Universal/Soul Jazz release of recordings from the influential second string father/son production team of Vincent and Clive Chin. Vincent was responsible for starting the labels Randy's and Impact in the late sixties and, with his son, subsequently started their own recording studio -- Randy's Recording Studio 17 -- which was so successful that other producers on the island often used it as well. This compilation gathers together 15 of the best reggae soul and funk tracks the pair produced between 1969 and 1975. Allan particularly likes the Skin Flesh And Bones' instrumental version of the BT Express's funk classic "Do It Til You're Satisfied". Booklet includes a several page interview with Clive Chin conducted in 2002 and several archival photos.
We are suckers for dancehall. Always have been. It's one of those sounds/musics (like black metal buzz, or THE DRONE), that we just can't ever seem to get enough of. That distinctive dancehall rhythmic stutter, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's irresistible, and then there's the wild toasting, all woven into this strange skeletal rhythmic party music, that manages to be fun and funky but also weirdly dark and heavy, especially on the first disc here, compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, who seems to have collected the weirdest dancehall jams around, even the opening track, a classic dancehall number, from way back in 1999, is pretty strange, the beat big and heavy, the vocals chopped up, some super cinematic strings, the toasting way off in the distance, buried way down in the mix, a dub seemingly gone haywire, which when you think about it could describe dancehall in general. Or at least the kind we love. And the first disc here is overflowing with it. Thick buzzing synth over low slung skitter, super effects heavy 8 bit stutter, weirdly produced so the sound slips from blown out and brittle, to murky and muddy, the sound laced with all manner of strange sound effects and WAY dubbed out drums, there's gypsy folk fiddles fused to clipped electronics and slithery basslines, or steel drum driven sunshiney party grooves underpinned by some seriously ominous low end, big skipping synth shuffles beneath snap and clam rhythms, and some swirling drugged out effects heavy vox, and so it goes, the first disc playing out like some twisted big beat experiment, that ranks up there with our favorite dubstep comps for speaker punishing beats, and fuzzy funky grooves, this one maybe the most twisted and far out yet, finishing off with a Bug track of course, Martin offering his own take on dancehall, this one a thumping chunk of bass heavy murk, that almost sounds like super charged double dutch, with some glitch electronics and echoey vocals, the sound slipping from gristly and crunchy, to hazy and washed out.
The second disc, ostensibly slightly more 'traditional', with more obvious nods to the dub and reggae that birthed dancehall, ends up being almost as wonderfully far out as the first, compiled by Soul Jazz head honcho Stuart Baker, disc two manages to shine a light on a different side of dancehall, but one that's just as twisted. Right off the bat, the opener sounds like a squelchy warbly dancehall-ed version of some classic hip hop jam, while the follow up is like some sort of dancehall / dubstep soundtrack to a futuristic sci-fi police chase movie, all fat bass warble and wah guitars, pulsing synth and BIG beats. The rest of the second disc plays out just as strangely as the first few tracks, slipping often into sounds more classically dub or dancehall, but even then, the beats get all twisted up, the loops warped, these tracks obviously chosen as the stranger examples of what was going on in dancehall, even King Tubby contributes some cool lo-fi Casio-driven dancehall weirdness, and near the end of the disc, the sound seems to gradually be slipping back toward a more traditional dub sound, but again, the far out aspects that define the tracks on the first disc, and to a lesser extant the first half of the second disc, remain present, just employed more subtly.
We make proclamations like this all the time, but this is quickly becoming our favorite dancehall comp, definitely the strangest, and most far out. WAY recommended of course. Even if you've yet to be won over by dancehall, if there was ever a record to do it, it would probably be this one. Besides the fact, that the whole thing is presented as an over the top concept collection, the music here apparently some sort of sound shield, to protect Kingston, Jamaica, where a crazy battle is set to take place, between the Alien Sound Lord Abductors, who are trying to recapture humanoid souls, and the Digital Defenders! And you can read all about it in the included comic book! So rad!
Also available, as so many of these Soul Jazz comps are, spread out over two separate vinyl volumes.
Vinyl part one, here's the review we wrote of the complete 2cd edition:
We are suckers for dancehall. Always have been. It's one of those sounds/musics (like black metal buzz, or THE DRONE), that we just can't ever seem to get enough of. That distinctive dancehall rhythmic stutter, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's irresistible, and then there's the wild toasting, all woven into this strange skeletal rhythmic party music, that manages to be fun and funky but also weirdly dark and heavy, especially on the first disc here, compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, who seems to have collected the weirdest dancehall jams around, even the opening track, a classic dancehall number, from way back in 1999, is pretty strange, the beat big and heavy, the vocals chopped up, some super cinematic strings, the toasting way off in the distance, buried way down in the mix, a dub seemingly gone haywire, which when you think about it could describe dancehall in general. Or at least the kind we love. And the first disc here is overflowing with it. Thick buzzing synth over low slung skitter, super effects heavy 8bit stutter, weirdly produced so the sound slips from blown out and brittle, to murky and muddy, the sound laced with all manner of strange sound effects and WAY dubbed out drums, there's gypsy folk fiddles fused to clipped electronics and slithery basslines, or steel drum driven sunshiney party grooves underpinned by some seriously ominous low end, big skipping synth shuffles beneath snap and clam rhythms, and some swirling drugged out effects heavy vox, and so it goes, the first disc playing out like some twisted big beat experiment, that ranks up there with our favorite dubstep comps for speaker punishing beats, and fuzzy funky grooves, this one maybe the most twisted and far out yet, finishing off with a Bug track of course, Martin offering his own take on dancehall, this one a thumping chunk of bass heavy murk, that almost sounds like super charegd double dutch, with some glitch electronics and echoey vocals, the sound slipping from gristly and crunchy, to hazy and washed out.
