Hello people,
It seems that my friend's Geoff event was a success, cool ting happening in Belgium! https://www.facebook.com/events/1465726063698306/
To celebrate, let's have a pure roots reggae post!
And to begin with heavy stuff, here is one of my all time favourites 12', coming from Canada.
It is a fabulous extended re-lick of the classic "Rejoice Jah Jah children" by The Silvertones. The original was a Lee Perry production appearing on the Silver Bullets LP. A very nice dub of it was also released titled African dub on the Black eagle label (and both can be found in UK presses on Trojan).
The lyrics are all about unity, roots way, peaceful way, like that...
Here the tune is given the Summer Records treatment (which does not include a nice label design as you may see...) which consists of a constant militant drumming, nice bass and guitar lines and beautiful harmonies. Icing on the cake, it comes extended with a surreal voiced gimmick to introduce the dub (listen carefully at 3:57). If anyone has some idea what the man is telling I will appreciate a comment!
If you want to play it at home on your deck, the very recommendable Iroko repress label from France reissued it some time ago. You may find a copy here :http://www.iroko-records.com/product/bb-03/
The B side which is a quite enjoyable Johnny Osbourne tune which I will upload later (I have in mind a Johnny Osbourne special post, keep tuned!).
Let's continue the journey with what appears to be a badly underrated record, you don't come across very often. It is a nice 7' by Sylvan White on the Corner Stone label ("Church of music"...) for Delroy Mackoy.
Nice Lyrics again, plain and simple as roots music is.
Not much more to say about the man, seems he was a seller in a record shop who used to sing all the time and eventually did some nice singles here and there...
Another hidden gem is this one, coming from the US this time (JA diaspora was often there and did great stuff "a foreign").
This is a quite rare 7' on the MR label (which stands for More Relation, the name of the band). It's almost instrumental and very "cloudy", I perfectly imagine the laidback, flying high mood in the room when they recorded it...you cannot clearly say which side is the dub side.
and again the message is to rejoice for Jah Jah, roots stuff, even if there is not much lyrics...
The band More Relation did an LP which is very nice but also very hard to find (an so very expensive when you do). Thanks Greg (Graal Records) for introducing me to this one.
Seems that there is quite a dead stock somewhere of these productions (the LP plus a bunch of nice 7') on the MR label and the people who own it prefer to sell it the expensive way instead of going for a reissue deal. Don't know it it's true but if yes and you read this, be sure reissuing these won't change anything to the value of the originals (I can personally testify about this on many other rare tunes, the fact that you may buy it for 5 bucks won't change the fact that mad heads will pay 100 or more for the original stuff...).
OK, let's be even more exclusive...
You lucky people, I will share the first ever dubplate I got my hand on!
As you may know if you got this far following my likkle blog, dubplates are these obscures plates that sound systems use as weapons to mash up the dance (which means turn the crowd mad and jumping!).
I say "obscure" on purpose as these pieces of wax (acetate in this case) usually wear no label...
This is why I won't illustrate this record, there is not much info on the record itself, except the title of the tunes.
So on the first side, we have two tracks (a vocal cut and a dub) from what is supposed to be the Mighty Travelers. It seems that the tune is number 4 on the unofficial Jah Shaka's best dubplates list according to this : http://home.swipnet.se/kalcidis/BSL/index.htm
Actually, the one and only Digikiller label reissued a clean version of it (see here : http://www.dkr.bigcartel.com/product/unknown-artist-majesterians-rocks-and-mountains-version-10-channel-1) and they think it's more likely the Majesterians band who sing that tune.
Still Rock and mountains is clearly a Sly and Robbie production and here you have an heavier mix, which is the whole purpose of a dubplate.
On the other side you'll find two nice dub cuts of Roma Stewart "Today" song, which you usually find on a S&G UK label, using the Sowell Radics "Caution" riddim, all of these are highly recommendable tunes.
But again, and even if you'll have to pardon the "used dubplate" sound quality ,these mixes are HEEEEAAAAAAVVVVVVYYYYYY and cut for the steppers dance, UK styleee.
Enjoy,
OK, last one and I go to sleep.
Another UK S&G label tune, pure niceness from the Sowell Radics, reissued as a 7' by Archive records.
The man Noel Bailey (aka Noel Tempo or Sowell Radics...) is a bassist yunno? and top producer, so check this pure niceness 12', killer all the way!
If you like it like I do, you may grab yourself a 7' copy here :
http://honestjons.com/shop/artist/Sowell_Radics/release/Wheel_OMatilda
Well, that's all folks, I'll be back soon with more vibes for your delicate ears.
Peace,
Ben
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