Remix culture:

With the recent trend in music of remixing a song to suit it to your desired audience, generally speaking this is seen in electronic music where vocal samples and sections of music are used and mixed together to create a new piece of music. Now as musicians that have grown up with this so called remix culture we don't really look into its origins and the people that really kicked off this trend.

'King Tubby' (January 28, 1941 – February 6, 1989)


A Jamaican born, electronics/ sound engineer, primarily known for his work in Dub music, His innovative studio work, saw him elevate the role of the mixing engineer, he would prove to be influential across many genres of popular music. He is often cited as the inventor of the concept of the remix, and so may be seen as a direct antecedent of much dance and electronic music production.


Tubby began as an owner of an electronics store where he built amplifiers for large local sound systems, and from this formed his own sound systems. Tubby began working as a disc cutter for producer Duke Reid in 1968. Reid, one of the major figures in early Jamaican music, he ran Treasure Isle studios. He was invited to produce instrumental versions of songs for MCs. Tubby initially worked to remove the vocal tracks with the sliders on Reid's mixing desk, but soon discovered that the various instrumental tracks could be accentuated, reworked and emphasised through the settings on the mixer and primitive early effects units. eventually Tubby began creating new pieces of music by shifting emphasis on certain instruments dropping tracks in and out and adding various effects.


His production work in Dub music is what makes Tubby one of the kings on remix, his knowledge of electronics allowed him to create his own studio with his own equipment where he built effects into his mixer allowing him to literally play it and drop samples in and out. Tubby was able to use his custom-built studio to take this technique into new areas, often transforming a hit song to the point where it was almost unrecognizable from its original. 


King Tubby was shot and killed on February 6, 1989 by an unknown group of people outside his home in Duhaney Park, Kingston upon returning from a session at his Waterhouse studio. It is thought that the murder was probably an attempt at robbery. 


For his work in Dub music and studio's and his innovative thinking King Tubby is worthy of praise and recognition and anyone producing music today should definitely go back to the roots of remixing and listen to Dub music and read up on King Tubby.