The second disc, ostensibly slightly more 'traditional', with more obvious nods to the dub and reggae that birthed dancehall, ends up being almost as wonderfully far out as the first, compiled by Soul Jazz head honcho Stuart Baker, disc two manages to shine a light on a different side of dancehall, but one that's just as twisted. Right off the bat, the opener sounds like a squelchy warbly dancehall-ed version of some classic hip hop jam, while the follow up is like some sort of dancehall / dubstep soundtrack to a futuristic sci fi police chase movie, all fat bass warble and wah guitars, pulsing synth and BIG beats. The rest of the second disc plays out just as strangely as the first few tracks, slipping often into sounds more classically dub or dancehall, but even then, the beats get all twisted up, the loops warped, these tracks obviously chosen as the stranger examples of what was going on in dancehall, even King Tubby contributes some cool lo-fi casio-driven dancehall weirdness, and near the end of the disc, the sound seems to gradually be slipping back toward a more traditional dub sound, but again, the far out aspects that define the tracks on the first disc, and to a lesser extant the first half of the second disc, remain present, just employed more subtlely.
We make proclamations like this all the time, but this is quickly becoming our favorite dancehall comp, definitely the strangest, and most far out. WAY recommended of course. Even if you've yet to be won over by dancehall, if there was ever a record to do it, it would probably be this one. Besides the fact, that the whole thing is presented as an over the top concept collection, the music here apparently some sort of sound shield, to protect Kingston, Jamaica, where a crazy battle is set to take place, between the Alien Sound Lord Abductors, who are trying to recapture humanoid souls, and the Digital Defenders! And you can read all about it in the included comic book! So rad!
Vinyl part two, here's the review we wrote of the complete 2cd edition:
We are suckers for dancehall. Always have been. It's one of those sounds/musics (like black metal buzz, or THE DRONE), that we just can't ever seem to get enough of. That distinctive dancehall rhythmic stutter, so hypnotic and mesmerizing, it's irresistible, and then there's the wild toasting, all woven into this strange skeletal rhythmic party music, that manages to be fun and funky but also weirdly dark and heavy, especially on the first disc here, compiled by Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, who seems to have collected the weirdest dancehall jams around, even the opening track, a classic dancehall number, from way back in 1999, is pretty strange, the beat big and heavy, the vocals chopped up, some super cinematic strings, the toasting way off in the distance, buried way down in the mix, a dub seemingly gone haywire, which when you think about it could describe dancehall in general. Or at least the kind we love. And the first disc here is overflowing with it. Thick buzzing synth over low slung skitter, super effects heavy 8bit stutter, weirdly produced so the sound slips from blown out and brittle, to murky and muddy, the sound laced with all manner of strange sound effects and WAY dubbed out drums, there's gypsy folk fiddles fused to clipped electronics and slithery basslines, or steel drum driven sunshiney party grooves underpinned by some seriously ominous low end, big skipping synth shuffles beneath snap and clam rhythms, and some swirling drugged out effects heavy vox, and so it goes, the first disc playing out like some twisted big beat experiment, that ranks up there with our favorite dubstep comps for speaker punishing beats, and fuzzy funky grooves, this one maybe the most twisted and far out yet, finishing off with a Bug track of course, Martin offering his own take on dancehall, this one a thumping chunk of bass heavy murk, that almost sounds like super charegd double dutch, with some glitch electronics and echoey vocals, the sound slipping from gristly and crunchy, to hazy and washed out.
The second disc, ostensibly slightly more 'traditional', with more obvious nods to the dub and reggae that birthed dancehall, ends up being almost as wonderfully far out as the first, compiled by Soul Jazz head honcho Stuart Baker, disc two manages to shine a light on a different side of dancehall, but one that's just as twisted. Right off the bat, the opener sounds like a squelchy warbly dancehall-ed version of some classic hip hop jam, while the follow up is like some sort of dancehall / dubstep soundtrack to a futuristic sci fi police chase movie, all fat bass warble and wah guitars, pulsing synth and BIG beats. The rest of the second disc plays out just as strangely as the first few tracks, slipping often into sounds more classically dub or dancehall, but even then, the beats get all twisted up, the loops warped, these tracks obviously chosen as the stranger examples of what was going on in dancehall, even King Tubby contributes some cool lo-fi casio-driven dancehall weirdness, and near the end of the disc, the sound seems to gradually be slipping back toward a more traditional dub sound, but again, the far out aspects that define the tracks on the first disc, and to a lesser extant the first half of the second disc, remain present, just employed more subtlely.
