SIP A CUP MEETS NEGUS ROOTS
FIREHOUSE ROCK VOLUME 1
GUSSIE P CD
Negus Roots was a Jamaican label from the early eighties, a vehicle for releases from Locksley Castell, Horace Martin, Don Carlos and Voice of Progress, a group featuring the young Junior Reid, now operated by Robert and Michael Palmer out of London with the original material are being digitally remixed by Gussie P at Kalabash Studios London. Too often overlooked in the list of key UK based reggae and dub producers, Gussie 'P' Prenton's Sip A Cup imprint has built up an impressive catalogue, mainly 10" plates of pure modern roots. Here Gussie is let loose on archive material recorded at Channel 1 and Tuff Gong by Crucial Bunny Tom Tom and Errol Brown amongst others. Unusually Gussie leaves no traces on the vocal tracks, but the mixes are really special, check the opener Conductor of Dub where a clean filleted Mini Bus Driver (Voice of Progress) is laid out strip by strip before the track is rebuilt or the intro to Dub of Love, the dub wise version to Don Carlos' I Love Jah Jah, with a separated guitar line out of John Martin's Compass Point textbook.
REGGAE ON TOP ALL STARS
ROOTS DUB PART 1
REGGAE ON TOP CD
Just about as brutal as modern steppers can get. Coming together as Reggae On Top All Stars, Conscious Soundsman Dougie Wardrop, UK reggae legend Hughie Izachaar and label head, singer Barry Isaacs, put together a collection of dub that could run by unembroidered on any sound system, with no live remix required. Through this broiling stew rises the thunderous storm that is Psalm 91 Dub ("He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty …") straining mightily to become a version worthy of the name, a vicious mix with more than one pair of hands on the desk as this was consigned to mixdown. Warzone Dub may be simply the fastest dub on record - it may be that back in the days of rave, clubbers would retire to chill out with King Tubby, this album may be a kick start after a night at
Mass or Forward>>.
VARIOUS
STUDIO ONE KINGS
SOUL JAZZ RECORDS CD/2LP
Soul Jazz continue to recompile the Studio One library with another theme that only sounds obvious once exploited, we assume a Studio One Queens is to follow but Studio One Prince and Princess would really be interesting. This is a roll call of the many major names who became reggae royalty – Alton Ellis, Burning Spear, Johnny Osbourne, Freddie McGregor, Cornell Campbell et al – and in that list is Joe Higgs, vocal mentor to the Wailers, with Change Of Plan, a one-away rhythm that's worth the price of the album alone. Indeed most the rhythms here are one-offs or relatively rare and the presence of relatively lesser known but top quality artists is welcome. The tunes range through ska, rocksteady, roots reggae and lovers with Devon Russell's Roots Music giving a timely reminder that is sole album for the label, Roots Music, is overdue for release, as is Freddie McKay's Picture On The Wall. Freddie McGregor's 12" cut of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released – weighing in over nine minutes - is a Leroy Sibbles arrangement, developing the Heptones earlier version and providing the template for a later Scratch version at the Black Ark, with vocals dubbed out over the urgent rhythm amidst heavenly horns.
VARIOUS
TROJAN ROCKERS BOX SET
TROJAN 3CD
Rockers might have been the in-house label of the late Augustus Pablo but it was also a term applied to the militant style of rhythm developed in the 1970s, mostly based on the updating of old rocksteady classics, that was first associated with Pablo but became the signature sound of drummer Sly Dunbar in creating the dominant sound of Channel One with the studios session band that became known as the Revolutionaries. Although the Trojan budget line boxsets have been a patchy series to date this is probably the one of the most essential, certainly when taken together with the earlier Jah Loves Rockers collection it provides an invaluable overview of this period of reggae. Early examples of the development are Niney with John Holt's 'Up Park Camp' on the Heptones' evergreen 'Get In The Groove' and Rockers from DJ Tapper Zukie who came to prominence as a producer in the Rockers era and a number of his tunes appear including the Seekers' 'Jah Jah Say' and Knowledge's Words, Sounds And Power'. Many other producers of the time succumbed to and excelled in the Rockers style, Scratch with the epic Ketch Vampire from Devon Irons and Doctor Alimantado, Ossie Hibbert with Earth & Stone's No Wicked In A Zion and Bunny 'Striker' Lee with Johnny Clarke's Peace And Love In The Ghetto.
