Super heavy stuff (Yabby You, Tommy McCook and UF30E...)

Hello people,

I am spending some time alone at home,  both girls are asleep, so I enjoy some reggae 7'' and digitalize some of my collection for future posts.

To match with the old school roots mood, I pulled out of the bar a very old Demerara rum from Vellier selections, rare and precious, with mysterious name : UF30E...

This is what remains of an experiment conducted when planting a special sugar cane variety at Uitvlugt on the Field (UF) on their 30 East (30E) plantation zone in 1985. They distilled the cane separately from the rest of the crop (Uitvlugt distillery was still active then) and put it to age on the spot (Guyana).

Luca Gargano from Velier bought what was left of it (3 barrels) after 30 years and bottled the precious nectar at cask strenght (60.7%).
I had the chance to buy one of the 814 bottles ever produced (with an angel's share of more than 90%, there is not much left in the barrel after all that time under the tropics...) and I am sipping some while working for you, cheers!

This is a hell of a drink, with all the nuts flavors due to long aging in wood, but plenty fire as it is not diluted. This liquid stands the test of time like no other : ripped banana, burnt sugar, precious spices explodes in your mouth and stand there for a long moment.
If you can spot one, I recommend you acquire it, you would do yourself a favor, this is a must!

To match the level of the drink, here is a superb instrumental roots 7'' I was willing to transfer to digital for a long time.

I had the chance to get it for not much $$$ as it is mislabelled.

Actually this is the great Tommy McCook doing is version of Yabby You "Jah Vengeance". This is called "Revenge" and it is one of my favorite Yabby You (aka Vivian Jackson) output as producer.

Tommy blows is saxophone in a jazzy mood, beautiful trumpet respond, the whole horns section repeats the theme with that laidback drumming paterns...Roots perfection!

To be complete, B side is a quite effective King Tubby's dub. Deep mixing skills, instruments playing hide and seek, some ghost voices (harmonies) if you listen carefully. 

Reverb and Echo use demonstration from the master to render this superb dub piece, love it, can listen to it ten times in a row... 

Share Tommy McCook - Revenge - Mislabelled Prophet 7''.zip - 13 MB

As always, click on the blue link below the labels to listen to the tune or download it.

I sincerely hope you like it as much as I do.

Peace to you all, 

Ben

Jah is my light

Hello there,

Just a quick one to let you know i am still there...
Not much info on this artist I'm afraid, just two 7'' on that same imprint according to Discogs, from 1978, the best period for roots.
It also seems these are the only output from that label, produced by a certain Carl Wolf.
I love the "little birds" sounds during the intro, nice nyabinghi drumming also on the dub side, quite well mixed.
Pretty rare and enjoyable, such as the label design itself.
The lyrics are pure Rasta inspiration as the title shows, speaking of the beauty of mother Africa, and the powers of Jah.
It seems that the dub side has some cracking, hope you won't mind.
Enjoy and don't hesitate to share if you know more about the artist or label.
Peace to ya all,
Ben

Share Walyn Rickets - Jah is my light 7'.zip - 16 MB

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