We make proclamations like this all the time, but this is quickly becoming our favorite dancehall comp, definitely the strangest, and most far out. WAY recommended of course. Even if you've yet to be won over by dancehall, if there was ever a record to do it, it would probably be this one. Besides the fact, that the whole thing is presented as an over the top concept collection, the music here apparently some sort of sound shield, to protect Kingston, Jamaica, where a crazy battle is set to take place, between the Alien Sound Lord Abductors, who are trying to recapture humanoid souls, and the Digital Defenders! And you can read all about it in the included comic book! So rad!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Of the many many rocksteady albums that I (Windy) own, this is my absolute favorite. Every song is an absolute gem, and will lead you to wanting to acquire whole albums by groups such as Phyllis Dillon, Tommy McCook, Justin Hinds, etc. Super highly recommended.
Though he was most known for being the producer behind Justin Hinds & The Dominos and Burning Spear, Jack Ruby was quite a prolific roots reggae producer throughout the seventies and eighties. This compilation features a sampling of some of his best, including: Burning Spear, Big Youth, The Black Disciples, The Heptones, Justin Hinds & The Domninos, and more -- plus a large amount of unrealeased tracks.
Unless you are one lucky cool cat there is a pretty good chance you don't have any of the great Jamaican 45's from 1972-1978 on this amazing comp. All here on cd for the very first time. As the title suggests, this comp focuses on the awesome infusions of soul and funk into the Jamaican sound. This movement was of course heavily influenced by the trend in the US at the time, a glorious funk and soul explosion, but make no mistake, these tracks still retain the classic reggae/dub feel that Jamaica was beginning to export to the rest of the world on great labels like Capo, Jaywax and our long lost Jamaican twin Aquarius (who also had a rad looking record store in Jamaica at the time).
Covers of folks like Earth Wind & Fire, Betty Wright and The JB's as well as original soul cookers from folks like The Heptones, Lee Pery and Cedric Brooks. As always the impeccable packaging by Soul Jazz makes this comp a total treat, with photos of the original 7" covers and super informative liner notes. Really nice!
Wow! When we think of great soul funk and reggae we have to say that Canada isn't usually the first place that comes to mind -- but we also weren't so aware of the huge migration of Jamaican musicians to Toronto that took place in the late '60s/early '70s. Which explains a lot. How lucky Toronto was to have these infectious sounds to call their own during this special era. This ranks as one of the best soul/funk/reggae collections we've had in a long while. And it really is equal parts reggae, funk and soul with that original reggae sound that many of these artists adopted after leaning way more towards a more soul sound for many years. Recent comps we've been loving like Studio One Women showed how much of the vintage reggae sounds were so influenced by doo-wop and the heyday of American soul music. Jamaica to Toronto is filled with that same kind of raw catchy soul we just can't get enough of. If you've fallen for the Eccentric Soul series that we've also been digging, then this is for you. Killer songs and elaborate 36-page booklet included. Highly recommended!
From the liner notes: "Recording a hit record is of course a major acheivement for any artiste, but while breaching the national music charts in your own country is one thing, repeating that success in others is quite another. Indeed, some of the most important recordings in Jamaica's musical history still remain relatively unknown anywhere outside its golden shores, and it is 50 such sides that make up this collection. All the recordings included on this set appeared on the annual top 25 chart for one of Jamaica's premiere radio stations, JBC, from 1960, up until its final year, 1973 - a fascinating period in the island's musical history. From Jamaican Blues, through the Ska and Rocksteady years, and finally, up until the more contemporary sounds of Reggae, this collection not only presents a wonderful opportunity to trace the development of Jamaican music during this golden age, but also to hear some of the most popular sounds of their day." Presented on three, chronologically arranged discs, this is a "best of" Jamaican music to top them all. Very highly recommended.
Jonny Greenwood has always been our favorite Radiohead member. Sure maybe Thom Yorke is a genius, but Greenwood is the unsung hero, his guitars and sound manipulations transforming Radiohead from run of the mill alternative rock band to one of the more innovative and captivating bands of the last decade. His solo score to the film Bodysong a few years ago showed the wide range of his music making abilities as well and was one of the first hints at his love of reggae with its subtle moments of glitched out dub electronics. Somehow, someway Trojan Records got in touch and decided to let him crack their vaults and put together a collection of his favorite tracks from their deep well of reggae gems. We gotta say he did some mighty fine selecting as this ranks as one of the nicer vintage reggae/dub collections we've had in the store in quite a while. With everyone from Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Delroy Wilson, Marcia Griffiths, The Heptones, Scotty, Scientist, and more...
This does a great job at scratching the surface of how much amazing music came out of Jamaica during the fertile era of the 70's. While it might just be clever marketing to put his name on this as all he did was pick out the songs, if it turns on some Radiohead devotees to the richness of reggae's finest then we have no problem with that at all.
Though the first word to come to ones head when mentioning the name King Tubby is "dub", you won't find a single track of it here. "King Tubby Meets the Reggae Masters" is a collection of tracks unearthed from his archives after King Tubby passed away in 1989.
