(Wisdom 7)
 
Lets not mince our words, Max Romeo has been responsible for some classics and some stinkers, right across the board. This is one of his corkers, however it is not as well known as his tracks on the ‘War Inna Babylon’ LP and other material for Lee Scratch Perry. (more…)

VP

As a foundation artist, the name Freddie McGregor has been synonymous with reggae music for a half a century. He has had a steady career as a singer, producer and musician and has brought reggae fans many popular tunes such as ‘Big Ship’, ‘Just Don’t Want to be Lonely’ and ‘Natural Collie’. Some listeners of modern reggae may recognise the name of his son,  Stephen ‘Di Genius’ McGregor, who has been responsible for many popular Dancehall Riddims in recent times. (more…)

(Unreleased)

I am slightly confused as to why this hasn’t been released yet. It appeared on Ramon Judah’s SoundCloud several months ago, including details stating that it would be a B-side accompanying ‘Deliver Me‘ on an upcoming Reggae Roast 12”. That release dropped recently and has justifiably won acclaim from many in the reggae world, including David Rodigan.

However puzzlingly, the ‘Deliver Me’ 12″ features five dubs/remixes (from Dougie Conscious as well as Rob Smith and Adam Prescott) but conspicuously lacks the proposed B-side which I was so excited about.   (more…)

Ahh the 90s…what contradictions do you sow in my heart! While I nodded my head in sombre agreement when Stone Love famously banned Gun tunes (and later disregarded said ban!), I was also buying up each and every Gun Tune that dropped in the 90s. Why? Well, despite the deeply controversial aspects of songs that celebrate guns and shooting and killing, music and art about violence have been around since, well, since the beginning of art itself.  And many of those great gun tunes of the 90s took the theme of violence and elevated it through metaphor, delivery, etc. into something closing in on the sublime; and when all is said and done, taking violence and turning it into art will always be positive in my book.  (more…)

12″ Taxi/Silent River

Bitty Mclean continues his work with the riddim twins, Sly n Robbie, on this cut of ‘Shine Eye Gal’ released on the Taxi label.

Bitty grew up in Birmingham, his father had a sound and Bitty was surrounded by sound system from a young age. Eventually he picked up the mike and his natural talent was obvious. By the time he was in his early teens he was singing on local Birmingham sounds. He rose to prominence in the mid-90s with a series of UK and worldwide hits, then hit it big again with the hugely successful ‘On Bond Street’ with fresh vocals over classic Duke Reid riddims. (more…)

This is the man of the moment in J.A. who is doing concerts, radio shows and flooding the market with nuff tune everywhere, the one and only Chronixx.

Here he is with the Firehouse Crew on production, doing a wicked re-working of Eek-A-Mouse’s ‘Ganja Smuggling’ riddim, called the ‘Re-Birth’ riddim. (more…)