A double-header of booting, irresistible JA rhythm and blues.

Over several years, Far East Records in Japan has faultlessly reissued more than fifty classic Treasure Isle sevens. Expert selections; impeccably restored labels, beautifully colour-matched, often using metallic inks; and great sound.
Over & Done With is out here for the first time, and it’s murder. Riding a banging bottom-end, with thunderous drum rolls, and magnificent horns with superb soloing, Monty coolly lays out his dignified, devastating dissection of a break-up, with the cutting, expository verve of prime Lord Kitchener.
‘When you came to my rescue, I gave all that I could give. Now that your purse is empty, you’ve left me the same way you came. Loving you is useless, you’re a waste of time, you’ve got no love, no sympathy on your mind… My darling, it’s over and done with.’
Baba Brooks leads the way on the flip, which sounds a lot better here than the original pressing. Killer, tear-up ska.

These two early-eighties dub albums, plus a disc with nineteen dubs originally out on the Trojan subsidiary Attack.

His masterwork, from 1975. Great songs — a tough mix of mysticism, politics and philosophy — with Robbie Lyn from the Sound Dimension, Geoffrey Chung gently testing the reggae envelope, Clive Hunt from Wackies, a sprinkling of Black Ark, masterful drumming by Horsemouth… and PM’s compelling voice.

Wow… the triumphant comeback of the indomitable King Culture. Super-heavy, Radics-style, wrecking-ball rhythm; proper singing; tough dub. The mixing of the harmony singing is magical.

‘Close your eyes. What do you hear? Do you hear your own heartbeat? Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?’ ‘Old man, how is it that you hear these things?’ ‘Young man, how is it that you do not?’
Musical Kung Fu care of Clive Hunt at the Black Ark.

‘Man must vank these money men / Who pay I and I to fight I bredrens / Just because I’m in hunger / Them hold I with them dunza / Penetrate man with them dunza… Oh, there shall be lightning and thunder / For the heathens who take advantage of sufferer / To gain their vanity of power / They shall reach their final hour / They will be cut off forever, yeah.’

A highlight of the monumental Africa Must Be Free LP, never out on seven before, plus masterful dub. Such a great singer, shot dead at twenty-one during an argument about a stolen food-mixer.

Plus the melodica instrumental and three dubs.