Unity Stars - Africa

Hello people,

Just a quick post tonight for a tune I like since long but only recently got an original copy in my box.

Sir Collins was a London based sound system operator and producer since the early days of British reggae scene (he launched his Collins down beat label in 1967!).

The tune featured tonight came on another imprint in 1976 and is classic super roots material.
Slow pace, nice drumming, slavery repatriation themed lyrics, echo put to good use, all ingredients are there.

What makes this number special to me is the clarinet solo and ornaments on side A, and the thematic difference between the two sides.

Side A is about remembering the slavery days (basically : they take us from Africa, "can't you remember" somehow like Burning Spear's Slavery days) when side B is about repatriation : "Africa oh Africa is calling, take off all your baggage, get on that freedom train. We gonna start with Ethiopia where we all will be free...".
Side B is more like part 2 of the tune than a straight version, it's therefore relevant to hear both, which you will find by cut/pasting the dropbox link below the label scans.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4asr8jstyi5wa5m/Unity%20Stars%20-%20Africa%20-%20Nice%201%20label7%27%27.zip?dl=0

As always, if you can, please buy records to support the artists. Sir Collins has reissued this nice piece which you may find here (hum, it seems that the reissue itself is now expensive also...) :

http://www.discogs.com/Unity-Stars-Big-Dread-Unity-Stars-Africa-Africa-Is-Our-Home/release/3816979

As always, it's nice to share this with you all and it's also nice to hear what you think, so please feel free to comment, add more info, or whatever!

Love to each and everyone,

Ben

Canadian reggae murder! Black Society

Hello There,

One of the good things with social media is that you easily get to know new people with the same passion as yourself, in my case, roots nuggets!

So today I came to chat with a nice fellow who reminded me of this one tune.
As carnival time is coming, I thought it's a good reason to share one of the more obscure yet fantastic production for the great Oswald Creary's Half Moon label.

Here you will find a little more about this canadian label (one of the 3 greats with Summer Records and later King Culture) : http://reggaelicious.pbworks.com/w/page/8799800/Half%20Moon

So, tonight feature is a beautiful tune by Bongo Ossie & The Moon Lights aka Super 8 Corporation and titled Black Society.

This is actually a very rare piece of wax and I had the chance to grab a copy a few years earlier, in near mint condition, from a guy in Florida who had bought a dead stock of 3 or 4 copies.

The tune is dark and roots as it gets. Nice skank from rythmn guitar, plenty of echoes on solo guitar which sounds like twinkling star (sounds a little bit like some Bullwackies productions...), plaintive singing, elusive but nice bass line and something like a ghost sounding organ. Roooooots!
The lyrics go like this :

A thousand miles in Babylon
I heard a voice crying loud
Take these chains from my heart
And set black people free
Long long time since I am here
I should have learned by now
You took me away and you put me in jail
From Black Society
I don't know I don't know
What you want from me
You take me away and you put me in jail
From Black Society

As a bonus (this tune you may find on the excellent Half Moon comp that Honest Jons and PK put together some years ago : http://honestjons.com/shop/artist/Half_Moon/release/Glory_Dominion_Majesty_Power) here you get the superb dub with much more echo to drive you insane.

 Share Super 8 Corporation - Black Society.zip - 13 MB

This is one of the my very very favorite tunes of all times, I hope you dig it too!

I'll try to post some more before hitting London next WE, in the meantime enjoy what's left of summer for those of you in Northern Emisphere,

Peace

Ben

Christmas in summer!

Hi people,

Boosted by summer vibes and carnival time coming its way, here is another roots missile for your enjoyment!

And yes, it's not appropriate for this time of the year, but well, on my blog it's christmas every time for music lovers ;-)

So this nice and quite rare 7'' comes from the US again.
Don't know of other records on this Hot Stuff label (except the 12'' of this same song). Backing band is the Roots Radics and after some research, Scoobey Doo (LOL) also known as Michael Powell, is the lead singer of Determination, a US reggae band from the early 80's Have a look here : http://www.discogs.com/artist/1913803-Determination-4).
He sings on A3 of Determination showcase vol. 1 (also a rare and enjoyable piece).

