sound effects produced within both genres sound similar in some instances, especially when contrasted with Western acoustic music or electric rhythm and blues.
However, examining dub pioneer King Tubby's work through the lens of the technologically centred acousmatic electroacoustic tradition may not provide a sufficiently complete understanding of the thematic complexity and conceptual depth of his music. Acousmatic composers generally apply an abstracted syntax such that the acoustic properties of sounds themselves are used to determine how sounds are organised in a composition rather than real-world associations (Truax 2002: 7). As such, these composers separate the sound from its original context and create a purely aural experience. This is in contrast to dub music, which uses compositional techniques that carry social or political messages, therefore embedding the sound into a very particular real-world context. For example, Chude-Sokei proposes that delay echoes and reverb in dub serve as metaphors for black people's diasporic dispersal (Chude-Sokei 1997: 57). Moreover, Baker (2009) suggests that the spatial audio effects used in dub help construct vast open spaces or 'audiotopias', temporarily liberating Kingstonian listeners from their cramped ghettoes. These scholars argue that dub music's sound effects reflect the human experience of people living in oppressive environments.
The sociopolitical context of Jamaica during the 1970s, as well as the influence of Rastafarian philosophy on roots reggae from which Tubby sourced a large portion of his material, is a major factor in dub music. An examination of Tubby's studio methods reveals that...