The whole idea was pretty simple, really. We were convinced that loads of American artists were tracing dub's global lineage: from the late-'60s and early-'70 experiments of Tubby, Jammy, Scratch, and others in their Kingston studios; through to London's late-'70s and '80s take via producers like Adrian Sherwood and Mad Professor; on into the digital era's UK steppers phase presided over by Jah Shaka; and further into the music's spread throughout the rest of Europe. As the millennium turned, the explosion of dub compilations spotlighting artists from Britain, Germany, France and elsewhere led us to conclude that the virus had to have spread deeply into the body of Babylon herself. Via our work with publications like the electronic music and culture magazine XLR8R and the long-standing six-year-plus San Francisco club night Dub Mission, we'd been exposed to a myriad of talented artists from this country who were criminally underexposed. We were positive that with bands like Ben Wa, Tino Corp, and Systemwide knocking around on the West Coast, and East Coast concerns like the Organic Grooves posse and Avatars of Dub carrying on the late-'90s dubwise legacy, there was more than enough material out here to justify a collection of tunes by American-based dub artists.

And we were right. We found that American artists offer an exceptionally diverse take on the sonic ideals of this mystical genre. Just pop this bad bwoy into your player, and absorb these 12 exclusive tracks for the dubwise revelations that they are. From the gently stepping "Warrior Style" by Nashville/New York's Phase Selector and the sunbaked "Prisoner of Dub" by Texas's Sub Oslo, to the now-school dub 'n' bass mash-up of "Uptown Jungle" by Washington DC's Avatars of Dub and the skank-bounce of "Distant" by NYC's Zeb, it's clear that these producers hold sacred the freedom principles first fomented in those cloudy studios in yard a generation ago. We present this first chapter of American dub as both a manifesto and a challenge. With recent history in mind, we hope to see the United States reach for a place in the world rather than over it. We believe that cultural work like the material we present here is crucial for that process to continue.
- Ron Nachmann

DJ SEP of the San Francisco club night Dub Mission and RON NACHMANN (aka SHOCKMAN) journalist for the electronic music and culture magazine XLR8R have conceived and compiled Babylon Is Ours - The USA in dub.