The lyrics are about christmas period in the ghetto, the singing is plaintive all the way, very nice organ gimmick, the riddim is tough like early 80's can be with mixing sharp as a razor.

Christmas is a time for everyone
Brothers and sisters let's all have some fun
Like dicing to downtown
in a one unseated mini bus
smoking a sensi spliff
down to variety show (?)

Christmas time, christmas time
And...
with all the pretty girls that look pon me
while me sit aside like santa claus
...
giving little presents to the likkle boys and girls
in dis ya christmas time

If anyone as the whole lyrics, please share!

Share Scoobey-Doo aka Michael Powell - Christmas time - Hot Stuff 7'.zip - 15 MB

There are lots of christmas related tunes in reggae, even "christmas" LP's, but this one is the very best in my humble opinion and stands alone as a great reggae tune in its own right.

As a plus, you get the wicked Christmas dub on b side!

As always, comments are welcome, so enjoy and pass the word!

Greetings,

Ben

Going home

Hello people,

Long time since my last post, sorry for that.

Summer is here and I spend lots of time in my garden, taking care of all greens and fruits...fresh vegetables is such a blessing!

But I have not forgotten you all and here is a proof with this super nice rare 10'' that should have been reissued long ago.

The artist, Tony Clark (or Clarke) has not done any other song it seems and no information is to be found on the internet.

Ultrasonic was a NY based label and noticeable output from them also includes Cornell Campbell's "African Woman" 7'' which I will share later on.

The label says "Produced by Lizzy and Val, made in Jamaica, distributed by Ultrasonic Recs & Tapes, Bklyn, NY"

Tonight feature presents in the form of a dark piece of roots with beautiful horns arrangements, sharp guitar line and piano ornaments and repatriation topic lyrics.

It goes like this :

I'm going away, I'm going home

No matter what the people say

I man will never go a stray

I give thanks and prais to the most high, Selassie I

So long rastaman so long

I a I leave Babylon

We got to be free from captivity

oh natty natty

Keep Jah light shining

Cause soon we'll be go away

Far far away to Zion

Oh let Jah Jah know now...

It comes in all its 10'' glory with extended haunting dub.

This is a very enjoyable roots piece and collectors choice indeed.

Share Tony Clark - Going home - Ultrasonic 10'.mp3 - 15 MB

Click on the blue link below the label image to DL and enjoy this pretty piece of reggae.

See you soon I hope,

Peace and more peace to this troubled earth,

Ben

African choice, harmonica extension!

Hello people,

I received very pleasant feedback today about the blog, from an unknown to me person, which is actually pretty nice. So I feel like sharing some little more vibes with you.

The tune featured tonight is just landed in my crates few days ago.
I read a post recently on another fine French reggae blog about tunes with a bit of mouth harp/harmonica in them (https://killerswithoutfillers.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/du-reggae-avec-de-lharmonica-dedans/) which was very interesting so here is a little addition to that topic.

As you'll see the A side of this nice 12' titled African Choice from Hopeton Lindo has a supacool extended version with nice harmonica instead of the usual melodica. It gives a very nice bluesy feeling to that slow paced early 80's tune.
I didn't found much about H. Lindo on the web ut from the labels and photos, it looks that he's an 80's to 90's period singer. And apparently, he travelled to Canada as this cool record comes in a nice company sleeve made there.

Share Hopeton Lindo - African Choice 12'.zip - 29 MB

B-Side is not as good (regular rub a dub stuff) but you'll have it also!

Hope you like it, peace to ya all

Ben

Crucial Knowledge tune!!!

Hello People,

Finally I put my hand on a copy of this superb tune I've been searching for so long.
Knowledge is a fantastic band from the late 70's period.
They began recording for DJ/producer Tappa Zukie on his Stars label and who also produced their first LP on A&M.
The band didn't output much before splitting and three of its members, died young in violent 80's Jamaica (see here :http://www.makasound.com/ms_boutique.php?id_famille=1&id_sous_famille=11&id_rubrique=63&id..).

This 12' was produced after Michael Samuel left the band on a californian label.
The tune features beautiful flute arrangements and Robbie "Basspeare" Shakespeare on cello!
The pace is very slow, adding to the tragedy tone of the lyrics. To all of you who still think that poor people are poor because they don't want to work, hear this and come again tell me so...

