Golden Seal

I'm in two minds about this one - sometimes I reckon it's a bit of a potboiler, other times I think it's just beautiful. It has a lush, multilayered, ethereal sound anchored in a heavy bassline. 

I think the problem's that though the sound is very nice, there's no light and shade: it starts, it continues and then it fades out without any real changes. Strange, though it feels there's more going on in the dub. Anyway here it is: Pablo's 'Golden Seal'.

Daydreaming

It's been a while since I listened to today's record, and I'm very glad I just stumbled across the recording I made before selling it a few years back. It's 'Daydreaming Of Africa' by L. (Lloyd?) Jones, a lovely 1978 roots tune on the Xamayca label. It's one of those songs I can never get tired of hearing, a wistful, breezy vocal with really good lyrics and a surprisingly heavy dub. 

While the a-side is really the one for me, a lot of people also go wild for the flip - 'Some African', credited to 'Maxie', who as far as I can tell was Channel One recording engineer Lancelot 'Maxie' McKenzie. It features a raw, keening vocal over a heavy rhythm which segues into 'Declaration Of Rights' for an absolutely stellar dub mix. 

Every Knee Shall Bow

Sorry about the lack of posts recently - I've done my back in so I'm trying to cut down on the sitting-down time. Anyway, here's a self-produced tune by Johnny Clarke 'Every Knee Shall Bow', that also features U-Roy and a dark, spacious Tubbys dub.

Clarke's vocal is cool and intense, U-Roy is riding high on a string of hits for Prince Tony - tuff riddim, big tune!