The 20 slabs of King Dub serve as an excellent introduction to one of the last century's prime musical innovators. The selection starts in 1973, when Osbourne "Tubby" Ruddock's studio reputation was blooming. In the late 1960s, this electronic tinkerer could already boast one of Jamaica's finest sound systems, his Home Town Hi-Fi featuring DJ toasting by U-Roy. Then Tubby assembled a tiny studio, at 18 Drumilie Avenue, in the nervy Waterhouse area. This was where he was to meet an untimely end in 1989, gunned down by a twitchy robber. Using a primitive four-track mixer, Tubby used the B-side version as a playground for studio experimentation, spinning in echo and reverb effects, coaxing out the lowest, cage-rattling bass frequencies. He'd toy with sudden drop-outs, swooping surges, having horns stride out of the murk, pianos making unexpected jangles and drums stuttering into infinity. These tracks utilise source material by the likes of the Heptones, the Abyssinians and Horace Andy, usually deconstructed to skeletons, but often retaining the elements of the original vocal track, with Cornell Campbell peeking through on at least three numbers.