Scorcher!
Rothadam aka Errol Gayle tried out for Bunny Lee before following his brothers from Trenchtown to Toronto in the early-1970s. Here, his fellow-welder Sid Lovejoy also ran a record shop, label and studio, at 917 Bathurst Street; and in 1975 the first iteration of Rebel was unleashed on Sid’s LMP imprint (cut a little slower than this reissue), featuring none other than Leroy Sibbles on bin-wobbling bass; and massive, rearing, swinging horns (and melodica). The brass brings to mind the Otravis crew on Skyjack Version, also with Sibbles, for Half Moon; the hi-hats tick with the same serious-mindedness as at the start of Joe Higgs’ Creation; Rothadam channels Horace Andy to full effect.
Then Gayle reprised the song at Half Moon itself, with the Super Eight Corporation. Producer Oswald Creary passed the second recording — side two here — onto Ron Lewis, to put out on Ron-Lew. It’s more Upsetters in style, with a lighter touch; more limber, smoke-filled and cosmic, with a vibesing spoken intro and tasty percussion.
Both sides are raw, intense, inspiring roots.
Neither came with a dub… so dream on, rudie.
Hotly recommended.

Stone-classic sexed-up Detroit electro banger. Killer diller.

‘Verve Vault.’

‘Essential Vinyl.’

Irresistible duets from 1955 (with Again and Porgy & Bess to come).
Their stylistic incompatibility is the spark: spontaneity, love, respect, and consummate musicianship shine the brighter.
‘Essential Vinyl.’

The cheaper LP is in the ‘Essential Vinyl’ series.

Headlong, fierce, banked rasta drumming fit to discombobulate any kind of system, with sweet, jazzy trombone riding it down, bubbling bass driving it home, and all of it classically dubwise.
Wareika Hill Sounds is the contemporary roots reggae project of Calvin Cameron — mainstay of the original Light Of Saba line-up, the genius behind Lambs Bread Collie — who to this day lives above the headquarters of the Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari, in the Wareika Hill district of Kingston, Jamaica.
In the great pedagogical traditions of the multi-cultural Light Of Saba, and before that Count Ossie, this new recording runs together two JA musical traditions — a kind of drumming (and drum) brought from the Congo, and the island’s variation of calypso — into a thundering grounation charge. As always, the Skatalite’s trombone-playing is majestic: deadly, gripping, deeply cultivated.
The dub is tremendous, too.
Last box!