What's new ain't new. The extended remix, the added rapping to a pop track, the jump cuts, and the quick edits: all were born in the studios of Kingston in the late '60s to late '70s. They were then exported to the Bronx, where rap and its long, party-friendly jams and remixes became the new music of the new era.

Therefore, a roots check is in order. First up is Vivian "Yabby You" Jackson, protégé of dub inventor King Tubby, who is represented on this disc not as the soul singer he was at the beginning of his musical career, as the leader of the Prophets, but as just another melodic element atop the electronically enhanced tracks. Syn-drums, rapid-echo, and the expert ministrations of Sly and Robbie make this a dub-lover's paradise. "Dub It to the Top," "Rock with Me Dub," and "Turn Me Loose Dub" are loose and linear, freed from the constraints of verse-chorus, and also clear and clean, as opposed to the first dub discs (like King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown), which sound positively mud-filled by comparison.