Visions Of John Clarke was a little thrown together for its original release in 1979. Still, its sleeve carried a ringing endorsement from Bullwackies himself — ‘President of the John Clarke Fan Club’.
Visions attracted the early interest of no less than Studio 1 boss Coxsone Dodd, whose bid for distribution-rights was thwarted when the Brooklyn label Makossa quickly put in for a full licence. Out soon afterwards, the new version - entitled Rootsy Reggae - duplicated five tracks, but with markedly different mixes, fresh edits, and sometimes new instrumentation. This CD presents both albums complete with the original track order.
The singer — not to be confused with Johnny Clark — had been running with the Wackies operation for the past six years, ever since moving from Jamaica to New York. He’d cut memorable sevens with co-founder Munchie Jackson for the Tafari label — like In Search of The Human Race and Recession — and with Lloyd Barnes for such Bullwackies imprints as Versatile and Wackies. Several are collected by these two albums, with another layer of modification: for example, on Wasn’t It You Lloyd Barnes and Prince Douglas give a new treatment — and adding guitar — to the Jumbo Caribbean Disco twelve; on Pollution they remove the horns from the Wackies seven (though generally Baba Leslie is in full effect here).
The tracklisting rounds out with a Johnny Osbourne cover; several New Breed jams, featuring the likes of Jah Scotty, Clive Hunt, Harold Sylvester, Jah Hitler, Jerry Johnson, the Love Joys, even Mickey Mouse apparently; and on a handful of done-over rhythms Clarke takes the mic from brethren like Joe Auxumite, K.C. White and Wayne Jarrett.

Ace Jah Warrior revive from 1997.

The first vinyl release of this 2005 reunion of Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and Adrian Sherwood.
Richly percussive African rhythms, bubbling with trippy effects; pounding bass.

Music by Michaels Cole and Jessett for the beloved seventies finger-puppet show, with Fingermouse, Gulliver the seagull, Scampi, and Flash the tortoise.

This is why Robert Hood is such a don.
‘A pinnacle of Detroit techno. Best-known for the lip-biting minimalism of One Circle, with its chant ‘Detroit’ and body-rocking riff-mongery, or maybe for the killer variation Explain The Style… but for us the EP’s shortest and freakiest number Modern And Ancient steals the show; a mad, half-stepping slice of Afro-futurist electro that still blows our mind today.’