Reggae

Reggae isn't mentioned nearly enough. More recommendations:

Bob Marley - Exodus. Particularly good for someone just starting on the genre
Peter Tosh - Legalize It

Cheers

Keith.

And more

Horace Andy Skylarking
Gregory Isacs Mr Isacs
Lee "Scratch" Perry Anthology



Nana

Virgin has put out their 'Front Line' stuff on a 4 cd box set for less than £25

"All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

Keep the reggae comin' mon!

How about Shabba (& Cutty) Ranks, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and ... oh man, I guess I had too much ganja because I can't remember the name of the other artist I wanted to mention. Some of these artists may sound a bit more rap-like though.

Not to mention the late lamented Garnett Silk

Keith
Peter Tosh - Legalize It - fantastic album!
I guess like most people I started off on the Wailers but I now almost prefer the solo stuff. I've just bought Peter Tosh's 'equal rights' but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

Arun
More into the roots stuff myself. I got the first Buju Banton album recently and didn't immediately warm to it. Maybe I need a little more time before going on to the harder stuff!

I'm not familiar with Horace Andy, Garnett silk or the Virgin Box Set. Must check them out.


Nick

Now that's what I and I call music!

Reggae LP's can often be a bit hit and miss. The greatest tunes were usually singles and the associated LP often just a quick cash-in. Collections are thus quite permissible. The Greensleeves samplers are reliable surveys from 82 to the mid-90’s. Island put out a brilliant and fascinating 4CD set 'The Story of Jamaican Music' which does just what it says on the tin, or at least up to 1993. The Island ‘Reggae Greats’ Lee Perry collection has the unmissable Junior Murvin ‘Police and Thieves’ and several other utter classics. Most of this series are good. As Paul Atkinson recommends, Trojan (a UK company) have a fabulous archive which gets reissued every 10 years or so in different formats.

As far as single artist LPs go, I’ll strongly second Exodus and all of nick c's selections. Also worth trying include:

Gregory Issacs - More Gregory or Night Nurse. Great music for “relaxing” to.
Aswad - Live and Direct.
Joe Gibbs - African Dub Chapter 3. A fun and tuneful introduction to the wonderful world of DUB.
The Abyssinians - Forward on to Zion. Classic Roots music. Satta-a-Massagana: what a song! A dub of this rhythm can be found on the awesome Augustus Pablo - King Tubby’s meets Rockers Uptown

For something completely different try Twinkle Brothers – Higher Heights (Twinkle in a Polish stylee) Unlikely mix to roots reggae and Polish folk music that works wonderfully! It also has a couple of Adrian Sherwood mixes for On-U sound completeists.

All the above sound much better if you can find them on Vinyl of course!

duncan

Email: djcritchley at hotmail.com

Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture is a strongly recommended book on the genre.

A couple of my favorites not mentioned yet are:

The Heptones - Party Time. Leroy Sibbles has one of the most beautiful voices you'll ever hear.

Toots and the Maytals - Reggae Got Soul.

If I may ask, is UB-40 considered reggae?

I think their "Present Arms" is great too.

Regards

Compilations recommendations!

Uprising - Reggae on the march
Good compilation of politically slanted reggae includes 'Vietnam' by Jimmy Cliff and only 7.99 on Amazon.

Studio One Rockers
Fab compilation of more funky, ska influenced stuff including Dawn Penn's gorgeous 'No,No,No'. Gotta get this one guys. There are lots more in the studio one series' I'm hoping their all as good as this.

I'll also give my vote to the The Abyssinians 'Satta-a-Massagana' spent a blissed out hour with it in the traffic this morning!

Can anyone recommend anything by Andrew Tosh?
Once spent a pleasant afternoon in one of those er.. Rastafarian smoking establishments in Amsterdam listening to some of his stuff. (seemed pretty fantastic at the time anyway!)

Nick

...on rotation near here:

Toots and the Maytals - From the Roots
Third world - 96 degrees in the shade
Inner Circle - Reggae Thing
The Lee Perry Box Set
Niney & the Observers: Blood and Fire 1971-72

M.

