Freddie McGregor’s masterpiece Bobby Bobylon reissued

Jamaican singer Freddie McGregor started his career in his early teens in the 60s. He recorded for Studio One – first as part of The Clarendonians and later as a solo artist. And it was as a solo singer he recorded his best material for producers such as Niney and Clement “Coxsone” Dodd.

And it was to Coxone Dodd and Studio One Freddie McGregor returned for his masterpiece album Bobby Bobylon, released in circa 1979 and reissued a dozen or so times since then. The latest reissue came only a few months ago through the Studio One and Yep Roc collaboration.

This reissue is actually the same release as the Heartbeat version in 2006 and includes both the original ten track album as well as a whopping eight bonus cuts, including four lethal disco mixes with guest talents such as Lone Ranger and Jackie Mittoo.

Bobby Bobylon – with its anthemic title track – is essential to any record collection. It holds some of Freddie McGregor’s best material, such as album opener Bandulo, Gonna Take Over Now, a killer version of The Ethiopians classic, the mystical Rastaman Camp and the smoothly militant I Am a Revolutionist.

An amazing album from one of Jamaica’s most beloved vocalists.

Advertisement

Dub Store Records reissues the superb Africa Iron Gate Showcase

Jamaican deejay and producer Prince Hammer is behind the superb singer and deejay showcase Africa Iron Gate Showcase, originally released in 1982 and reissued by Dub Store Records a few months ago.

This is a crucial album that has been unavailable for a criminally long time. Roots Radics provide the sparse and heavyweight rhythms and talented deejays like Trinity, Lee Can Cliff and Prince Hammer chat powerful words and lyrics.

And as usual with Dub Store Records – the sonic quality is excellent. Highly recommended.

Top ten reggae album reissues in 2017

The third and last top list in 2017 collects best reggae album reissues. As usual the list includes albums from reissue giants Pressure Sounds and Soul Jazz, but this year adds releases from German based label Cree, France’s Patate and the newly revitalized Studio One label, which has a fruitful partnership with Yep Roc Music Group.

The list below is presented in no particular order and if you’re curious about the albums make sure to check my Spotify playlist with four sets. Download the playlist here. Enjoy!

Artist – title
Various – Black Man’s Pride
A collection of deep heavyweight reggae featuring Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, The Gladiators, Sugar Minott, The Heptones, Freddie McGregor, Cedric Brooks and more.

Various – Studio One Supreme – Maximum 70s And 80s Early Dancehall Sounds
Comes with classics and lesser-known gems from some of Jamaica’s finest artists.

Freddie McKay – Picture On the Wall
Freddie McKay has never got the recognition he deserves. He is for sure one of Jamaica’s finest singers of all time. Listen to this set and you’ll understand why.

Lloyd Parks – Time a Go Dread
This hefty set comes with 22 track, including Slaving and its version. And the remaining 20 cuts are just as great and demonstrate Lloyd Parks’ gift for writing socially conscious lyrics and catchy melodies.

Various – Sly & Robbie Present Taxi Gang In Discomix Style 1978-87
Draws recordings from Sly & Robbie’s Taxi label and showcases a very special blend of reggae and U.S. soul and R&B. Included are covers of a number of classics.

Various – The #1 Sound: From The Vaults Vol. 1
An 18 track bonanza of rare Studio One sides featuring both the label’s top hit makers as well as some of its more obscure artists. Includes recordings from the late 60s to the early 1980s.

Various – Doing Our Thing: More Soul From Jamdown 1970-82
The follow-up to Taxi Gang in Discomix Style and collects another set of Jamaican cover versions of U.S. soul and R&B tunes.

Early B – Ghost Busters
Killer deejay album originally released in 1985 that has cried to be reissued.

Lloyd Parks & We The People – Meet The People
Excellent roots album from bass man Lloyd Parks and his band We the People Band.

Horace Andy – Good Vibes
Collection of discomix singles from the 70s originally released on Blood & Fire and now reissued by VP Records. Excellent versions of Horace Andy classics, including the mighty Skylarking.

Dancing down Orange Street

Cherry Red Records has via its new imprint Doctor Bird issued a scorching rarity with no less than 13 bonus cuts. The album is the compilation Dancing Down Orange Street, produced by Sonia Pottinger and originally put out in 1969.

