VP Records just had the excellent idea of reissuing Keith Hudson masterpiece, Rasta Communication, in a deluxe edition full of excellent bonuses: you can find the original album , 12" mixes of Nah Skin Up, Felt We Felt The Strain, Bloody Eyes, the 7" version of Rasta Country and an extra CD with a dub version of the album. Rasta Communication was mixed by King Tubby so there are pretty good chances that the dub master himself was invested in the dub version of the album. With Rasta Communication, Keith Hudson was targeting Bob Marley's sales figures. He never achieved them but at least realized a perfect roots joint and and a true reggae heads favorite.
After a stint for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle, Lloyd Barnes emigrated to New York where he created his Wackie's House Of Music record shop, a music studio and several reggae labels and sublabels. Quickly, from his american headquarters, LLoyd Barnes released some of the finest reggae music ever recorded. It's not a surprise that his catalogue was reedited by Basic Channel, a German label run by guys (Moritz von Ostwald and Mark Ernestus) for which music is definitely not a joke. Creation Dub is credited to The Bullwackie's All Stars, one of the many configuration of Wackies in-house studio band. Most of the songs are dubbed version of riddims already used by others for Wackies and covers (I Want Get Next To You, rebaptized Next To Jah, Leaving Rome, rebaptized Creation Dub). Deep, heavy and spiritual shit.
The first three volumes of the Hip Hop Reggae series have been downloaded nearly 3000 times on this blog! In fact they are directly responsible for a large part of my trafic. So I expect my little success by posting the fourth volume. Mato didn't change his winning recipe, already used on Vol. 2 and on Vol. 1 and 3 by his partner un crime Taggy Matcher: reggae interpolation of classic hip hop tunes with the a cappella vocals pasted on it. Like always it's very well made. This time, it's the turn of De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan Naughty By Nature, Nas, Missy Elliot, Lords Of The Underground, Cypress Hill, Lauryn Hill and Funkdoobiest. Heavy stuff.
Every reggae compilation released by Soul Jazz Records is a must have, Dancehall included. This compilations offers insights on the Jamaican dancehall scene between 1977 and 1993. Like always with Soul Jazz, you'll find obvious classics and more obscure tracks but every single of them is just a scorcher. If you read this post, you probably know what you are about to download so this time, no Youtube or Soundcloud snippets is needed.
Usually I am very careful with reggae albums made in the 80's. Reggae was going digital at those times and the rich instrumentation of the 70's was replaced by cheesy electronic drums and keyboards based melodies. A Luta Continua is an exception. Produced by Herbie Miller in Jamaica, Big Youth toasts on instrumentals and backup vocals provided by musicians like Robbie Sakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Leroy Sibles or The Tamlins. Clearly roots, this album is dedicated to the Black people struggles figures in Africa or in the US. Nice riddims, a good DJ well inspired, revolutionary vocals, what else would you ask to a good reggae album?
Jerry Dammers started 2 Tone Records in 1979. With a strong visual identity (the iconic Walt Jabsco logo, created with Horace Panter and designer John "Teflon" Sims, the black-and-white check patern) and an excellent roster consisting mainly of Jerry Dammers own The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, 2 Tone strong imprint on British society of the early 80's cannot be dennied. Its mix of ska with post-punk flashes was at first the soundtrack of the fights against racism, Maggie Thatcher and its reactionary rethoric. The skinhead movement fell then into fascist brutality and hooliganism. This Are Two Tone gives you one of the best insight available on 2 Tone catalog and features absolute classics like The Special's Gangsters, Rudi, A Message To You, Ghost Town, The Selecter's On My Radio and Too Much Pressure, Madness' Madness or The Beat's Tears Of A Clown cover.
I bought the VP 2004 CD reedition of this record and I don't really know if Warning was effectively released on Wild Flower in 1980. Its original release date is subject to debate among reggae heads (i.e. the Roots Archives Forums if you are interested http://www.roots-archives.com/forum/). The Black Eagles were a band created by Denroy Morgan in 1970. They relased a handful of 7" and the Warning LP. Warning was recorded in Harry Jay studio en Jamaica porbably in 1978 then overdubbed in New-York. It's a record that is not that common, that has not been that much posted and pretty good to have if you are into reggae roots. Denroy Morgan then went for a solo career but still used The Black Eagles as backing band. I let reggae connoisseurs make comments if they think more need to be written about this one.
