9/20-24 — Dub Champions Festival in NYC: Scientist & Roots Radics, Lee Perry, Kode9, Appleblim & more

The Dub Champions Festival is a five day excursion into the international musical phenomenon called “dub”, a style characterized by heavy bass, drums and copious use of effects, where the producers become the artists and the mixing board becomes an instrument.

This year’s festival reaches from the reggae roots of dub to the future of bass music and features some of the world’s greatest from across that spectrum, including the dub producers who literally invented and shaped the genre in Jamaica during the 70s and 80s: Lee “Scratch” Perry, Scientist, and Clive Chin as well as the Roots Radics band who created the music Scientist’s dub mixes were based upon and who reshaped reggae into a harder charging roots style that would come to be known as “dancehall” with vocalists like Yellowman, Barrington Levy, and Johnny Osbourne.From its roots in the late 1960s Kingston reggae studios to its evolution into the digital age, dub has had a massive impact on music across the globe, giving birth to modern remix culture, creating the platform for the sound system culture that would lead to the creation of rap music, and influencing the production techniques of artists from hip hop & electronic dance music to punk & rock. The influence of this underground and often misunderstood phenomenon is undeniable.

For an example of just how far it has reached, be sure to check out the show with UK dubstep pioneers Kode9 & Appleblim who are pushing it into the far reaches of electronic bass music.