Hurting, heartfelt sufferers about youth unemployment in hard times.
Our favourite of these three new Jah Lifes from Digikiller.
All three run the same ruff digi rhythm, stripped and venomous on the flip.
All three are previously unreleased.

‘It’s not of my own will to idle on a corner.’

From 1967 Ras Michael occasionally sat in on recording sessions with Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Vendors at Studio One. Instead of getting paid for his work, he requested studio time for his own Zion Disc recordings as the Sons of Negus Churchical Host…
‘Reggae is a vision. Reggae is the word that hits at the heartstrings the mind can’t control. I and I get the message of Rastafari out through reggae. It is the black music line of message to the world. It is the black Rastaman line of message to the world. It is the metaphorical Black Star Line’ (Ras Michael).

With Junjo and Soldjie at Channel One. Including the smash Diseases, in which Jah licks trouser-wearing women with ‘elephantiasis… the other one is the poliomyelitis… arthritis and the one diabetes.’

Totally knockout. Sublime, implacably defiant, 100% roots reggae.
This previously unreleased, uncluttered mix homes in on the crushingly sweet singing, and its profound, crystal-clear message, straight to the head of the shitshow of wannabe dictators and mass murderers over-running the news.
‘Soul and power for the military hour,’ as Wailing Souls put it around the same time.
Hard-core loveliness.

Beautifully stark and intense steppers cut of the Heptones classic, complete with two dubplate mixes. All previously unreleased.

‘Special dedication to all the people who live inna House… Ain’t no house like Waterhouse… Ain’t no house like Firehouse.’
From the Sleng Teng era but played live. Total, heart-lifting class.
Altogether now…

Total murder.
Bernard Brown, Carlton Gregory, and Noel ‘Bunny’ Brown (from the Chosen Few), originally on the April imprint out of NYC in 1978.
Steppers paranoia par excellence.

Superb Caribbean disco by the same Trini bros behind the West End boogie classic Touch Your Life. Lithely grooving; expertly arranged.
Presumably the same Glen Miller who did Whey No Dead and How Can You Mend, for Studio One.

Four songs and their dubs — lovers, bubblers, rockers, and well-charge dub, with great playing and Sugar brilliantly focussed throughout — originally a 1983 picture-sleeved ten-inch on his own Black Roots imprint.

Two knockout Wackie’s 12” sides, paired together for maximum pressure. Each originally appeared on separate twelves, around ‘85 and ‘80. The A-side is another deadly Sugar shot, one of so many for Wackie’s. Backed here with the more obscure Zion Land, a stunning, shimmering roots chant. Both sides extended mixes.