Reggae & Dancehall 335 Items

Two fire Ska cuts.. A premium series of limited edition Japanese pressed 7"s - featuring unreleased and impossibly hard to find gems from the Duke Reid archives.

The A side is an unreleased Uptempo Ska Vocal cut with a fire instrumental on the flip.

A premium series of limited edition Japanese pressed 7"s - featuring unreleased and impossibly hard to find gems from the Duke Reid archives.

Chapter 4 als Limitierte Green LP!

African Head Charge return to On-U Sound with their first new album in twelve years. Titled A Trip To Bolgatanga, the recordings are led by founder member Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, with close friend and co-conspirator Adrian Sherwood once again at the controls. A Trip to Bolgatanga is a stunning return, bringing together the talents of two masters who, after a hiatus, have created a rich album brimming with ideas and executed with finesse.

Commenting on the gap between records, Bonjo says: “In the twelve years that have passed, I have been spending time with my family in Ghana, but I was still creating things. I still have a lot of things to let off, you know what I mean? At this time in my life I want to work, but I want to enjoy time with my family as well. When I’m enjoying myself, I’m also creating, because when you’re happy it helps you to be more creative, and the greatest happiness is to be with your family.”

Although there are sounds on this album which recall previous African Head Charge classics such as My Life In A Hole In The Ground and Songs Of Praise, it would be wrong to assume that their music is not still evolving. The master percussionist adds: “All the drumming and the chanting, it took a while to do. I’m always meeting drummers, all over Ghana. The Fante, the Akim, the Ga, the Bolgatanga, all the tribes, and they all have their different drums. I try to learn as much as I can, and put it all together. It’s like cooking, when you’re blending all of the elements, like yam, banana, pumpkin, and the end taste, that’s where it matters. That’s how I look at music. Throw a lot of things together, and then you taste it and say, “Yeah man, that tastes good. Yeah man, that sounds good.” That’s what African Head Charge is all about, those different combinations, and then bringing it to Adrian, who helps to make it another thing again.”

Producer Adrian Sherwood concurs: “It’s always a case of getting all the right ingredients sorted for Head Charge, and then having some fun with overdubs and mixing and getting it completely perfect. We always work well together, but I think on this one we have the greatest result."

The group have been active for over four decades, and this album sees other members of the musical entity’s extended family come back to the fray. Multi-instrumentalist Skip McDonald and fellow Tackhead co-conspirator Doug Wimbish contribute to a variety of tracks. Drummer Perry Melius, whose involvement in the project dates back to the early `90s, adds a righteous rhythmic heft to a trio of tunes. In addition there are a number of notable fresh recruits. The horns and reeds of Paul Booth, Richard Roswell, and David Fullwood; Ras Manlenzi and Samuel Bergliter on keys; Vince Black on guitar. There’s additional percussion from Shadu Rock Adu, Mensa Aka, Akanuoe Angela, and Emmanuel Okine, strings from Ivan “Celloman” Hussey, plus the voice of the mighty Ghetto Priest. Very special guest, and one of Ghana’s foremost kologo players, King Ayisoba also provides vocals, and demonstrates his dexterity on the traditional two-stringed lute.

Where previous albums have been a melting pot of global influences, on their new LP African Head Charge have but one place in mind. A Trip To Bolgatanga is a musical journey to Bonjo’s current hometown in north Ghana. A psychedelic travelogue across the landscape featuring their trademark hand percussion and group chanting augmented with rumbling bass, mutated horns, dubbed out effects, wild wah-wah, haunted voodoo dancehall, synthetic swells, disco congas, tumbling layers of electronic effects, blues-inflected woodwind, and funky organ. As with every On-U Sound production, each repeated listen reveals fresh detail, and its power won’t be really understood until heard on a big system, when it’ll reduce all competition to rubble.