The single biggest seller, hands down, of all of the Jamaican music we stock is, without a doubt Lee Perry's Kung Fu Meets The Dragon on Justice League. We're certain that what initially draws people to it is its classic cartoon cover art with a three headed man/dragon, a kung fu posing Upsetter and Chinese iconography to drive the point home. But what keeps this album from ever returning used to the store is the fact that it's just plain great. It's classic, demented, Black Ark era Lee Perry, filled with sonic burps, imponderable engeneering choices and just plain great rhythms and dynamite playing throughout. So does it sound like we're trying to sell you a different album here? Well, I'd (Byram) say that Kung Fu Meets The Dragon is a classic album that needs to be in anyone's collection if they're going to have any dub at all. What we have here is another Trojan theme disc and, one could say, a completely different dish of curried goat all together. So if you get both, your going to have some overlap, once again. There's only just so much classic material out there. Having said that, this is a decent disc in its own right. A great party album, sure. Subtracting the eight Upsetter tracks here that are included on Kung Fu Meets The Dragon and you've still got 15 tracks including a cover of Kung Fu Fighting by Lloyd Parks, several from Prince Jammy (not to be out done by the Upsetter he recorded his own Kamikaze Dub album back in 1979), Big Youth, Junior Byles, Barrington Levy, Linval Thompson, Keith Hudson, Augustus Pablo, Tommy McCook and Dave & Ansel Collins. Be prepared however for a great deal of tracks that pay homage to the martial arts in song title alone. Some will have you scratching your head trying to figure out what the connection is. That aside, it's a great deal of fun. We just wish we could say the cover art was as nice as Kung Fu Meets The Dragon.
We're not sure why this record is titled as such, since it's straight up 1963-64 era early ska from genius producer Duke Reid (who often held his artists at gunpoint in the studio until they cut the tracks to his satisfaction). Most of the comp features the BRILLIANT, sunny day sax stylings of Tommy McCook and the Skatalites. Think easy tempo ska infused with American r&b/soul... Yes it is that good! Highly recommended. From Jet Set, the French reggae reissue label whose releases we plan to carry a lot more of.
What the hell more can we say about grime?! Other than we love it. We're obsessed with it. Grime and dubstep are everything we wish hip hop still was (and some still is, the new Clipse absolutely destroys!). Fresh and funky, wild and weird. Fucked up beats and even more fucked up flows. Stuttering hiccupping what the fuck rhythms. It's maddeningly mind bending. And we just can't get enough. And the thing is, we're forced to subsist on a new grime/dubstep release every few weeks or every couple of months, when we could easily be eating up ten times that. This is the only music that stands any chance of getting our non-dancing asses out of our chairs and out onto the dancefloor. And even if dancing is even lower on your list of priorities that it is on ours, this shit is the perfect kicking back music, drifting off, mellowing out, late night dubbed out chill music, it also sounds absolutely amazing blasting in your car. Like we said, we just can't get enough. So here we have a collection of some of the best dubstep (and grime) jams of the last little while compiled by legendary DJ Mary Anne Hobbs. About half of these tracks were recorded or at least remixed specifically for this comp, the rest being all time grime/dubstep classics.
The disc starts off with a track from recent AQ Record of the Weeker Milanese, a furious muted blast of grime-y groove and some killer dancehall style toasting over the top. The grime element is sort of pushed aside in favor of the more blissed out dubstep sound for the rest of the disc, featuring a track from another AQ record of the week Burial, as well as a track from Kode9 & Space Ape whose full length we raved about not too long ago. And of course a track from Kevin Martin's Bug... This whole record is just so dark and deliriously groovy. Beats are all over the place, alternating between shuffling and pounding, slithering and stuttering, huge basslines fuzz and buzz, thick swaths of low end synth threaten your woofers, vocals are minimal, sometimes wild tongue twisting flows, other times growled dancehall toasting, bits of jungle surface here and there, thick swirls of ominous ambience EVERYWHERE. So goddamn good. We've been listening to this non stop!! And every time we play this in the store somebody comes up to find out what it is, and usually ends up buying it. So what else do you need to know. Buy this now!
New collection from New York dancehall label Massive B featuring cuts by artists toasting over Massive B's new improved upon -- punchier bass -- "2G1 Answer" and "Dun Dem" rhythms. 17 cuts (8 using the Answer rhythm and 9 using Dun Dem) featuring such notables as Jr. Kelly ("Ghetto Region"), Elephant Man ("The Anthem"), Burro Banton ("Settle Yours"), Half Pint ("She's Fever"),
Imagine one of those reggae collections where the version track follows the vocal, except that instead of there being a rude break where the song stops and then starts again as a dub, the vocals merely drop out for several minutes, returning only at the close
Last list one of our 'Records-of-the-Week' was the awesome "Wild Dub" compilation of punk-era dubs. This week, we've got another culture clash -- though, like "Wild Dub", it's less a clash than a perfect match -- with this mix of reggae meets hip hop mixes.
