The 1969 High Note LP, on the cusp between rocksteady and reggae. Three of the former, with backing by Lynn Taitt & The Jets; nine of the new thing, featuring Sonia Pottinger’s in-house Soul Rhythms band. A great lineup of singers includes Delano Stewart, Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson.

Perfect uptempo rock steady from the Gaylad (copping a little British Invasion, a bit late in the day). The flip carries the swing, though: a magnificent horns cut to Delano’s Tell Me Baby, by The Gaysters.

Fatis digi.
Opening with a Dennis Brown feint, Katt whirls through vegetarianism, military repression, street crime and religious salvation.

Two terrific, previously unreleased excursions on the Amos Milburn.
The trombone holds it down like Giant Haystacks, but that’s a tenor saxophone solo.
Lovely stuff.

Irresistible reggaeficatory bazookaings of Manu Dibango’s Soul Makossa, upping the old-school funk, and garbling extra mamas.

God’s own ska. Cornerstone of the Far East in reggae. (No Augustus Pablo without it.) We put a dubplate mix on Studio One Scorcher; first ever time out for the second take here.

Previously-unreleased takes of this ball of fire hurtling East with no survivors (from the second Ska Authentic). Pitiless, wondrous companion-piece to Last Call, from the same session.

Heavy, slowed-down Green Island excursion, revisited as a duet with the mighty Lennie Hibbert. Originally a Down Beat dubplate special.

Rudie gone soft. Irresistible love songs — with simmering brass, splashing cymbals on the A; classy sax on the flip.

Gripping, up-in-your-face account of the story of Judas. Full-on Keith Hudson roots.
And an unmissable nugget of flute-led JA funk, by the Soul Syndicate, on the flip.

Hymning the power of reggae, over a re-licked, surging Conquering Lion, with worrisome Tubbys bass. The dub is here.

‘Yes we nice, yes we nice… Hold them, music, hold them, yes, we control them… no we nah go let them stray.’ Dancehall manners — on the rhythm Delgado used for Rasta People — as clinically murderous as all-time EJ hits for Jammys like Rock Them One By One and Turn Up The Heat.

Irresistible version of the Isley Brothers.
Vin Gordon kicks it through the swinging doors and down the street, on the flip.
Apparently the Brothers were fed up with Berry Gordy pushing them around… but it’s timeless, universal advice: ‘Sock it to your neighbour / Sock it to your mother / It’s your thing / Do what you want to do.’

The greatest rocksteady instrumental of them all.
Haughtily cool and deadly; a stepping razor of a tune. (Just ask the ODB.)
Back in after a long absence. Hail the rebel sound.

Kaboom!
Flashing the black spot of Niney at his deadliest — Zorro, merciless avenger of the oppressed, re-stoking the furnace of his Westbound Train, but wheeling around and blazing eastwards…
And that’s only a secret-weapon version of None Shall Escape The Judgement on the other side, with Owen Grey at the mic.
Raging Tubbys fire.