A compilation like this helped to put the B in boss reggae and it comes with a truckload of skanking tracks, including Ken Boothe’s pulsating Live Good and Delano Stewart’s classic That’s Life.

This is the first ever reissue of this highly collectible album. A bit odd since it features both prominent singers and hit songs of the time. The original fetches prices that would empty many pockets. But no need saving up for one of those now.

Freddie McKay’s Picture on the Wall reissued – comes with 12 bonus cuts

There are plenty of talents in Jamaican reggae that have never really been recognized beyond reggae collectors and aficionados. One of the great singers that is too underappreciated is the soulful and plaintive Freddie McKay, who started his recording career for Prince Buster in the 60s.

He later moved on to work with a plethora of Jamaican producers, including Clement Dodd, who recorded his debut album Picture on the Wall, which has now been reissued by Studio One Records and Yep Roc Records.

Clement Dodd caught interest in Freddie McKay during a recording session with the Soul Defenders, an outfit that had Freddie McKay as one of their lead vocalists (Culture’s Joseph Hill was another of their lead singers). And many of the songs featured on the majestic Picture on the Wall were part of Soul Defenders’ stage show. The versions on the album have, however, new arrangements with horns and different backing vocals.

The original album is a sheer masterpiece. And this new version is even better since it adds another 12 (!) tracks, including rarities, instrumentals and extended versions. The real beauties – apart from original album cuts like So Long Forever and Can’t Go On – are the ridiculously rare single Drunken Sailor and the extended version of Love is a Treasure. This album is worth getting just because of those two cuts.

Freddie McKay has never got the recognition he deserves. He is for sure one of Jamaica’s finest singers of all time. Listen to this set and you’ll understand why.

Classics and obscurities on Studio One Rocksteady 2

With a sturdy 19 tracks there’s not a dull moment on Soul Jazz’ second installment of Studio One Rocksteady, although some of the tracks have previously been featured on countless of other albums. I’m talking about well-known songs like Alton Ellis’ I’m Still In Love With You, Slim Smit’s Born To Love and The Heptones’ I Shall Be Released.

The title is however slightly misleading since the album draws both Studio One’s deep rocksteady and early reggae vaults. And it offers a sweet mix of staples and obscure singles. Best of the bunch is The Termites’ pulsating Rub Up Push Up, Carlton & The Shoes’ melancholic Never Let Go, Cannon & The Soul Vendors’ bouncy instrumental Bad Treatment and The Actions’ up-tempo Giddy Up.

Studio One Rocksteady 2 includes a number of cuts that helped to shape reggae to an international phenomenon.

Top 12 reggae album reissues in 2016

It has been a fantastic year for reggae album reissues. Killer, and sometimes unbelievably rare, albums have seen the day of light thanks to labels like Pressure Sounds, 17 North Parade and Soul Jazz Records.

But the biggest label in reissues circles is nowadays Japan’s Dub Store Records. Over the past 12 months they have put out a broad variety of albums ranging from digital reggae and vintage rocksteady to meditative and spiritual nyabinghi. I can only hope that Dub Store Records will continue in 2017 with a hefty release schedule.

The list below is presented in alphabetical order and if you’re curious about the albums – check out this Spotify playlist with nine of the albums. Enjoy!

Artist – album title
Bunny Wailer – Solomonic Singles Vol 1 & 2
Bunny Wailer has always been quietly ferocious with apocalyptic messages and a mystical and transcendental sonic landscape. And many of these marvelous songs – classics, long lost gems, dub versions and instrumentals – are now finally readily available.

Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari – Grounation
A psychedelic, colorful and ethereal joyride and a milestone in the development of reggae music.

Derrick Harriott – Rock Steady Party
This is rock steady at its very finest. Close harmonies, sweet melodies and smooth grooves.

Errol Brown – Orthodox Dub
Tough roots scorchers dubbed with brimstone and fire mashing down the walls of Babylon.

Horace Andy & Winston Jarrett – Kingston Rock
Killer cuts from both Horace Andy and Winston Jarrett; two singers with radically different voices. Horace Andy is soft, while Winston Jarrett has a rougher and more rural style complemented by beautiful harmonies.

Lloyd Charmers – The Best of Lloyd Charmers
This crucial anthology is painfully long overdue and showcases a ingenious producer as well as an array of Jamaica’s finest artists.