Not to be confused with Heartbeat's venerable compilation of disco-mixes which bears the same title, Soul Jazz's "Nice Up The Dance" is no less of a great collection. While the earlier genres of Jamaican music have drawn inspiration from the States in varying degrees since the 1950's, it's only recently that tables have turned and artists from the U.S. have begun importing ideas from Jamaica -- so much so that rap and dancehall are practically joined at the hip. Dancehall artists are not only cameo-ing on albums by prominent rap artists, but even getting some major label attention of their own. Along comes Soul Jazz to bridge the not-so-wide gap between hip hop and dancehall. On the one hand you have Jamaican artists here like Sean Paul, who has apparently been enjoying some MTV and major label attention right now. His 1996 track "Infiltrate", which has some sick sub-harmonic bass for those of you with subwoofers (the "Playground" riddim), is included here. And on the other you have American artists like J-Live with his track "Satisfied" which pays homage to Jamaican music by using Augustus Pablo's "East of the River Nile" as its foundation, and NY producer Kenny Dope with his trunk rattling dancehall/hip hop crossover classics "Boomin' In Ya Jeep" (featuring Screechy Dan) and "Gunshot" (featuring Shaggy). The best thing about this collection is that it's not some academic attempt to point out the missing links between hip hop and dancehall, but -- like Soul Jazz already has demonstrated time and again -- to collect some of the best tracks into a mix that will stay in your system this summer. This is going to be the album to blast at your next bar-b-q, or in your car on the way to the beach/park/club through the coming hot months (for those of you who are blessed with warm summers). Along with the aforementioned tracks is Cutty Ranks' kick ass come back tune "Who Say Me Done", a fucking wicked Tuva-drone toast from Pompidoo aptly titled "Synthesizer Voice", Steelie and Cleevie's electro-bass remix of Dawn Penn's "No, No, No" (admit it purists, this mix grows on you), another mix of the ever so popular "Ring The Alarm" by Tenor Saw and more. But the absolute bestest, most kick-assessed track on the album is Ward 21's gut pounding, steamroller of a bassline "Petrol" (from 2002 -- no it's not on the Mentally Disturbed album) which features tag team vocals from both the growling baritone and the 200-words-per-minute auctioneer cum toaster. And for those of you that can't live without it, there are some nice liner notes tracing the paths of Jamaican and American music here for you. Highly recommended!!!
Seems like it's been ages since we've got anything in on MoWax. I guess I haven't been paying much attention to them of late, their second volume of sleepy bedroom trip hop Headz bombed so bad, I thought that was the end of them. So it's a bit odd to be
Yeah, you're right, these aren't new collections. In fact they're over six years old at this point. But imagine our surprise, johnny-come-latelys we are with these comps, when we picked them up for the store and discovered that we were already familiar with one of the tracks from a record of the week pick of a year ago. What I'm speaking of is DJ Rupture's inclusion of the Greensleeves (via Ridley Don) jungle remix of Barrington Levy's "Here I Come" on volume two. While Rupture did in fact add his own treatment to the mix, pitching it down drastically half way through, we were a little miffed that the mix -- which we thought was one of the best parts of the Gold Teeth Thief -- wasn't his own. Like the Trojan Jungle collections the two Ragga Jungle Anthem volumes are merely previously released tracks that have been remixed with breakbeat jungle rhythms, but where as the Trojan collections worked with classic reggae and ska material, the Ragga Jungle Anthem collections are all contemporary dancehall, which lends itself to such remixing. And sure the beats aren't new or groundbreaking, or even that original, but hell, it sounds SOOOOO GOOD. That classic jungle rhythm the got us in so into jungle in the first place. No tech step or hard step or dark core or whatever, just big dumb fun floor shaking wall rattling JUNGLE rhythms under some classic dancehall. You can't go wrong.
Yeah, you're right, these aren't new collections. In fact they're over six years old at this point. But imagine our surprise, johnny-come-latelys we are with these comps, when we picked them up for the store and discovered that we were already familiar with one of the tracks from a record of the week pick of a year ago. What I'm speaking of is DJ Rupture's inclusion of the Greensleeves (via Ridley Don) jungle remix of Barrington Levy's "Here I Come" on volume two. While Rupture did in fact add his own treatment to the mix, pitching it down drastically half way through, we were a little miffed that the mix -- which we thought was one of the best parts of the Gold Teeth Thief -- wasn't his own. Like the Trojan Jungle collections the two Ragga Jungle Anthem volumes are merely previously released tracks that have been remixed with breakbeat jungle rhythms, but where as the Trojan collections worked with classic reggae and ska material, the Ragga Jungle Anthem collections are all contemporary dancehall, which lends itself to such remixing. And sure the beats aren't new or groundbreaking, or even that original, but hell, it sounds SOOOOO GOOD. That classic jungle rhythm the got us in so into jungle in the first place. No tech step or hard step or dark core or whatever. just big dumb fun floor shaking wall rattling JUNGLE rhythms under some classic dancehall. You can't go wrong.
A great collection of soulful '70s reggae tunes centered on producer Clive Chin of the legendary Kingston studio (and retail record mart) Randy's. Highlights include Alton Ellis' "Too Late", Senya's "Roots Man", the Randy's All Stars version of the
Wwe heard that both volumes of the original LPs of Reggae Goodies sold for $350 each on eBay just recently, if that tells you anything about the collector fanatacism that Wackies merch inspires in folks these days. If you're not a fetishist for the original object, you can get all those tracks -- 20 of them -- for a fraction of the $700 eBay price tag. All the greats are here: The Love Joys, Joe Morgan, Wayne Jarrett, Stranger Cole, The Chosen Brothers and much more.