I can second:

Toots and the Maytals - From the Roots
Third world - 96 degrees in the shade
Inner Circle - Reggae Thing

(but then I would - he ain't heavy, he's my brother)

And would add:
Peter Tosh - Equal Rights (roots with attitude)
Bob Marley - Exodous, Kaya (perfect for a summer's day), Babylon By Bus (have to have live album), Survivor

+ a load of others I can't remember.

regards,

Mark

RichardN
Found one for you:

www.rubadub-records.com/website/index_fset.php?mode=booth

£10! in Glasgow

(URL doesn't seem to work exactly - you'll have to do a search to find the right page)

Nick

Interesting. I agree with all the recommendations but notice that many many of them are from the 1970's and '80's! If, like me, you bought these when they came out, you are showing, like me that you haven't bought much during the 1990's. I'm guessing that the Greensleeves stuff will tend more towards the '80's and '90's, right? At one time I bought every reggae album that came out. This meant Bob Marley, Lee Perry, Big Youth, Augustus Pablo, Third World, Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingston, Toots, Aswad, Heptones, most of the stuff on Trojan, all the stuff on Island. Linton Kwesi Johnson. Then all of a sudden the trickle became a tidal wave and I couldn't keep up. So, other than the occasional single, I stopped. And watched as the racks grew in size and reggae became huge. Without reliable access to good reggae on the radio I got VERY out of touch with the later stuff. So I'm wondering for those of you out there who bought stuff through the 1990's and up to the present, what is good?

A couple more recommendations--
the Upsetters Super Ape, which is the dub version of Max Romeo's War in a Babylon (IIRC). Both are excellent.

For further reading on reggae I strongly recommend the magazine Wax Poetics series titled "Fire Corner Sounds" which mainly focuses on Randy's. Really good stuff, with deep research, looks to me.

Oh, also, the Wailing Wailers (which includes Bob Marley singing "whats new pussycat"). I also recommend anything by Desmond Dekker though he is definately more in the ska vein. I seem to love all his stuff.

Markus

-------

Markus
I'm new to Reggae. I Bought all my stuff within the last 3 years. Guess I'm just attracted to the early stuff!

Nick

...and let's not forget Dread Zeppelin.

Cheers

Keith.

definitely give a listen to Misty in Roots. Best album is 'Live at the Countereurovision', but I haven't seen it in the shops recently. There is a new album out though that includes a lot of the old stuff.
Also Black Uhuru.

Markus,

You've absolutely right, this all ol' man music as they say in Jamaica. I kept up with Reggae from the late 70's until about the mid-90's, by which time it had long since metamorphosed into Ragga. High point being trip to JA for Sunsplash in 91. After this, I lost track for various reasons. The last 3 live events I went to (in London) all featured combinations of tear-gas and gunshot, culminating in a fatal shooting at a Capleton concert. It seemed like there was far too much Cocaine and not enough Ganja. Probably I just got too old, hence posting this at 8.40pm Friday night!

The Greensleeves sampler series is now up to number 23 and still crucial. The rival UK distributor, Jet Star, puts out the Reggae Hits compilations, now at vol 31. Between these two, you’ll get a good selection of what is current.

More compilations: I can also recommend the Studio One sets, put out by those tasteful chaps at Soul Jazz. From the same source are the excellent 100% (200% etc.) Dynamite series. These claims to showcase tunes showing the influence of American Jazz, Funk and Soul (show me a reggae song that doesn’t). In practice this means an interesting mix of classics and rarities that does not confine itself to one genre, ranging from Ska through to Dancehall. This is a strength or weakness depending on your viewpoint. The tunes are great and there are a good sprinkling of instrumentals (that’s the Jazz bit I guess) which are an essential part of the story.

duncan

Email: djcritchley at hotmail.com

I used to listen to a lot more reggae than I do these days. These are my favourites:

70s Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Third World, Dr Alimentado, Ijahman Levi

80s Yellow Man, LKJ, Mutabaruka, Benjamin Zenphaniah

90s/dub Mad Professor, Jah Shaka, Lee Scratch Perry, King Tubby, Gregory Isaacs

Albums that still get a regular spin:
IJL: Haile I hymn
LKJ all of them
Most of the dub ones but specially MP: Under the spell of Dub

Come to think of it I still play most of my reggae albums, just not as exclusively as in the past.

I never worked out if Dr Alimentado is Lee Perry, does anyone know?

cheers
Gus

I'd add my voice to those recommending the Trojan boxes and the Soul Jazz comps, they are great value, as is that Uprising comp. As for albums, the following are getting a fair bit of play at the mo'

Gregory Isaacs: Cool Ruler
Johnny Clarke: Rockers Time Now
Jah Shaka Feat. Max Romeo: Dub Salute 4
Junior Murvin: Police and Thieves
Prince Far I and The Arabs: Message From The King
Toots & The Maytals: Reggae Got Soul