Dancecrasher: A Cool Blog on Jamaican Music...

Dancecrasher is way more than just a music blog, it has label art scans, show listings, interviews from old magazines, and a good bit of info on the latest re-issues.

I'm enjoying reading the "greatest 100 Rocksteady tunes" article now.

New Pressure Sounds Release: Pleasure Dub

I'm so going to get this...

Duke Reid died from cancer in 1974 and his nephew, Errol Brown, who had been a junior engineer at Treasure Isle and who would go on to become one of the key engineers at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong Studio, took over the studio controls. He mixed three dub albums at Treasure Isle that dressed down and dubbed up some of the best of the Bond Street catalogue. Snatches of the original vocals were woven in and out of mixes that sound as fresh and as vital today as they did when they were first released, both in their original sixties incarnations and their seventies counteractions. 'Treasure Dub Volume One' and 'Treasure Dub Volume Two' have been available in various incarnations ever since. However, 'Pleasure Dub', the best of the set featuring Errol Brown's cuts to rock steady classics such as 'The Right Track' by Phyllis Dillon, 'The Tide Is High' and 'Riding On A High & Windy Way' from The Paragons and 'Things You Say You Love' by The Jamaicans has never been re-pressed since its initial release. 'Pleasure Dub' is a record we have wanted to release for a long, long time and we are all delighted to be able to finally add a Treasure Isle album to the Pressure Sounds catalogue.

Pressure Sounds, started in 1994, is up there with Blood and Fire and Soul Jazz, producing some of the best Reggae re-issues available. It is affiliated with Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sounds.

I found a review of Pleasure Dub Here.

Stop That Train by the Spanishtonians

So, Lots of people have been coming to my blog looking for Information on the Spanish Town Skabeats A.K.A The Spanishtonians because of my post last year about my 2 of my favorite tracks on the Stop That Train Rhythm. Well now you can enjoy the original:

Grame Goodall and Federal Records

I have heard a rumor that Tuff Gong is the last running vinyl pressing plant in Jamaica. I have had no luck finding out if this is true, but I did stumble upon a really cool write up on Gearslutz about working in the Federal Records pressing plant. It's credited to Graeme Goodall who was the Chief Engineer. Here is a quote:

At one time we ran out of the pure wood soap used to clean the masters..I think the Ja. Govt put a ban on importing soap as Colgate Palmolive had opened a soap factory on Foreshore Road. Nothing daunted, I grabbed about a dozen L.P's from the factory, took a sample of the wood soap and located the chief chemist at CP, and asked him to analyze it and see if he had something similar. Guess what....they used a coconut based oil

But WAIT, there is more. Searching for Grame Goodall pulled up a 5 page interview with him at reggae-vibes.com. This interview is a who's who of reggae artists and loaded with first hand accounts of the Jamaican music scene going all the way back to the 1950s. This is a must-read interview.

Small Axe Files on Dee Jays...

I've been digging around on the Small Axe web site again, and found a fantastic "top 100" guide to reggae DJ's. It was written in 1992, and goes all the way back to the early 1960's. For each entry, it has an excellent although really short summery of each artist, and a crucial track or LP to look for. Here is what they say about it:

It is not a history of DJ's, the amount of information needed for something like that is not at the moment available. Its purpose is to act as a guide to all the major DJ's over the last 30 or so years.

...and since I'm on an I-Roy kick, here is that entry:

I.ROY

Roy Reid, While working on his own sound Son's Junior. He was discovered by Harry Mudie in Spanish Town. With Harry Mudie he had a big hit ›Drifter‹ released in 1971. While Gussie Clarke produced his classic ›Presenting‹ LP [Trojan] in 1973.

Thanks for all this work, Ray.

Jah Lion Jungle by I-Roy

So, my favorite track lately is Jah Lion Jungle by I-Roy. I picked it up as the A side on a Mafia re-issue, and it kicked my ass. Some quality time with Google indicates that this track was initially done for Keith Hudson, and it shows up on the second disk of the massive Keith Hudson- The Hudson Affair on the Trojan label... and here is a word for the wise, Sanctuary Records, who owns Trojan, was bought by Universal Music Group in late 2007, so I would pick up any of the current releases in your wish list sooner rather than later.

I-Roy's lyric's on this track can't be beat. His flawless delivery takes you on a trip through the concrete jungle of 1970's Jamaica. The production is loud and clear, and the backing rhythm is a real rocker. I didn't have any luck tracking down the original riddim yet, but I'll post when I figure it out. In the mean time, here are a few words about I-Roy from the book Solid Foundation by David Katz:

By the time of Alcapone's arrival in Britain, I Roy was firmly in ascendancy back home. Born Roy Samuel Reid in Saint Thomas in 1944, I Roy operated a set called Soul Bunnies in the rock steady era, playing Friday nights at Rose Lane in downtown Kingston A civil servant working at Customs and Excise, Reid had more ready cash than some of his peers and made a point of always being immaculately dressed...

His verbal skills drew the attention of producer Harry Mudie, who cut the toaster's debut disc, 'Hearts Don't Leap', towards the end of 1970. I Roy voiced further songs for Mudie, including a version of Dennis Walks' chilling 'Drifter', and helped distribute Mudie's product on a Honda motorcycle. As he started to branch out and record for other producers, the quick-witted toaster began chatting on the Clarendon sound V-Rocket, and ended up temporatily filling U Roy's shoes on King Tubby's Hi Fi in 1972.

It kind of makes me wonder if I-Roy might not have been partial inspiration for Horsemouth's character in the film Rockers...

Jah Shaka and Mad Professor

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I've been collecting Jah Shaka's records for about 10 years, although I don't have as many as I'd like. My favorites by far are several of the projects that he did in the early 80's with Mad Professor. One jewel in particular is a dub album of Twinkle Brothers cuts from 1982. The album is called Dub Massacre Vol. 1, and its fantastic.

Thanks to YouTube, here is track one, called Jahovah in Dub Majesty and track seven called Kingdom Dub.

From not long after, here is an interview with both Jah Shaka and Mad Professor circa 1985:

If you want more, the reggae 'zine Small Axe published a long interview with Jah Shaka in 1990, which I tracked down online. It's a fascinating read that really helps shed some light on Jah Shaka's approach to both original music and his influential sound system. His discussion at the beginning of the article, about establishing a "sound" for his sound system, is very true to the goal of early sound systems. Originality was a crucial part of the earliest Jamaican sound systems back in the 50's and 60's. At first, this meant playing rare records that other sound systems didn't have, mostly soul and R & B records from the US. Eventually this drive to always have new and specialized music led to recording of local talent. Many early Jamaican recordings were made for specific sound systems so they would have exclusive tracks to play at dances. To the sound system owners, like Coxsonne Dodd, selling the music to the public on 45's was really more of an afterthought.