Outstanding roots by Noel Gray, at High Times in 1982.

It was intended that one of Hudson’s teenage sons would voice the dubs. In the event the Love Joys, Wayne Jarrett, and most inimitably Hudson himself featured at the microphone. Like Wackies, Hudson was a Studio One devotee — ‘I used to hold Don Drummond’s trombone for him so I can be in the studio’ — and the album follows Coxsone’s recent strategy of overdubbing signature rhythms.
The Studio One sides were aimed at the dancefloor; Hudson’s reworks of tracks like Melody Maker are more psychological. Heavy Barrett Brothers rhythms are pitched down and remixed deeper still with reverb, filters and other distortion, and overlaid with new recordings of guitar, percussion, keyboard, voice, often crazily treated.
Originally released in 1981 on the Joint International label, in NYC.
Legendary, strange, compelling music.

Tremendous, tormented, abject vocal to Melody Maker, with a heavy dub — for the label Hudson co-ran with Gleaner journalist Balford Henry.
Via the safe hands of Dub Store in Tokyo.

Scorcher. One megaton of Hudson dread; pure reggae noir.
The mix is quite different to Flesh Of My Skin.
Definitively presented at last (after some dire bootlegs), by Dub Store in Tokyo.

Two magnificent, seething sides of rawly militant witness by the Black Morphologist of Dub.
Nuh Skin Up sets his livid, reeling reasoning to a churning, hypnotic Soul Syndicate rhythm, teeming with star-wars bleeps and lasers, and sick, parping synths.
‘The memories of some bad things will never erase… We’re angry. You make us angry.’
Felt We Felt The Strain picks up the pace with no alleviation of hurt and fury. It’s a dubwise steppers, sharpened by Chinna’s guitar, with unheimlich organ; haunted throughout by a kind of swirling white noise in the background, like a tornado of tortured souls.
Long-term Shaka staples in these extended mixes.
Utterly singular, compelling and unmissable; more timely than ever.
‘Nuh skin up’; ‘be serious’.

Two brilliant contemporary roots productions birthing Out On The Floor’s new imprint. Here, Tuff Rock aka East Londoner Mikey Roots masterminds a raw, luminous cut of Keith Goode’s Jah Jah Deliver Us.

Ace late-seventies roots featured in the Deep Roots documentary — so coolly poised — from the Breakfast In Bed hit-maker. Tough Dennis Brown composition, written specially for Sheila.

Strikingly original UK reggae from 1983, self-produced by West Londoner Alex Robertson aka I Benjahman, for his own Lion Kingdom label. With contributions from legends like Rico Rodriguez and Horsemouth Wallace, Studio One and King Tubby engineers Sid Bucknor and Tony Asher, Zabandis crew and Dennis Bovell. Still, the music retains a kind of vibesing outsider idiosyncrasy descended from Keith Hudson.
Kicks off with the Shaka selection Give Love A Try.
This LP offering adds dubs; the CD adds 12” versions, dubplate mixes, dubs and other unreleased material.
An outstanding reissue. Vinyl back in; last copies.

Icho Candy & his brother Prince Junior go combination-style on this previously unreleased anti-apartheid missile, using the same sick rhythm as King Kong’s unmissable Agony And Pain.

Surely this is a Lloyd Campbell production of The Revolutionaries, not a Niney.
Either way it’s total murder, with a dub originally entitled The Rise And Fall Of The South African Regime.
Next cut to The Heptones’ almighty We Want It.

A master-class in digikal dread, by the Cool Ruler and King Tubby.
Swingeing Firehouse rhythms, expertly dubwise, with driving, tumping bass, and the burning horns of Dean Fraser and Vin Gordon. Utterly masterful singing.
The overall mood is foreboding, sombre and distressed. ‘Your trouble wanna trouble you,’ warns Gregory. ‘War in the morning, war in the evening.’ ‘Everyone is wondering who will be next.’
The gist is the toll of everyday living — paranoia and alienation, loneliness and heartbreak, drugs and violence — and the gravitational pull of prison, so it’s great to see the emblematic art-work of the original UK issue, by the aptly-named Serious Business, back again. (We miss the Rudy Gone Whaling typo of an old bootleg, still.)
Typically dapper, trash-and-ready reissue by Dub Store in Tokyo, with ace sound, handsomely sleeved (though the tracks are listed in the wrong order).
Masterworks like Long Sentence, Once A Man — giant-slaying Fade Away excursion — and Badness.
Hotly recommended.