As implied by the title, this collection is an exploration into the humble origins of what is now a household name around the world. Originally existing only for local consumption in Jamaica's back streets at a time when all the rest of the world new about the island was Bob Marley, the current crop of dancehall stars -- Sean Paul, Elephant man, et al. -- are either cameoing on major US hip hop albums or being signed to major labels here. It just took 20 something odd years. The tracks here are all come from the work of Linval Thompson, Junjo Lawes and the Roots Radics band at their Channel One studio in Jamaica. Thompson and Lawes are largely credited with being the founding fathers of dancehall in Jamaica and these tracks, most recorded in the late seventies, are some of rarities and reworkings of classic tunes. Included here are Horace Andy, Barry Brown, Linval Thompson, Earl 16, Freddy McKay, Don Carlos and more. Comes with a nice color booklet with liner notes by David Katz (author of the Lee Perry biography People Funny Boy) and archival photos.
The term "counter-culture" seems to be Rough Trade's catch-all tag for this extremely eclectic compilation. This two disc set features a total of 41 tracks from around the world - many familiar artists (Bright Eyes, the Breeders, ESG, Bis, Johnny Dowd, Melt Banana, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cabaret Voltaire, Mountain Goats, Tom Waits, Prefuse 73, Tracy And The Plastics, Glass Candy And The Shattered Theatre, James Yorkston, Dempsey, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, Joy Zipper, Langley Schools Music Project) as well as many you may not yet be familiar with (Rubicks, The Be Good Tanyas, Trash Money, Akufen, Baxter Dury, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, My Robot Friend, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Crossover, The Books and Pink Grease). A genuine musical cornucopia!
When we first got wind of this comp, for some reason, we just assumed it was gonna be another amazing Soul Jazz reggae comp, it didn't even occur to us that it would be a collection of killer classic jungle jams from the early nineties. But we threw it on, and were just knocked on our asses, transported back to '93/'94 when we first discovered jungle, particularly, ragga-dancehall-jungle or whatever you wanted to call it, a killer blend of traditional Jamaican dancehall, and this new breed of sped up hip hop that had grown out of the rave scene in the UK.
The history and genealogy is complex, but there's been plenty written about it, the liner notes here are particularly informative, tracing the development of ragga-jungle from the early Reggae sound systems, through the rave scene, UK hardcore hip hop, and beyond. Ragga jungle was a flash in the pan, existing for 3 or 4 years before most of the folks making it moved on to two-step, garage, drum and bass and on an on. But for our money, this was it. This was THE music we had been waiting for. We have loved dancehall forever, the harder and faster the better, so here was the toasting and melody of dancehall, draped over chopped up stuttering and pounding hip hop beats, all sped up into a rhythmic frenzy.
If there's one track that sums it up for us, it's DJ Zinc's "Super Sharp Shooter", with its interminable vocal and squelchy synth intro, the loping creeping reggae groove, the buzzing melody, the simple shuffling drum beat, the slowed down Method Man sample, and that's all before the track actually even drops, and when it does... Whoooowheee. We remember hearing this for the first time in one of the few clubs in SF that played jungle back in the day, and it nearly knocked us out of our seats. We ended up buying a DJ mix tape from one of the DJs spinning, and thankfully it had "Super Sharp Shooter" on it, and from that point on, we listened to it over and over every day, in the car, cranked as loud as it would go, bass pumping (as much as the bass could be said to pump in a crappy old van). So fucking heavy and hooky and funky. When the track finally kicks in, it's massive, relentless serpentine pass line, ultra complex drums, funky and groovy but so tangled and dense, every once in a while the bass line locks on a single not and just hooooooooolds steady until it drops, hard, and we're off on another junglistic jam. As far as we're concerned this would be worth it just for this track, but thankfully, the rest of the disc is just as kick ass.
Lots of familiar reggae and dancehall names, Ninjaman, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Cutty Ranks, and for those in the know, the rest of the names read like an early nineties jungle all star lineup: Ragga Twins, Poison Chang, Ragga Twins, DJ Zinc, Shy FX... but even if you don't know any of these names, the music speaks for itself. Check out "Original Nuttah" by UK Apachi & Shy FX, beginning with some super hooky sing songy reggae vocals before the track launches into a maddeningly dense rapid fire snare workout underpinning a raw and tongue twisting flow. Furious and intense and so goddamn good. Then there's tracks like Ragga Twins' "Illegal Gunshot", with its playful and circusy melodic loop, but juxtaposed with some seriously aggro toasting, some Bomb Squad like production, and some outrageously funky drumming.
Pretty much every track on here is a killer, never has a record so much made even us non-dancers want to head for the dancefloor and go fucking nuts. The cool thing about this stuff, is even if you're dancefloor phobic, is that these tracks are so dense and multi layered, full of convoluted rhythms and mad drumming and rapid fire rhymes and wild toasting and strange melodies and killer grooves, that they're almost as fun to listen to as they are to dance to. Almost.
Like all Soul Jazz stuff, gorgeously packaged and extensively researched. Tons of liner notes, track notes, photos, all wrapped up in a full color slipcase.
Another dancehall collection featuring tracks by singers using the "Saddam Birthday Party" and "Jailbreak" rhythms. All the greats are here: Capleton, Merciless, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Lexxus, Mr Vegas, Frisco Kid, Danny English and more. You just gotta be
Rock steady -- the Jamaican musical form that bridged ska and reggae, and somehow seems cooler than either, at least to some of us here -- flourished circa '66-68, and here's a collection of 23 rare tracks from that era, both vocal and instrumental, from such famous artists as Horace Andy (his first ever recording), Ken Boothe, Tommy McCook, and many more. Comps on Pressure Sounds are a pretty solid bet and this is a nice one with extensive liner notes and all. So if you are in a rock steady mood (relaxed, or in need of relaxation!) Safe Travel is a great compilation of Phil Pratt productions for the Calton and Jon Tom labels, featuring mellow, mellific vocals and laidback bass grooves.