- Specs Glow In The Dark 12" Vinyl in polylined inner sleeve in 3mm spine sleeve with 12” poster insert and download code

Noted reggae vocalist Barry Biggs comes under the Emotional Rescue microscope here with celebrated LA digger Patrick Billard aka DJ Duckcomb remixing one of his cuts. First up is the original version of 'Illusion' which has big pianos over the clean digital dub. The soaring vocal is obscured by plenty of lush effects and melodies. After a version twists and contorts the original, the DJ Duckcomb Discomix slows things down and ups the dazzling disco vibes but keeps the dub dubby bottom end to ensure plenty of dance floor impact. This is a classy one as ever from this label.

New life for a tune that hold a special place in the discography of one of the greatest rub-a-dub and fast-chat specialists in the history of the UK sound system movement, here comes a fresh version of Tippa Irie's powerful “I’m An African” ! First making an appearance as the highlight of O.B.Fs album “signz” in 2020, this fresh reworked version of “I’m An African” features on Tippa’s brand-new album of the same name. To celebrate this, the track was pressed onto 7” vinyl alongside its dub version “African Dub” ! Rufffff

With Raggasonic 3, the Big Red / Daddy Mory duo gives us an explosive album, faithful to the recipes that made it successful. As a logical follow-up to their reformation, the Raggasonic records a new album in order to satisfy the long wait of their most voracious supporters of all ages. We could see them sowing collective hysteria its last two years during the old plows, the Bataclan, Paris Olympia filled to the full, in front of 1 million spectators at SOS racism in front of the Eiffel Tower, La fête de humanity, Solidays and many more. RAGGASONIC 3 will be released on October 15, 2012. We find their producer, always Frenchie, at the controls. The first extract "it'll clash" set fire to the first listen, we find in Raggasonic 3 the very essence of the group with titles like "Identity", "Changing the story" "Life" of the themes that concern us all of them who question our society. Raggasonic has lost none of his verve and remains very sensitive to hot topics in society, such as multiculturalism, anti-communitarianism, struggles and different forms of engagement. A lyrical and inter-generational fight that they have been carrying out with brio for more than 20 years.

This is the second installment of deep roots Rastafarian reggae at Studio One and features classic music from some of the most important figures in reggae music – Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Gladiators – alongside a host of rarities and little-known recordings, such as a truly rare Mystic Revelation of Rastafari seven-inch single, Willie William’s first ever recording ‘Calling’ and Horace Andy’s righteous (and equally rare) masterpiece ‘Illiteracy.’
Black Man’s Pride 2 extends the legacy of Studio One’s ground-breaking path in roots reggae which began at the end of the 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s. The album tells the story of how the rise of Studio One Records and the Rastafari movement were interconnected, through the adoption of the Rastafari faith by key reggae artists – everyone from the Skatalites and Wailers in the 1960s, major singers such as Alton Ellis and Horace Andy at the end of the decade, through to major roots artists such as The Gladiators in the 1970s – and how Clement Dodd consistently recorded this heavyweight roots music throughout Studio One’s history.
The sleeve-notes to this album also discuss the links between Rastafari and Studio One in time and place, noting how both the religion and Clement Dodd’s musical empire had their roots in the intense period of pre-independence Jamaica in Kingston, expanded in the 1960s following the visit of Haile Selassie in 1966, and how roots music then came to dominate reggae music in the early 1970s. Also discussed is how the outsider stance of both reggae music and the Rastafari movement relate back many hundreds of years to the original rebel stance of the Maroons, escaped slaves who set up self-sufficient enclaves in the hills of the Jamaican countryside.

Earth Sound Records is shaking the place with two rare cuts of Prince Buster & The All Stars classic hits.

You should listen to the beauty of the Prince Buster All Stars’ Bongo-led horns version of all times Abyssinians classic “Sata Masa Gana” also known as the praise to god. The Earth Sound Records exclusive remastered reissue comes loaded with a Cool Operator drums & bass cut. This single sided 45 rpm 10-inch is pressed on red vinyl.