Prince Alla – The Best of Prince Alla
Prince Alla has never been quite as prolific as many of his peers, but many of his recordings have proven to be landmarks in the history of reggae music. And some of these are included on this lethal set.

Yabby You – Beware
A key dub album that still sounds powerful.

Various – First Class Rocksteady
The title says it all.

Various – Money Maker
Collects primarily instrumentals played by Studio One in-house bands The Sound Dimension, The Soul Brothers and The Soul Vendors joined by Im & Dave, Ernest Ranglin, Jackie Mittoo, Lloyd Williams and The Boss himself, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd.

Various – Studio One Showcase
Brings together a mighty fine selection of tracks from the 70s and early 80s.

Various – Tape Rolling!
This is a fascinating album with lots of excitement – check Big Joe’s excellent take on Count Prince Miller’s Mule Train – and creativity – listen to I Roy’s mystic chant on Noisy Place, a version of The Paragons’ Man Next Door.

Errol Brown’s killer Orthodox Dub reissued

There are loads rare dub albums out there. Many were originally only pressed in a just a few hundred copies. One of those is Errol Brown’s Orthodox Dub. A set recorded and mixed at Treasure Isle studios in Kingston and released only in the U.S in the mid to late 70s.

This obscure and killer set has now been reissued by Dub Store Records. Errol Brown was resident engineer at Treasure Isle at the time when BB Seaton recorded the original vocal versions and then Errol Brown dubbed them with perfection.

This is not dubs of smooth rocksteady. These are tough roots scorchers dubbed with brimstone and fire mashing down the walls of Babylon. Not what one would expect from Errol Brown at Treasure Isle.

Beware – a Yabby You dub album has been reissued

Yabby You’s dub album Beware has been unavailable for about 25 years, but has thanks to Pressure Sounds been restored and reissued complete with no less than six superb bonus cuts.

Beware – which collects version sides from various singles – was originally released in 1978 and reissued in 1981 and 1991. The new version is greatly expanded with two fascinating and previously unreleased dubplate cuts, one is the eerie Conquering Lion, which is even more dread in its dubplate disguise, and the other one God is Watching You. This version is haunting with deep harmonies and nyabinghi drumming.

Other stellar cuts include Tommy McCook’s beautiful Sensimena and the powerful Peace with its smattering percussion, relentless bass line and bright saxophone.

King Tubby and Prince Jammy handled mixing duties and as expected it’s clever and innovative spotlighting the bass and drums, yet highlighting other prominent instruments, such as horns and keys.

A key dub album that still sounds powerful.

Grounation is a fascinating musical experience

In January this year Soul Jazz reissued Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari’s second album Tales of Mozambique and a few months later the same label reissued Count Ossie’s Man From Higher Heights.

Since then I’ve been eagerly waiting for the reissue of Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari’s ground-breaking debut album Grounation. And last week it was finally reissued. But not by SoulJazz, but by Japan’s Dubstore.

Grounation is now finally available again in its glorious entirety – a three set vinyl or a double disc CD collecting 15 tracks of ambitious and mystic nyabinghi. To describe this album – originally released in 1973 – as uncommercial would be a serious understatement. Grounation comes with a great deal of integrity and is a powerful philosophic experience. Almost transcendent to some degree.

The album was recorded through three different recording sessions where Cedric “Im” Brooks and his Mystic Revelation of Rastafari met with Count Ossie’s Rastafarian Drummers at a grounation, which is a sort of emotionally charged musical gathering as well as a spiritual experience. And to put this gathering on wax is a musical sensation.

But this set is not for the faint-hearted with its repetitive and meditative drumming complemented by a creative jazz-based horn section led by musical director and saxophonist Cedric “Im” Brooks along with Rasta chants and orations courtesy of Brother Samuel Clayton. Brother Samuel Clayton represents an early form of dub poetry or spoken work as showcased on cuts like Narration and Narration Continued.

With Grounation you never know what to expect. Every song is like a Kinder Egg. On one hand you have spoken tracks with no instrumentation, like Poem 1 and Poem 2. Then you have a relatively traditional song like Four Hundred Years with a melancholic melody reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair. Or the title track which is spread across two cuts clocking in at a total of 30 (!) minutes.

Grounation is a psychedelic, colorful and ethereal joyride and a milestone in the development of reggae music.