Another new collection of classic dub tracks - all of these from the Blood & Fire back catalog - remixed by electronica artists. There are tracks by Smith & Mighty, The Orb, Avatars of Dub, Stereo MC's, Groove Corporation, The Erb and more.
Following on the heels of their successful first volume of remixes from the Blood & Fire catalog, Select Cuts has released yet another disc of more of the same. Classic tracks by Scientist, Yabby You, I Roy, King Tubby, Linval Thompson and more are remixed
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The third and final installment of the popular Select Cuts series of Blood & Fire remixes in which contemporary "leftfield" DJs and Producers pay homage to Jamaican music by remixing classic tracks from the island. This collection features remixes of Big Youth (Waterhouse Rock, Political Confusion & Chucky No Lucky), Horace Andy (Do You Love My Music, Ital Vital), Impact All Stars (Dubwise Situation), Gregory Isaacs (Get Ready) and more by the usual suspects: Black Star Liner, Smith & Mighty, Groove Corporation, as well as Pressure Drop, Walkner.Mostl, Dan Donovan / Don Letts Dub Cartel, Dreadzone, Henry & Louis, Different Drummer Soundsystem, Small Axe, Kaleidoscope and even a bonus "Blood & Fire Megamix" by Fila Brazillia. This one's definitely made for the euro dancefloor what with all those beautiful rhythmmic gaps now filled in like so much wood putty in much of these remixes by the endless chattering 32nd notes or pounding breakbeat rhythms. Those who enjoyed the last two volumes will appreciate this one as well.
Alright all you hard ragga nuts, pick this fucker up! Damn, seems like it's been a while since we've got some real crazy shit in here that we could get really excited about and adamantly recommend to customers with complete confidence. Many of the tracks here have already appeared as 12"s and 7"s on Tigerbeat6's Shockout imprint. But those of us lacking turntables or too lazy to lift those heavy slabs for a mere 3 minutes of pleasure have been left out of the game... until now. Looking for some DJ Rupture? Looking for The Bug? Looking for something to replace those worn copies of DJ Scud's Murder Sound or yearning for a return of Panacea circa Low Profile Darkness? You'll find your fix embedded here in the digital pits of this here humble aluminum disc. Brutal two-step cut ups with gut churning bass, brain rattling hardcore ragga jungle and levelled off with some of the most phlegm inducing, distorted and gruff toasting you'll ever hear. Along with some of the heaviest singles in the Shockout series thus far by the likes of The Bug, Ove-Naxx, Soundmurderer & SK-1, Timeblind, Kid606, and Eight Frozen Modules, there are exclusive tracks from DJ Rupture, Com A. and Guislain Poirier (nice to hear some French in the mix for once). Plus this Shockout comp also includes the original "Killer" single by Rootsman and He-Man that The Bug remixed, which sounds like a madman trying to burp his way through a vocal dub. Verbally slobbering over this collection wouldn't be complete without mentioning the exceptionally great track sequencing. The comp kicks off with Strategy's mellow "Dunes Dub", a springy dub track with a Fela Kuti-esque keyboard line, and slowly works its way up in ferocity through the the next several tracks. Strategy bookends the collection in fact, with the A-side to their Shockout 12" "Going Street Dub" finishing things off. In flow, Shockout reminds us of DJ Rupture's now classic Minesweeper Suite. Everyone who loves those Ward 21 albums, DJ Rupture, The Bug's new ragga incarnation or the Kid (as in 606) should pluck this sucker up post haste. Highly fucking recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Nice collection of sound system exclusive tracks belonging to King Tubby, taken off of sessions recorded by Bunny Lee. Starting in the late sixties, Bunny "Striker" Lee and King Tubby would develop a special symbiotic relationship where Bunny would bring all his sessions to King Tubby to be mixed and cut to disc, and in return King Tubby would get to keep a copy of the tapes himself to mix special dub plates and other versions for use on his incredibly popular "King Tubby's Home Town Hi-Fi" sound system. These are some of the most popular sound system tracks of the day, including The Abyssinians' "Satta Massa Gana" voiced by crooner Ken Boothe, Jackie Edwards' "In The Mood", Johnny Clarke's "Ride on Girl" and Horace Andy's "Guiding Star".
Pretty much all of Soul Jazz's Studio One reggae comps have been great, so how darn good d'you think one entitled "Studio One Classics" is gonna be? Yeah, that's right...classics. An inevitable, admittedly incomplete sampling of the best of Studio One's output over the years (since the '60s), from ska to rocksteady to dancehall to dub. This disc is intended as something in the way of a tribute to Studio One's legendary producer Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, who passed away last May at the age of 72. He had a hand in recording each of the 18 tracks found here, which include cuts by the likes of The Skatalites, Horace Andy, The Wailers, Alton Ellis, Burning Spear, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Prince Jazzbo, Sound Dimension, Johnny Osbourne, and others. With that array of talent, a stellar compilation is more-or-less assured, eh? ...But what's that? Think you don't like reggae? C'mon at least give this one a shot. There's definitely gonna be something on here that you'll dig, or well...ok you don't like reggae, but we tried!
