Heavy heavy heavy!

Today's offering is a very rare I Roy tune called Babylon Road http://www.mediafire.com/?ttbgmjmzxew . It's a version of Brent Dowe's 'Babylon Policy' - it's damn heavy, it's damn good. I Roy is close to his best, playful and lyrically inventive, and he's right at the front of the mix. There are a lot of deejay tunes that you enjoy because they have a great mix (that just happens to include some toasting), with this one you don't really notice the mix until you turn the record over. The dub is seriously heavy with a subtle echo on the guitar, piano and vocal that gives it dreamy feel with a firm focus on the drums, percussion and bass. It took me years to find this one - hope you enjoy.

Unforgettable Upsetter Time

Here's an Upsetter tune from 1975 (I think), http://www.mediafire.com/?qulyqeimnl5 Time by the Unforgettables. The vocal has never really grabbed me, but I really like the dub. The Unforgettables cut maybe 5 or 6 tunes - and none of the ones I've heard have really blown me away. That said, one of the ones I've not heard ('Many A Call') got put on an Upsetter compilation, and they've all had damn good b-sides. This is quite a rare one. Hope you enjoy.

Reggae for yesterday, today & tomorrow

Here's yesterday's record, http://www.mediafire.com/?ibjym51ncyw Mail Man by Charley Ace, a great version of a Stranger Cole tune called 'My Application'. The organ line is unusual but very effective, and the dub has been done in a similar style to what Errol T was doing at Randys. Charley Ace was a superb deejay, and a very under-rated producer - I'm hoping to do a special post on his productions in the near future - as well as owning the coolest mobile record shop in Kingston.

Today's is another great deejay tune, http://www.mediafire.com/?uldw2mhqmwl Land Of Poverty by Big Joe. I've never heard of a vocal to this but I recently found an instrumental cut by Rick Frater called 'Sunday Creation'. It's a seriously rare tune, and an absolutely fantastic rhythm.

While I'm here, I may as well bank tomorrow's record as well. It's another deejay tune, http://www.mediafire.com/?d3m13zyzq4i More Heartaches,  Lizzy's version of the Beltones' 'No More Heartaches' which was one of the very earliest reggae records. The deejay side is good but I actually prefer the b-side. I'm a sucker for a good instrumental and this bubbling joyful organ cut really hits the spot.

Anyway I hope you enjoy these three, I've been meaning to put them up for a while but just never got around to it.

Ting-A-Ling!

Here's a nice tune from Prince Jazzbo from the start of the eighties.
It's a cut of 'Ting-A-Ling' by the Heptones, which he'd already versioned as 'Ring-A-Ting' in the early seventies. In the eight or so years that separate the two records, Jazzbo's style has changed ('Natty-Ting-A-Ling' owes a big debt to the new style of deejays like Lone Ranger) and so has the mixing at Studio 1. This has a similar sort of mix to the twelve inch singles that Coxsone was putting out by the bucketload in those years - you really notice it on the dub.
I really like this tune, and I hope you will too. Anyway, Enjoy!
http://www.mediafire.com/?zjnzdfmqwou and don't forget that there are a couple of excellent compilations of Jazzbo's music out there (and if you decide to buy one of the compilations of his Studio 1 stuff, make
sure it's 'Pepper Rock' - the other one has the same songs, but doesn't have the right mixes and is nowhere near as good).

Better late than never...

That tune-a-day thing didn't last long; day 3 and I'm already playing catch-up! In my defence I was still at work at 11pm last night, and when I got home I never wanted to see another f***ing computer for the rest of my life (yet here I am the next morning...). Anyway, this is another old favourite, Horace Andy's 'Children Of Israel' on the Santic label.
This is actually the next cut to 'Pablo In Dub / Hell Boat' (rather than the other way round), which was Leonard Chin's first record as a producer. That was enough of a hit in Jamaica to bring other big-name artists to the young producer; Horace Andy was the first of them, writing the lyrics to 'Children Of Israel' within a couple of hours of hearing the backing track. It's a beautiful impassioned vocal with quite a meditative vibe, and some interesting sound effects on the dub. I didn't actually like it that much when I first heard it, but it grew on me and now I find myself coming back to it again and again and again.
http://www.mediafire.com/?mwl5byqijim
Enjoy.