A zine for roots reggae and dub: the history, the sounds, the people and the culture that carries it.https://nattydub.com/en-gbhttps://nattydub.com/stories/the-dance-is-the-point/https://nattydub.com/stories/the-dance-is-the-point/Roots and dub were never really album music. They were built for a room, a stack of speakers and a selector who knows what the crowd needs before the crowd does.Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTsound-systemsound systemdancesselectorsUK dubhttps://nattydub.com/stories/the-mixing-desk-became-an-instrument/https://nattydub.com/stories/the-mixing-desk-became-an-instrument/In a small room in Waterhouse, King Tubby stopped using a mixing desk to balance records and started using it to play them. Everything we call dub comes out of that decision.Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThistoryKing TubbydubKingstonengineeringhttps://nattydub.com/stories/rockers-how-channel-one-changed-the-drum/https://nattydub.com/stories/rockers-how-channel-one-changed-the-drum/A studio on Maxfield Avenue, a house band with something to prove, and a drummer who put the kick on every beat. Reggae's centre of gravity moved and never quite moved back.Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThistoryChannel OnerockersSly DunbarKingstonhttps://nattydub.com/stories/building-the-bass/https://nattydub.com/stories/building-the-bass/A roots sound system is not a big hi-fi. It is a room-sized instrument built by hand, tuned by ear, and designed around one frequency range most speakers never reach.Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTsound-systemsound systemscoopsamplifiersbuildinghttps://nattydub.com/stories/what-the-songs-are-saying/https://nattydub.com/stories/what-the-songs-are-saying/Roots reggae is often heard as pleasant music with a faint spiritual atmosphere. Listen to the words and it is something much more specific, and much less comfortable.Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTcultureRastafarilyricsrootshistoryhttps://nattydub.com/stories/version-excursion/https://nattydub.com/stories/version-excursion/The instrumental on the back of the single started as a way to save money. It ended up producing an entire way of making music, and eventually most of modern pop production.Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThistoryversionsriddimsdubsingleshttps://nattydub.com/stories/scientist-rids-the-world-review/https://nattydub.com/stories/scientist-rids-the-world-review/A 1981 dub album with a comic book sleeve and a silly title that happens to be one of the sharpest, funniest and best sequenced records the form has produced.Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTreviewsScientistRoots RadicsGreensleeves1981https://nattydub.com/stories/studio-one-the-university/https://nattydub.com/stories/studio-one-the-university/Almost everybody who mattered in Jamaican music passed through one building on Brentford Road. What came out of it is still the common language the whole music speaks.Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThistoryStudio OneCoxsone DoddKingstonriddimshttps://nattydub.com/stories/nyabinghi-the-drums-underneath/https://nattydub.com/stories/nyabinghi-the-drums-underneath/Before the bass line there was a hand drum, a chant and a fire that burned for days. The oldest layer of this music is also the one most listeners never hear.Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTcultureNyabinghiRastafaridrumsrootshttps://nattydub.com/stories/dub-came-to-britain/https://nattydub.com/stories/dub-came-to-britain/The music crossed the Atlantic in suitcases and stayed. What British sounds did with it was not imitation, it was a second tradition growing out of the first.Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTsound-systemUK dubstepperssound systemBritainhttps://nattydub.com/stories/ten-records-to-start-with/https://nattydub.com/stories/ten-records-to-start-with/Not the ten best, and not the ten rarest. Ten that will teach you the most about how roots and dub work, in an order that makes sense.Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTreviewsstarting outalbumsrootsdub