Soul Jazz does it again. This time the label tackles the classic DJ cuts produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One from the beginning of the 60's through the early 80's. Unlike the common DJ of repute who was content to merely play records, Jamaican DJ's have always been of a mind to persistently interject their own thoughts, off the cuff remarks, vocal sound effects over what they played. Such was the heavy competition between Sound Systems in Jamaica, that merely having the freshest cuts would win an audience. A charismatic master of ceremonies was crucial drawing crowds. Out of this developed the Jamaican DJ: U Roy, I Roy, Big Youth, Dennis Alcapone, Count Machuki, Prince Jazzbo et al. Coxsone Dodd, having already been the owner of one of the biggest sound systems in Jamaica by the end of the 50's, continued in the capacity of producer to become the institution he is today with vaults of the most popularly versioned rhythms in Jamaica. 'Studio One DJ's' takes a look at not only some of the most successful DJ's to work with Coxsone, but also some great obscure one's that you may never have heard. You won't find either U or I Roy on this collection, but that shouldn't dissuade you (we can set you up with great discs of either) as their's no shortage of awesome tracks on here from the sparse interjections of Count Machuki to the non-stop-almost-out-of-breath toasting and cocka-doodle-dooing of Dennis Alcapone, to the ever so gruff and foreboding chanting of Prince Far I, there's an impressive variety of artistry represented here.
Wow! And we also just discovered that there's a short video on Studio One included on the CD that you can watch on your computer. Brief interviews with Coxsone and Norma, plus footage of notable DJ's Lone Ranger and a pissed off looking King Stitt. Looks like it's a sneak peak of a full length documentary that Sould Jazz will be releasing on DVD and video in the near future. We're all waiting on the pins and the needles for its release!
Most of us have come to know the DJ as a behind the scenes mover and shaker, not so much the star attraction, but more of a journeyman, playing the records, not playing ON the records, but the DJ in the heyday of reggae and dub culture was very much right in front of the action. The main attraction in most cases. Often adding their own voice loud and proud over the top of whatever sounds happened to be spinning. Screaming, singing, rapping, goofing, adding much of the DJ's individual personality to the dubbed out grooves. Soul Jazz has once again used its master key to the Studio One vaults for this, the second collection of Studio One DJ's. Digging deeper into the dancehalls of Jamaica in the 70's and coming out with a bunch of gems. If you're a fan of all things Soul Jazz, Trojan, Dancehall and the like, this is absolutely essential.
Similar to the extended dance mixes that were ever so popular in the US, the disco mixes coming out of Jamaica were remixes, often combining a dub and vocal version, designed for dance clubs to keep a song playing longer. Part of the inspiration from Dodd's stable at Studio One was to counteract the then rampent versioning of Studio One rhythms by the other recording studios. Given that these tracks were being cut to 12" discs, they could run anywhere from 5 to over ten minutes in length. A few years back the label Heartbeat released one such collection of disco mixes from Studio One called Nice Up The Dance (no, not to be confused with the album by the same name released by Soul Jazz a couple years later) and it immediately became a favorite here. So we were pretty excited to learn that Soul Jazz was going to do their own collection. The only shortcoming with the Soul Jazz comp is that many of the tracks here are hardly "extended" mixes. Over half of the tracks on this collection are between 2 and 3 minutes in length. It's a fine collection nonetheless, filled with updated classics spanning some ten plus years of Studio One's output. While some tracks are merely remixes of the original tunes, many feature newer vocalists (at the time) reversioning the Studio One classics, as well as some vocalists updating their own tracks, like Alton Ellis' own 1980 revoicing of a tune he cut in 1960.
It's with bittersweet feelings and a sorrowful heart that we find ourselves writing about the newest of Soul Jazz's tributes to Jamaica's finest cultural treasure. Sadly, Clement Sir Coxsone Dodd passed away on Tuesday, May 4th. It was only four days previous that Brentford Road, the street where Dodd's studio has been located for the last 41 years, was renamed Studio One Boulevard and a celebration was held in his honor. Farewell Coxsone, your legacy will continue to grow for generations to come. Suitable it is that a collection of dub from Studio One should grace us at this time, not solely as how a collection of music stripped of voices could be seen as a symbolic moment of silence, but because of all the creative musical innovations to come out of Jamaica, dub has had the most profound effect on modern music today and the real artists behind dub aren't the musicians, but the engineers -- in this case Coxsone Dodd and Studio One's house engineer at the time Sylvan Morris. The 17 tracks on this collection span the gamut of the artistry of dub: from the sparse to the full blown, balls out effects laden masterpiece. Case in point is Dodd's "Chase Them Version" in which the master tape is somehow manhandled to sound as if it is being eaten by the machine. We've heard all sorts of cases of master tapes being sped up, slowed down and played backwards, but this was a first for us... unless you count Faxed Head (strange how far dub's influence stretches). As for rhythms, of course Studio One's got the pick of the litter and most of the dubs here are ultra rare cuts originally released as silk-screened limited editions. Along with a kick ass cover, Soul Jazz has included a booklet with interviews of both Sylvan Morris and Coxsone Dodd. Highly recommended!
