The word over the riddim
Dub poetry put spoken verse in Jamaican language over a bass line and asked to be judged as literature. Britain in the late 1970s is where it did its hardest work.
Dennis Bovell
Producer, guitarist and engineer
- Saint Peter, Barbados, then London
- 1970s onwards
Dennis Bovell is one of the central figures in British reggae and one of the least shouted about. He led Matumbi, ran a sound system, produced a great deal of lovers rock, and engineered dub that stands beside anything made in Kingston.
He is also the musical half of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s records, and that partnership is the clearest demonstration of his skill: arrangements that leave exactly enough room for a voice that will not be hurried.
He is still working, and still faintly underrated.
Go and listen
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On Natty Dub
Ariwa, and building a studio out of nothing
British dub did not wait for the industry's permission. It built its own rooms, in south London and elsewhere, and made records the industry did not understand for another twenty years.