Mid-seventies Alvin Ranglin productions — an original LP, not a compilation — with the Revolutionaries deep in the groove, Sylvan Morris from Studio One at the controls, the Tamlins on backing vocals, and Deadly Headley and co chipping in tough brass.
Top Gregory, with classics like Jailer and Border.

Tastily off-kilter mid-seventies roots excursion on Artibella.

Previously unreleased but killer.
Jah B’s singing is softly sublime; discreetly channeling Bob Marley. People have wondered whether it’s a young Jah Batta; but insiders say it’s Al Moodie, from the same session as Bull Bay Jumping.
Both dubs are genius Wackies: trenchant Utopia rhythms, with shimmering, majestic brass.

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.

Majestic and immense Cure, on The Heptones’ Give Me The Right rhythm.

Toddler at the control tower, over heavier-than-lead Roots Radics. Scientist cuts the dub right back to the bone.

Melting, copybook Lovers Rock from 1977.
Willie Lindo, Harold Butler Robbie Lyn and co at Federal. Marcia Griffiths on backing vocals. A classy Waiting In Vain.

Sweet, implacably socialist lovers, re-phrasing the Still Cool classic beloved by Shaka (and its metrical debt to Jah Jah See Them A Come).
Produced by Adrian Sherwood; with George Oban from the original Aswad crew, playing bass.

Go straight to the head-spinning dub. Magnificently zonked, killer music emanating from the wildly creative seismic crack which links the Upsetter in Kingston to Bullwackies in New York, and both to Half Moon in Toronto. Man called Fitty leads the Ishan Band, on flute and saxophone; Jerry aka Keith absolutely smashes it, at the controls. From 1978.

Jerry Brown was a founding member of rocksteady aces The Jamaicans, long before migrating to Canada. He helped Oswald Creary establish the Half Moon label; he set up his own Summer imprint in 1974. Both labels shared the same studio, in the basement of Creary’s house, on a dead-end street in Malton, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. Local and visiting reggae alumni would hang out and make music: Jackie Mittoo, Willie Williams, Johnny Osbourne, Prince Jammy, Stranger Cole, Alton Ellis…

Originally out on Joe Morgan’s Fish Tea in the mid-eighties, reprising his classic Basement Session for the digital era. Extended mixes, with mean electro bass on the dub.