What's your all-time favourite reggae album or band?*

I prefer Dub to straight reggae.

 

Dub is great, and so is dancehall, ragga, raggamuffin. I'm currently following an argy reggae artist who is hybridating reggae with reggaeton elements to great effect ! Why so many ¨purists¨ insist on ¨true¨ roots reggae as the only legitimate genre is beyond me. Also I have a sweet spot for southafrican reggae, which for many is frowned upon because it's not JAMAICAN. Man I hate fundamentalism.

 

I love Bob Marley but haven't looked past him much. Also like Manu Chao, who sometimes strays into reggae territories. I'll have to start researching some of the names mentioned here.
Recently picked up an old copy of Legend on vinyl from a 2nd hand record store. I usually avoid compilations but it was in great condition for £5. Best cheap record I ever bought! Sounds absolutely fantastic.

 

I absolutely love Jimmy Cliff's music. A shame a number of his albums (and even anthologies) are out of print.

The Hip-O anthology that came out in 2003 is really great. I love the Club Paradise soundtrack but I believe it was only released on CD in Japan in the '90s.

 

Seconded.

 

Bob Marley sometimes Catch A Fire sometimes Exodus

 

Without a doubt this is the best, most influential, Reggae Various Artists compilation I have ever heard.
This is so good I eventually ended up buying all the tracks again on 7" too - if I could find them!



Pirates Choice - Various Artist (Studio One) JA LP

Dub Vendor's review sums it all up....

This classic collection originally appeared circa 1980 in response to an infamous bootleg album, hence the title. At the time it was arguably the best Studio One selection available, consisting of all killer and absolutely no filler, a testament to the selecting skills of the bootleggers!

Track listing:

Side One:
1. A Prayer To Jah – Jay Tees
2. Jah Light – Judah Eskender Tafari
3. This Population – Burning Spear
4. Take A Ride – Al Campbell
5. Love Gonna Pick You Up – Sugar Minott
6. True Experience – Prince Lincoln

Side Two:
1. Love Is Here To Stay – Johnny Osbourne
2. Show & Tell – Horace Andy
3. This Love – Doreen Shaffer
4. A Fool – Alton Ellis
5. Love Me Forever – Carlton & The Shoes
6. I’ll Be Around – Otis Gayle

 

Nice! I have totally missed this one, it seems about half of the songs are things that are still unavailable on other collections (while some others are included in the various "Studio One ..." compilations on Soul Jazz). Do you know if the repressings of this are any good, or should one look for the original?

It seems this must have been popular enough to inspire Trojan to do this cover:

 

Anything by Keith Hudson

Here is a pretty rare one:



Great sound on this record though.

And one of my favorite dub albums:

 

That was my pick also. love that Reggae Dub sound.

 

Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey
Excellent albums...

 

dub is great.............volume two is pretty good also.................

 

The Wailing Souls' Baby Come Rock is also excellent. My favorite version of "Things and Time Will Tell" on this one: slowed down rub a dub style. While there's some overlap with Inchpinchers (with the massive "Mass Charlie Ground"), this Joe Gibbs label release more than holds its own, start to finish. Always great on the platter with guests in the house.



Tracklist
Side 1:
Baby Come Rock Me
Red Eye
Things & Time Will Tell
Don't Get Lost
Shaa-lup Shaa-lup

Side 2:
I Shen Tree
Sweetie Come Brush Me
Inch Pinchers
Take a Taste

This LP is a case study in just how bad-ass the Roots Radics were.

 

Yes, that Keith Hudson album is quite rare, I lucked upon a copy quite recently, good stuff. The dubs to many of the songs can be found on Nuh Skin Up Dub (re-relased by Pressure Sounds)

I was actually listening to Scientist already as I saw this post, but the Heavywight Dub album and now onto Meets the Space Invaders. I recently discovered all of the Scientist albums on Greensleeves (which have been out of print because of legal problems and hard to find) have been re-relased by a russian company, the CD's/LP's are on a label called "Mirumir", but the same albums are also on Spotify, where I'm listening to them now, and there they say "Lilith Records". It seems they are legitimately licenced releases.

 

Also have to mention Don Carlos. Not the strongest voice, but unique and simply made for floating over Roots Radics rhythms. One of my favorites from him:



Outer sleeve designed to appeal to the UK reggae scene with it's red/white/blue motif. Don & Gold and the Radics offer up all killer, no filler on this one. I absolutely love the title track, with its 2-speed bicycle sound effect thrown in at the beginning. Another party favorite.

 

Glad you discovered them digitally, but one of my pet peeves is that these releases are marked *explicit* in ITunes, which I just don't get and make them harder to search for.

Speaking of Scientist dub albums, this recent reissue on JAH Life/DigiKiller is just plain nasty, with a great title: "The Dub Album They Didn't Want You to Hear"

 

the Meditations are nice...........nice harmonies

 

Black Uhuru: Anthem.

 

I will try to get the physical releases of those Scientist albums while they are around, I think it is four that are out and two more coming, but they are not widely distributed so not so easy to get a hold of.

I am aware of the the one pictured as well, it is also on my "to do" list.

 

Happy hunting!

FYI - when you (and anyone else interested) get a chance, check the DigiKiller website. They are reissuing some ridiculously good and rare reggae right now.

 

I am a fan of The Wailing Souls (perhaps the only vocal group that managed to have strong releases and stay vital through all phases of Reggae's development) but I wasn't aware of this LP. Are all the tracks here produced by Junjo (including the tracks that are not on Greensleeves albums)? If so, how did they end up on the Gibbs label?

 

Yes, per Discogs, produced by Junjo (I'll check my copy to see if this is true - if not, I'll post about it). Tracks mixed at Joe Gibbs' studio - and this is true of both "Baby..." and "Inchpinchers." As I understand it, Greensleeves was the UK label, while Gibbs may have been more geared toward JA. Either way, Junjo gave tracks to each label for distribution.

FYI- for some interesting info on Junjo and the whole dancehall scene, search for Beth Lesser's reggae site. She wrote the now OOP book, "Dancehall," which is a captivating insiders look at Jamaican recording artists and producers. She has a link where you can download the book for free - the only bad thing being you miss her excellent photos. She's got a whole chapter (and more) on Junjo.

 

Yes, I saw the Discogs listing too. I can't think of any other Junjo productions on the Joe Gibbs label, but I guess anything is possible.

I have the Lesser book downloaded, was my summer reading a few years back.

 

Funny that you say "not the strongest voice" while his voice is the thing I like the most about Don Carlos. I only have "Ghetto Living" (also with Gold) on CD and I like some tracks very much, but some others not so much. I checked out snippets of the songs of the album you mention and it sounds good. Thanks for the tip!