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.

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

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.

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.

Deeply zonked and moody variation on The Abyssinians’ classic, with a wicked blend of kit and machine drums. Rough.

Killer lost blaxploitation soundtrack to Calvin Lockhart’s 1974 film fiasco — deep JA funk, rocking lovers, moody dub, punchy Carib jazz, and sweet soul, bubbling together, warmed by the genius of US inspiration like Jimmy Smith, Curtis Mayfield, and The Meters. There’s a deejay version of John Holt’s Same Song, with a red-eyed nod to U-Roy and Scotty from ‘The Scorpion’. Keyboardist Leslie Butler tears up the deadly instrumental originals Funky Nigger, Negril, and Ghetto Funk (which kicked off Darker Than Blue). Boris is especially heartfelt on the acoustic version of Star (which he wrote, and Big Youth covered). Gardiner on bass and Paul Douglas on drums keep it tight as Titus Andronicus; Tommy McCook leads the horns; Sid Bucknor from Studio One is at the controls, inside Channel One.

Two fine sides of expert, Curtis-inflected soul-reggae.

Tremendous.
High-drama, dubwise Channel One, with deadly guitar and congas, and fatter-than-Fat-Albert trombone.

Herman Sang (from the Jiving Juniors) was at Brentford Road from the start, in the late-1950s.
This is wistful organ-combo r&b — pre-ska — with some sweet calypso jazz on the flip.

Pure loveliness, deep and stately.
Plus Patsy dishing it straight back to Johnnie Taylor on the flip, with a reworking of Blues In The Night.

Both sides are knockout.
The Willacy is terrific roots, rough and mystical, compacted and bristling, with fine trumpet.
On the flip is Big Youth’s toast of Gregory’s Look Before You Leap.