A jackpot of no less than forty-four late-seventies toasts, produced by Errol T and Joe Gibbs.
Brilliantly exuberant wordplay over classic Mighty Two rhythms.
Droopy drawers, 44; stuffed with winners.

Double helpings of riotous, classic dancehall recorded for Jah Thomas’s Midnight Rock label, but previously only issued as a promotional white label. The rhythms are by the Roots Radics, at Channel One. One side each for the deejays, brandishing lyrical cutlasses fit to kill. Early days for Super Cat, but his irresistible rise is already up in your face, plain as day.

With Culture.

The commanding, concussive first LP of the Voice of Thunder, from 1976, chanting psalms and prayers over tough Lloydie Slim productions, mostly with the Aggrovators. (Plus a seemingly random Upsetters rhythm.)
‘Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.’
It’s a must.

A graduate of soundsystems like Gemini and Volcano Hi Power, Little John was twelve years old when he voiced this tune, shifting its sights from snitches and stoolies, straight to the head of all party-poopers. It appeared in 1983 during Sugar’s stay in London after Good Thing Going was a national pop hit in 1980, coming on the Stoke Newington label M And M - presumably named after Minott and his then-partner, Coxsone Dodd’s niece Maxine Stowe. Appearing first with Wackies’ pink-to-orange labels, Batta’s cut is a different mix again to the version on his album. He bows to U-Roy at the start, before switching to a more contemporary delivery. Sugar is in attendance throughout, almost as if the pair were taking turns at the mic, before the dub takes over.
Two versions, different dubwise mixes of Sugar Minott’s massive Informer rhythm — both choca with living dancehall vibes and Channel One-style deadliness.
Warehouse find; last box.

The first decent compilation of these Clement Bushay productions.
Downright crucial Jazzbo like Step Forward Youth and Every Nigger Is A Winner.

Further excursions on Black Oney’s Jah Jah Send The Parson rhythm. Far I rides a stripped dub (originally for a Carib Gems LP); the straighter Oney return was first released in a tiny run of blanks.

Absolute murder.
A searing, haunting song about abuse, bitter disappointment, and heartbreak, set to a tough, chunky Jimmy Radway rhythm, with edgy organ and dread trombone.
Hortense Ellis is rawly, indelibly authentic: this is her best record by miles.
Plus some stone-classic Big Youth on the flip, ecstatically riding a lethal dub of the same megaton Fe Me Time rhythm.
Killer.

The first disc contains his 1982 LP — irresistible early dancehall — plus contemporaneous twelves sparring with the likes of Cornell Campbell and Barrington Levy. The second rounds up some Joe Gibbs heavy-hitters by other deejays and singers, from the same period.

In his dazzling, rubadub flow, with intricate rhyming, lavish word-play and off-the-wall allusiveness, his genial socialism and jubilant, green-fingered vegetarianism, his knockabout sense of humour and all-round irrepressible good vibes, Ranger is the peerless heir to U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone… and the most diplomatic of envoys for the new dancehall styles just around the corner. He’s undervalued because of a perceived lack of gravitas, but he’s one of the all-time great deejays, and this is his best work.
Have a listen to the musical shock attack Automatic: over Take A Ride, no less, he bundles the Last Poets into a breakneck stream of consciousness, with walk-ons for Marcus Garvey, Bag O Wire, and Garvey’s secretary Mother Muschett; Dovecot Memorial Park and Madison Square; a bad boy who doesn’t know Ranger’s dad is a cop; succinct advice like ‘natty don’t play card inna Babylon yard’; a big baboon in the light of the moon, a broken chair, a felt hat, an anchor you can’t conchor…
“Everybody was wondering why I sounded different. And the reason I sounded different was through I did grow in England and I have the English accent and when I speak you can hear every word I am saying clearly. It was a plus for me. And then through I liked to write poetry and write songs, you know I’m a writer, I stick to the topic from start to finish.”
And the musical rhythms are a preposterous fish-tea tidal wave of Studio One classics (plus a Shank I Sheck): Take A Ride/Truths & Rights, Real Rock/Armageddon Time, One Step Beyond, Hot Milk, Throw Me Corn, Never Let Go, Full Up, Please Be True, Things A Come Up To Bump.

So let the good time roll, with Sir Coxsone at the control. When Ranger talk, the dance it have fe cork.
Deliriously enjoyable. Terrific cover art, too.
Very highly recommended. Five ribbits, five bims, five flash-its, five oinks.