Earthquake Dub was the first dub album produced by Ossie Hibbert and was released on his own label, Earthquake. The album was released as well on Joe Gibbs Record Globe imprint and on Count Shelley's label, Live & Love in the UK with all the tracks retitled. The Hot Pot Records reedition I post today follows the titles as used by Ossie Hibbert on the original release. As often with dub albums, Ossie used versions and recut of songs and riddims made for other artists. That's how he used the bassline to Keith & Tex's Stop That Train but with new horns arrangement. You can find pieces of classics sang by Dennis Brown, The Abbyssinians or Phyllis Dillon updated in rockers style by Ossie and The Revolutionaries. If you read the credits, you discover that The Revolutionaries were no half-weights but a who's who of Jamaican music: Sly Dunbar on drums, Bertram 'Ranchie' McClean on bass, Radford 'Duggie' Bryan and Earl 'Chinna' Smith on guitars, Ossie Hibbert himself and Ansel Collins on keyboards, Headley Bennett, Dean Fraser and Herman Marquis on alto sax, Tommy McCook on tenor sax and flute, Vin Gordon on trombone, Bobby Ellis on trumpet, Uziah 'Stick' Thompson and Noel 'Scully' Simms on percussion. The reissue of this masterpiece comes with eight bonus cuts.
With La Onda Vampi, Spanish reedition label Vampisoul offers a quick look on its recent releases. The menu is written on the cover: 60s R&B, Spanish ye-yé, highlife, latin soul, tropicalia, psych intrumentals, boogaloo, afrobeat, flamenco rumba, iranian rare groove. My personnal favorites are the Czech psyche beat of Marta Kubisova's Ja Tu S Tvari Nemennou, the dubbed cumbia of Frente Cumbiero and Mad Professor's La Bocachico and of course Joe Bataan's Latin Soul Square Dance. This compilation can be acquired for a bargain price and is a perfect sonic antidote to the every economic crisis in the old world.
Among the 5 volumes VP Records made with Joe Gibbs discomix 12" singles, the fourth volume will probably satisfy the most mainstream ears thanks to its two Michael Jackson covers: Shake Your Body To The Ground by Ruddy Thomas and Welton Irie and Don't Stop Till You Get Enough by Derrick Lara and Trinity. The last one, with its infectiuous bassline, will smash every dancefloor when played, even the less reggae friendly. The rest of the record is more made for true reggae heads and is filled with absolute scorchers and classics made by a producer then (end of the 70's/begining of the 80's) at the peak of his inspiration.
I left you in july with a Sly & Robbie post and guess what, I'm back in september with a Sly & Robbie post. Don't be afraid by the ugly cover of this bargain CD, probably one of the shittiest ever produced by the recorded music industry since its creation . It's the cheapest way to acquire Sly & Robbie's Dub Rockers Delight album, released here under another name, Leaving Dub. Dub Rockers Delight is the dub version of Lacksley Castell's Morning Glory LP (thank you Roots Archives http://www.roots-archives.com/release/1655/?highlight=20469). It was recorded in Studio One and Tuff Gong studios in 1982 and produced by Robert Flacko Palmer. In fact, this album is heavy on reggae instrumentation and not that much in dub effects which are very light. It's not exactly at the same level than the masterpiece of the genre but it's difficult for me to be objective when Sly & Robbie are involved and I found the overall album pretty good. There's enough drum and bass here to satisfy any head.