It is quite a rarity these days so I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do, great roots music in extended glory!

Share Michael Knowledge Samuel - Give I and I some work - Drum

Peace to you all,

Ben

We need some loving, that's for sure

Hello people,

New post tonight full of roots nuggets for your enjoyment.
When I read the news I see much violence and hatred these days so we will focus on love, be it physical or mystical as it seems that we lack of this.
The title tune is a nice little 12' coming out of Canadian Big Mac Soul Power label.
Not much info about this one, the label seems to have issue a pair of LP's and some 7' and 12' as we can see on Discogs : http://www.discogs.com/label/369955-Big-Mac-Soul-Power

Funny note : this is produced by H.C. Mc Donald and the label is named "Big Mac"...
Well, this is no burger but sweet, slow paced, conscious reggae.
The lyrics go like this :
Dark days and lonely nights
it's only for the wicked
for the wicked which blinded to love
They use their brothers they use their sisters
to get where they want to go
they don't look back
they don't care at all who they hurt, how this hurt(?)
They need love, a little bit of love
They need love a whole lotta love
...

The tune is extended but not dubwise, as if it was repeated, but no problem, you can manage the almost  7 minutes of the tune with pleasure.

Share The Up-Lifters - We need some loving - Big Mac Soul Power 12'.mp3 - 16 MB

Next tune is form one of my favourite singers from Jamaica, the one and only Winston Jarrett.
Mr Jarrett (no to be confused with Wayne Jarrett...) is a long lasting reggae star born in 1940 in Lime Tree Gardens. He began singing in Alton Ellis's Flames in the early 60's.
At the end of the sixties he recorded he formed the Righteous Flames and recorded for major producers of the island such as Duke Reid and Coxsone Dodd.

Many of his hits are hard core roots such as Wise man 12' on Warrior records, Run away 7' on Shaflames or Spanish town road on Rite sound (JA) and Write sounds (UK).
Some of them were reissued recently by Iroko and Pressure Sounds, if you want to grab some :
http://honestjons.com/shop/search/winston%20jarrett

Well the song featured here is more romantic, but still has that roots feeling, specially due to some nice percussion in the back. Laid back rhythm, gently rolling bassline, nice organ here and there and lovers lyrics :

Give more of your love little girl!
...
Your love means heaven to me, yeah
Your eyes they're always dreaming of me
Your lips means the world to me
Little girl you are my one and only, little girl
You set my soul on fire, little girl
Just rock and come in,
I know your heart is clean...

As far as I know it is the only output of this beautiful label, I dig the design!
The dub is enjoyable but quite straight forward so I just featured A side (if you want it, feel free to ask).

Share Winston Jarrett

Next tune is from a US label, quite rare one, from a band called The Strugglers, obscure bit from the very early 80's titled Light my fire (nothing in common with the song from the Doors!).

Doing my research for this post I got to know that this was originally released in Ja on the 1st Choice label.

You may grab an original copy for decent price here :

 http://www.groovecollector.com/mp/used-item:-strugglers-light-my-fire-version-original-press-/r/3019749560/

It's a lovers tune but, backed by The Souls Syndicate, the rhythm i sharp. Nice dub on B side as well, enjoy!

Share The Strugglers - Light my fire 7'.zip - 17 MB

One last "love" tune and I'm gone,

This one is also pretty obscure tune, 1st release on Watty Burnett's own Rythm Force imprint.

It's a tune about a love that has ended. The singer is asking his past lover to leave and go her way as she  behaved badly and cheated on him.

Burnett's baryton's singing suits perfectly the mood of the tune, what a voice!

Here you see exactly why Lee Perry added Watty Burnett to the Congos, the bass of this voice makes a perfect balance with Cedric Myton's falsetto and Ashanty Roy tenor.

The production here is classic Lee Perry style, recorded at the Ark, even if it is issued at a time when the Black Ark didn't existed any more.

Nice copy with company sleeve 

Share Watty Burnett - Too late - 12'.mp3 - 13 MB

Well, that's all for tonight but I will be back soon as I recently got some nice records in ;-)

Peace to you all!

Ben