King Tubby's Prophesy of Dub

They Say...

Review by Nathan Bush, All Music Guide

King Tubby's Prophecy of Dub represented the first in a series of collaborations between singer/producer Yabby U and the great dub mixer King Tubby. The vocal tracks of the former are stripped entirely from the music taking Yabby's Biblically informed verses along with them. Tubby's re-creations however, are extremely tasteful, producing the best of both worlds: Yabby's excellent rhythms stripped down to their essential elements, with each touch of dub superbly integrated into the instrumental landscape. Tubby highlights not only the horn players, but guitarists Earl "Chinna" Smith, Albert Griffiths, and Ranchie McCLean as well, for wonderful results. Their lines spring from the receding background on "Robber Rock" and rise, sublimely to the surface on "Love and Peace." "Creations and Versions," the track that brought King Tubby's Prophecy, in its original 1976 incarnation, to a close, is filled with supple six-string flourishes. The Blood and Fire CD reissue offers us the added bonus of "Living Style" and "Greetings": two of the set's finest mixes. On the former, hardly anything, save the sparse bass/drum foundation, avoids the trap of Tubby's echo. The latter, another take on the rhythm that produced album opener "Version Dub" (aka Yabby's "Jah Vengeance") offers an example of the way Tubby could mix a tune differently each time around. The dub organizer slows down the rhythm (its opening drum strokes hardly get off the ground) and offers a distinctly different, even improved excursion with a gritty, bordering on lo-fi, quality. Those looking for some of Tubby's more extravagant productions might want to look elsewhere, but King Tubby's Prophecy remains a rugged, consistent and tasteful roots set. Another host of collaborations by the duo can be found on the two-disc Blood and Fire compilation, Jesus Dread.