Over the course of The Slackers' nearly 35 year career, the NYC legends have paid respect to numerous interconnected genres of Jamaican music, including ska, reggae, and rocksteady. Dub mixing - a process of creating new "versions" of songs that emphasize the rhythm section and heavy utilization of atmospheric effects such as delay and reverb - looms so large as a driving force in that world, it is no wonder that the band would approach it with the same mix of reverence and creativity. “Dub is the other side of The Slackers,” says the band’s guitarist, Agent Jay. “A contrast to the uptempo danceable wit of our ska.”The Dub Classics LP - originally released (and sold out) in 2021 and now available from Pirates Press Records - represents a collection of some of the greatest fruits of that labor. More than just a “re-mix” album, it is an essential part of the band’s catalog that reinvents their sound and reveals all new perspectives on their many talents.Around 2010, as he was dialing in the process of digitally producing dub mixes, Agent Jay proposed a sequel of sorts to The Slackers’ first dub album, 2005’s An Afternoon in Dub. It remained an off-and-on, back burner project, until around 2017 when he returned to it with different songs than he’d started with, but ultimately, it was tabled again.Finally, in 2021, with the band itching for a new release during the pandemic lockdown, the concept for the album crystallized around dubs of the band’s early material (drawn from 2001’s Wasted Days and earlier), and three months on from that point, the sessions for Dub Classics were completed.Although Agent Jay did not join the band’s “full time” lineup until 2004, he had played with them off and on for a decade prior. He was familiar with their early material, even though he had not played on the albums. “When you strip the songs down to their individual tracks, you hear all kinds of imperfections,” he says. “But also cool details that were buried in the original mix that you now want to highlight in the dub.”In terms of selecting the songs, Jay knew the era he wanted to draw from, and song selection came down to what sessions had been digitized from the original analog tape, as well as which songs worked sonically for dub. “Ultimately, dub needs space,” he explains. “So that mostly ruled out fast, busy ska.”Of the album’s many highlights, Jay’s favorite is “Tin Tin Dub,” a version of the tune “Tin Tin Deo” off The Slackers’ breakthrough album, Redlight (itself a roots reggae playing of a jazz number originated by Dizzy Gillespie). Jay considers the dub mix the most “rootsy and soulful” on the album.While in some ways an item for “super fans” already acquainted with the band’s repertoire, Agent Jay points out that this album could also function as “a gateway to The Slackers for fans of dub in general.”
