{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}} {{Infobox album | name = Pick a Dub | type = Remix | artist = Keith Hudson | cover = Pick_a_Dub.jpg | alt = | released = 1974 | recorded = | venue = | studio = | genre = Dub | length = 34:23 | label = Klik Records | producer = Keith Hudson | prev_title = Flesh of My Skin Blood of My Blood | prev_year = 1974 | next_title = Torch of Freedom | next_year = 1975 }} '''''Pick a Dub''''' is a 1974 album by Jamaican producer and musician Keith Hudson. Critically well received, it is widely regarded as an important work in the dub music genre which evolved out of reggae. Featuring remixes of earlier material, it focuses on heavy drums and bass guitar, with echoing vocals to underscore the intense percussive rhythm. Carlton and Aston Barrett and Augustus Pablo contributed music, while vocal fragments include Hudson, Horace Andy and Big Youth. The album was originally released under the labels of Mamba and Atra, with a 1994 reissue by Blood and Fire.
==Critical reception== {{Album ratings |rev1 = Allmusic |rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r221275|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]</ref> }}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot--> The album has been critically well received and is regarded as important in Hudson's discography and in the genre of dub music. In 1994, ''The Wire'' identified the album as "one of the first dub albums" and described it as a "must-have".<ref name=Wire>{{cite journal |last=Toop |first=David |date=May 1994 |title=A-Z of dub |journal=The Wire |issue=123 |url=http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/40/ |access-date=16 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802141222/http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/40/ |archive-date=2 August 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Lloyd Bradley, author of ''This is Reggae Music'', suggests that along with ''King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown'', ''Super Ape'' and ''African Dub Chapter Three'' this album is "one of the supreme heavyweight champion dub sets."<ref name=Reggae/> Including the album in its 2007 comprehensive series on "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die", ''The Guardian'' indicated that "no other dub album can rival Pick-a-Dub's austere sonic qualities."<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news | last = Hann | first = Michael | title = Artists beginning with H (part 2) | url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/nov/20/1000tohearbeforeyoudie | date=19 November 2007 | work = The Guardian | access-date = 16 October 2008}}, part of the series {{cite news | last = Hann | first = Michael | title = 1000 albums to hear before you die | url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/nov/19/1000tohearbeforeyoudie6 | date=19 November 2007 | work = The Guardian | access-date = 16 October 2008}}</ref> In ''England's Dreaming'', Jon Savage gives the album his "vote for the greatest dub album ever."<ref name=Dreaming/> Allmusic in its review characterized the album as "a seminal work, a landmark in progressive remixing" that is "arguably the crowning achievement of Hudson's career."<ref name=AMG>{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r221275|label=Pick a Dub}}</ref> While arguing by contrast for Hudson's later album ''Brand'', the website brainwashed indicates that ''Pick a Dub'' typically "ranks as the pinnacle of his dub releases".<ref name=brainwashed>{{cite web |url=http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6303&Itemid=64 |title=Keith Hudson, Brand |access-date=16 October 2008 |work=brainwashed.com |first=Gary | last = Suarez |date=9 July 2007}}</ref>
==Music== ''Pick a Dub'' consisted of remixes, specifically primarily instrumental "riddim" dubs, of earlier material.<ref name=Reggae>{{cite book | last = Bradley | first = Lloyd | title = This is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music | publisher = Grove Press | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-8021-3828-4 | page = [https://archive.org/details/thisisreggaemusi0000brad/page/330 330] | url = https://archive.org/details/thisisreggaemusi0000brad| url-access = registration | quote = Pick a Dub Keith Hudson. }}</ref> Though reworked and retitled, Hudson's track list recast earlier songs into new form. The classics "Declaration of Rights" and "Satta Massagana" were recut as "Black Right" and "Satia".<ref name=liner/> 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.<ref name=liner/><ref>{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p2864|label=Big Youth Biography}}</ref> The album focused on the heavy rhythms of bass guitar and drums, with snippets of otherworldly vocals.<ref name=Guardian/><ref name=liner/> ''The Wire'' identified as among the album's strengths "[s]tuttering melodica, squelching keyboard and guitar chops and a mix which dropped instruments in and out of the sound picture every few bars".<ref name=Wire/> Hudson did not use the processed sound effects that later became common in the movement,<ref name=liner/> a lack cited as "refreshing" by Bradley, who noted that such early sets reflected "the remixer's art in its purest form".<ref name=Reggae/> The overall effect of Hudson's music is described by brainwashed as "uniquely deep and gothic".<ref name=brainwashed/>
==History== The album was recorded with Carlton and Aston Barrett of Bob Marley & The Wailers on drums and bass, with additional music supplied by melodica virtuoso Augustus Pablo.<ref name=liner>Barrow, Steve (1994) [http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk/cds/sleeves/bafcd003.pdf liner notes]. bloodandfire.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-10-16.</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Mike|last=Clifford|author2=Jon Futrell|author3=Ray Bonds|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Black Music|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc00clif|url-access=registration|publisher=Harmon Books|year=1982| page=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc00clif/page/180 180]|quote = Augustus Pablo, Glen Brown, Joe White and Rue Lloyd are the melodica virtuosos featured on a recent retrospective collection issued in the UK... | isbn = 0-517-54779-1}}</ref> Snippets of vocal tracks included material by Hudson, Horace Andy and Big Youth.<ref name=Blood>{{cite web |url=http://www.bloodandfire.co.uk/album_detail.php?id=bafcd003 |title=Pick a Dub |access-date=16 October 2008 |work= bloodandfire.co.uk}}</ref> It was originally released in 1974 on the Mamba label prior to release by Atra.<ref name=Dreaming>{{cite book | last = Savage | first = Jon | title = England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond | publisher = Macmillan | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-312-28822-0 | page = 571 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8cR2h7H3o8AC&pg=PA571&dq=%22Pick+a+Dub%22+%22Keith+Hudson%22}}</ref> In 1994, it was reissued by Blood and Fire.<ref name=AMG/>
==Track listing== ''All tracks composed by Keith Hudson'' #"Pick a Dub" – 2:38 #"Black Heart" – 2:40 #"Michael Talbot Affair" – 2:54 #"Don't Move" – 2:43 #"Blood Brother" – 2:54 #"Dreaded Than" – 2:02 #"In the Rain" – 3:13 #"Part 1-2 Dubwise" – 3:17 #"Black Right" – 3:11 #"Satia" – 3:06 #"I'm All Right" – 3:02 #"Depth Charge" – 2:43 ==Personnel== *Dennis Alcapone – liner notes *Aston Barrett – bass *Carlton Barrett – drums *Steve Barrow – liner notes *Phil Hale – photography *Keith Hudson – arranger, drums, producer *Kevin Metcalfe – mastering *Augustus Pablo – melodica
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
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Category:Keith Hudson albums Category:Dub albums Category:1974 remix albums