Pick A Dub - Music

Music

Pick a Dub consisted of remixes, specifically primarily instrumental "riddim" dubs, of earlier material. Though reworked and retitled, Hudson's tracklist recast earlier songs into new form. The classics "Declaration of Rights" and "Satta Massa Gana" were recut as "Black Right" and "Satia". The title track, "Pick a Dub", was a dub of Hudson's own composition "S.90 Skank", which had been a hit song for Big Youth. The album focused on the heavy rhythms of bass guitar and drums, with snippets of otherwordly vocals. The Wire identified as among the album's strengths "tuttering melodica, squelching keyboard and guitar chops and a mix which dropped instruments in and out of the sound picture every few bars". Hudson did not use the processed sound effects that later became common in the movement, a lack cited as "refreshing" by Bradley, who noted that such early sets reflected "the remixer's art in its purest form". The overall effect of Hudson's music is described by brainwashed as "uniquely deep and gothic".