Reggae is probably one of the music the most cherished by die-hard fans. It's even the music that has the most fetichists in Western world, the kind of guys that spend monthes and massive amount of money to track down rare 7". Posting about reggae can consequently be a double edge sword: it's curiously the posts that have the most success and drag trafic on this blog but it's pretty hard to find something really interesting and rare that has not been posted elsewhere on hundreds of musical blogs like this one. You'll probably find posts about Taxi Fare at other places but this record is so good it would be a crime to omit it. Jamaican music most famous rythms duo, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Skakespear probably hold the bass and the drums on the best reggae releases of the last 40 years. They released Taxi Fare under their own name with the help of the Channel One All Stars (Bongo Herman, Carlton "Santa" Davis, Eric Lamont, Errol "Flabba" Holt, Gladstone Anderson, Noel "Scully" Simms, Sky Juice, Winston Wright) and Jamaican best vocalists of the time. It's not a proper album but more a compilation of their best production works of the previous years for their own Taxi Records label. It all starts out with the instrumental track Triplet and its slowed down and dubbed out interpolation of Don't Go by Yazoo. Sugar Minott then holds the vocals on Devil Pickney, Struggle on Rock Music, Jimmy Riley on Pure & True, Junior Delgado on Fort Augustus, Dennis Brown on Sitting & Watching, The Tamlins on Baltimore, my favorite track of the record, Jimmy Riley again on Bang Bang and Carlton Livingston on Those Tricks. The bass and the electronic drum are mixed above the vocals and the other instruments and the result just kick you in the chest. In a time when digitalized reggae was starting to dominate Jamaica, Taxi Fare succeeds to be a roots release with a modernized flavor. A must.
If you like reggae remixes, here are the masters of the game, French Bost & Bim, even better than Taggy Matcher, Mato or Grant Phabao. Their mixtapes serie, Yankees A Yard is already a must have. But The Bombing, their compilation of their best pop ans soul classics reggae remixes, is a pure killer. They took absolute masterpieces (Let's Get It On, Superfreak, I Want You Back, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and so on...) and succeed to remix them without sounding corny. Play any one of those tracks and you'll make any dancefloor going crazy. I just wonder where they found the acapellas to make all their remixes...
Tracklisting:
1- Marvin Star - Let's Get It On 2- Supa James - Superfreak 3- Little Stevie - For Your Love 4- Diana Supreme: My World Is Empty 5- Fabulous Five - I Want You Back 6- Little Stevie - Uptight 7- Marvin & Tammi - Ain't No Mountain High Enough 8- The Thieves - Message In A Bottle 9- John & Paul - Girl 10- Smokey Miracle - Tracks Of My Tears 11- Sista Janis - Mercedes Benz 12- Marvin Star - Sexual Healing 13- Diana Supreme - Baby Love 14- John & Paul feat. Ras Pidow - Because
My two Hip Hop Reggae Series posts are my two most successful posts. Nobody left any comment but a lot of people have downloaded the first two volumes of the serie. The master Taggy Matcher is back behind the producer board for the third volume and those ten new scorching reggae remixes of R&B and hip hop classics. By order of appearence you'll find Mary J Blige, Missy Elliott, Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg, Nas, Erikah Badu, The Beastie Boys, Gravediggaz, Method Man & Redman, Public Enemy and an instrumental bonus (Nautilus). Enjoy.
French reggae producers Bost & Bim give 2010 main hip hop and R&B their reggae touch, cuting and copying extracts on original riddims. It's really well made, at least as well as the fist two volumes of the Yankees A Yard serie. The curiosity is when they give Girl by The Beatles the same treatment.
The second instalment in the mixtape serie Hip Hop Reggae is due to producer Mato. The principles are the same, blending hip hop acapella classics on fresh reggae riddims, often interpolating the original theme. Not as good as the first volume of the serie, the reggae treatment of originals by The Fugees, The Beastie Boys The Pharcyde, Warren G or Michael Jackson is still very enjoyable. Even if you don't like mash-ups, you'll love those ones.
Europe is freezing its ass right now, with temperatures 10 degrees below normal. Winter clothes are back from the closet when we should normally start officially the barbecue season. And for a successful barbecue, nothing is better than a good reggae roots album. Especially this one. Produced by Henry "Junjo" Lawes at Studio One and backed by the almighty Roots Radics, Police In Helicopter sees John Holt embrassing the cultural/rastafarian thematics, leaving on the side his usually more middle of the road repertoire. On the mythical cover, he tries to save a bag of weed from a Jamaican Defence Force Eradication Units helicopter. Since then, every owner of this record, from suburbans kids to Japanese students, feels like a giggling rebel.
Blending hip hop tunes with reggae riddims is as original as creating a music blog. But Taggy Matcher does it better, with as much talent as the French king of the exercice, Grant Phabao (http://www.timec.net/grantphabao/). Each riddim has been created on purpose for each hip hop track, often interpolating the main melody on keyboards or sampling the bassline. I usually don't post new records but this bootleg is so good I just couldn't resist. From Busta Rhymes to The Beastie Boys, from Biggie Small to Roots Manuva, everybody (even the Stax logo on the cover) enjoys for the best the jamaican vacations treatment.
