Dub music has influenced the development UK garage through two entirely separate roots.
Firstly there was the dub that created the original UK garage Sunday scene, which took its inspiration from the deep and funky, bass line orientated dub mixes of New York's house and garage producers.
Although these dub mixes used the same name they had little to with the second dub influence on UK garage, which was, of course, the original dub, born from Jamaican soundsystems and transported into the heart of Britain's dance music scene.
When speed garage emerged as the first popular expression of UK garage, Jamaican dub elements, although present, were less obvious. But the rising popularity of UK garage attracted a new set of converts from drum 'n' bass scene, who brought with them greater emphasis on stomach churning sub bass lines and break beats.
It's this latter influence that's reflected here, exhibiting the raw edged, bump and grind end of the two step genre.
Electric Medicine's version of Peter Tosh's classic 'Legalise It', sung by Black Steel, sets the tone for much of the album's lyrical preoccupation with puff. Heavy Weight Crew's 'Bad Ass Bass' unites some of the people behind the seminal Nice & Ripe garage imprint in a high hat and bass early 2Step jam, while Charjan And Anthony Johnson's anti violence anthem 'Gunshot' is classic. Dub Virus' more experimental take on the genre sees the beats being chopped and spliced in a Herbert manner on'Proper Tings'.
Urban Myths featuring Tiny deliver a hymn to weed, Ratpack ask 'Who's got the bag with the puff', while DJ South Central returns to the ganja theme with 'Get High'.
General Levy, transports his ragga tones across another genre for the lilting 'Chase The Cat', While Anton of K.O records aka Electric Medicine returns in much tougher fashion to work on Subculture featuring Winston Fergus' 'Bigfoot'. TB Spook Unit provide the most left field take on the genre with the sharp edged ska-funk of 'Skabot', leaving Matic featuring M.T.C. to close the set with their re-working of 'Why Do The Wicked Ones Rule'.
This is not going to be to everyone's taste and with the garage nation internally haemorrhaging it's hardly surprising the music has as many detractors as it does supporters. But it is a welcome document of the roots end of the music that has propelled acts from Artful Dodger through to So Solid Crew into the charts.