From my point of view, the 80's were an absolute musical nightmare. Can you imagine what it was being a teenager with Phil Collins and Dire Straits representing rock'n'roll. The disco-reggae-punk produced at Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas with the cream of the crop of jamaican session musicians (Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Mikey Chung, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson) coupled with two european mercenaries (Barry Reynolds and Wally Badarou) was completely unknown in the small village of the Alps where I grew up. When I realise what I missed, I wish I could time travel to trade my shitty tapes (yes, in the 80's, music was listened on tapes played on strange machines called tape players) against Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads or Ian Dury scorchers here included. Well better late than never...
Roots Manuva avait tout pour être vénéré comme un demi-dieu du hip hop: un flow impressionnant, grave, charismatique, original et reconnaissable à la première syllabe. Mine de rien, c'est de plus en plus rare. Pour les textes, je déclare forfait: je ne maîtrise pas suffisamment l'anglais et l'argot des faubourgs britanniques pour en saisir la substantifique moelle. Néanmoins, notre homme était aussi son propre producteur. Avec le renfort des blancs-becs de Metronomy et de Toddla T, Roots Manuva se plaçait à la confluence des styles qui agitent encore les nuits londoniennes. Parfois clairement dancehall (Again & Again, Do Nah Bodda Mi, Buff Nuff), volontier electro-pop (le fantastique Let The Spirit), classiquement hip hop (2 Much 2 Soon), Roots Manuva est un peu un traducteur grand public du grime parfois carrèment radical dans lequel s'est englué le hip hop britannique. Malheureusement, deux malheurs se sont abattus sur la tête de Rodney Smith. Pour la première fois depuis l'invention de la drum&bass au début des 90's, un style majeur et pertinent est apparu Outre-Manche, faisant soufflé un vent de rédemption sur une scène electro britannique malmenée par une décennie d'odieux sévices progressive et d'autisme grime: le dubstep. Genre essentiellement instrumental, le dubstep a sacré le règne d'une nouvelle génération de talentueux producteurs, passant par la même occasion à la trappe les MCs. Et comme une malheur ne vient jamais seul, les critiques, importants dans l'émergence de Roots Manuva, ont commencé à regarder avec les yeux de Chimène une bande de craquantes jeunettes (MIA, Thunderheist, Thecocknbullkid, etc.), prêtes à en remontrer au vieux lion avec leurs tenues fluos et leurs hymnes electro pop imparables. Roots Manuva s'est ainsi vite retrouvé dans la peau d'une espèce en voie de disparition, un dinosaure encore vert mais isolé. Juger Slime & Reason dépassé et largué, comme d'aucun ont été tenté de le faire, est cependant allé beaucoup trop vite en besogne. Injustement qualifié de mineur au moment de sortie, largement supérieur à une bonne partie de la production britannique actuelle, ce disque se doit d'être réhabilité à sa juste valeur. Et quand Ebony Bones en sera à son sixième album on pourra comparer les chemins parcourus en connaissance de cause.
Not very well received when it was first released, Slime & Reason deserves to be rehabilitated. It blends perfectly Roots Manuva original flow with the best electro underground sounds that shake London nights.
1) You will only find here music released between 1950 and 1989.
2) You will find here an eclectic selection of records I possess personally.
3) You will only find here records I digged with love during long hours spent in records shops (yes, there are still some existing and pretty good ones) or in any other place where you can find records.
4) You will only find here records I like and that I think deserve a better recognition. If you like them too, don't forget you can buy them. There's certainly a way to find them somewhere for a cheap price.
5) If you own the rights on some of the music featured here and think that my posts decrease dramatically your sales, just send me a mail or leave me a comment. I will withdraw the downloading link immediately.
6) I spend a lot of time on each post, riping, scanning, uploading, writing a little and all that with a lot of pleasure.
7) Re-uping records pisses me off. If a link is dead, just subscribe to this blog or become a member and you won't miss anything in the future.
8) Don't hesitate to leave comments: they're soothing my tourmented soul and it shows your appreciation or your concern.
9) You will only find here records ripped from original vinyl or CD source.
10) If you notice that something is not working technically, don't hesitate to leave a comment. Some do it and it helps me a lot, thanks.
