The Tighten Up Crew will be representing on Day 1 of the One Love festival: 5pm til 7.30pm in the Wray & Nephew Dub Shack!01:38:24 PM July 30, 2010from web
Deadly Dragon hit back with two new digital reissues from New York’s Park Heights label:
Roland Burrell – Dont Think About Tomorrow/Version
One the same rhythm as Nuthead Irie’s Tenement Yard that the Dragon crew reissued a few months ago this is a welcome release that was originally an LP track only.
Sluggy Ranks – Prejudice/Version
Originally released on a Park Height’s 12″ in 1989 (titled “Don’t Be Prejudiced”), the original 12″ is the stuff of legends so this will shift.
These releases are fully licenced, straight from the master tapes and limited to 500 copies, both are great tunes but the Sluggy is a stormer.
Deeper Knowledge/Digikiller out of New York have followed up their Aksumites 12″ release with some more prime roots music. They’ve checked the Channel One back catalogue and have found three nice tunes to put out on 7″s.
Midnight Riders – Posse Form a Line
Stephanie Samuels – Africa We Want To Go
Carlton Livingston – Tale of Two Cities
The label is based on an early Channel One style that was long gone when these tunes were originally released and to be honest it looks a little plain in the black and white, but it’s the music that counts and that is definitely top notch.
There is a fair bit of Channel One roots material material that hasn’t been reissued a thousand times already – hopefully Deeper Knowledge will go for a few more in time.
A couple of nice interviews that you should check out:
First off; on the Creative Review site Tony McDermott who designed many of the classic sleeves for Greensleeves from the late 70′s onwards talks to Al Fingers in the wake of the Greensleeves/Stussy collaboration that has resulted in a (stupidly expensive) book illustrating the first 100 Greensleeves LP sleeves.
Mc Dermott talks about how he started working for Greensleeves, how he came up with many of the most iconic sleeve designs, relations with the artists and more.
The illustration on the right is one of the designs for a 12″ sleeve that Tony submitted to Greensleeves, in the end they rejected this one and went with the famous “history of reggae” design.
Next up; Laurence Cane-Honeysett of Trojan/Universal talks to the Music Like Dirt web site about working for Trojan, past and future projects at the label and shares lots of stories about sifting through hundreds of master tapes – it’s a hard job but someones got to do it!
Thanks to cshh69 on the Pama forum for the heads up.
It’s not a good month… after the very sad news of Lincoln Sugar Minott’s passing just a few days ago, news has just come in that one of the unsung greats of Jamaican music, Claudius Linton, has died. Linton started off in the Angelic Brothers recording for Justin Yap in the early 60′s. The Angelic Brothers became the Hoffner Brothers and they found limited success in the early 70′s with tunes like The King Man Is Back. Linton went on to record a number of tunes as a solo artist in the later 70′s and into the 80′s, most memorably Crying Time.
RIP Claudius Linton.
For more info on Claudius Linton check this interview.
Long before the late great Lincoln Sugar Minott struck out as a solo artist he started his recording career in the early 70′s as a member of the vocal trio the African Brothers alongside Derrick Howard (AKA Eric Bubbles) and Tony Tuff.
Now with consummate good timing (and clearly no suggestion of a cash in) Eric Bubbles has re-released A Still Tongue by the group on 7″ on his Progressive International label. This is a masterful roots tune (as were many of the African Brothers releases) and you overlook this at your peril.
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A Still Tongue
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Dub
I’m not sure how widely distributed this is but Deadly Dragon have copies.
The French reggae magazine Natty Dread celebrates it’s tenth anniversary with a photo magazine featuring high quality copies of dozens of the photographs they have taken in Jamaica over the last ten years.
With a weighty 80 pages in full colour this is a nice mixture of photographs of artists and less well known people that the Natty Dread crew have come across in their travels across Jamaica. Perhaps the only thing missing would be some nice photo’s of street dances and soundsystems but there is plenty here to enjoy. Just right for the coffee table.
Dancehall Mobi are reporting that Sugar Minott passed away a few hours ago, they are usually very reliable so it seems this must be true. Condolences to Sugar’s family. Rest In Peace star.
After releasing no less than eight different Laurel Aitken CD’s and an anthology too you’d be forgiven for thinking that Pressure Drop records had pretty much covered all the bases for the “godfather of ska”. But they’re not done yet and the compilations keep on coming, the latest release; Voodoo Woman is subtitled “Music For Mods:Soul And Ska Sounds From The Sixties”, in truth there isn’t a huge amount of ska but plenty of R&B, soul and beat ballads.
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Voodoo Woman
Whilst there is little music of authentic Jamaican style here this CD amply demonstrates once again what a versatile and prolific artist Aitken was, and although not every track is a classic by any means there are some fine tunes here. An added bonus are the sleeve notes by Mike Atherton which are well written and informative.
I have a minor issue about the “Music For Mods” moniker as this implies that Aitken specifically tailored these tunes for a very specific sub-culture audience which seems unlikely. The major audience for this music must have been West Indian immigrants who would buy into these styles just as much as Aitkens ska flavoured releases. Still, if this is what Pressure Drop felt they had to put their in order to ensure sales reached an acceptable level then I for one can accept that.
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Bongo Jerk
On the subject of Laurel, if your a fan you won’t want to wish the Ska With Laurel exhibition from 2nd October 2010 – 8th May 2011 at the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery in his adoptive town of Leicester. This sounds like it will be an excellent and fitting tribute to the man and his music.
Here are a few pictures and a couple of hours of the audio from last Sundays Trash & Ready, England had gone out of the World Cup earlier in the day and it was scorching hot but it was still a wicked session.
Many thanks to everyone who came down, especially all the MC’s and guest selectas Andy Smith and Yugo – we’re back on Sunday 25 July with guest selectah Professor Mark (Stereocity). Don’t miss.
Part 1:
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I think this was supposed to come out a while ago but has only just hit the streets; Napthali – Hole Up Your Hand/Version on a 10″ single re-issued by Dug Out. This was Naptali’s second tune (after the good, but not as good, No Do Me Dat in combination with Jesse James). A UK production from 1987 originally released on the Vibes Sounds lebel out of Leytonstone, North East London. Alongside the vinyl you can buy this on mp3 download from honestjons for a very reasonable 60p.
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2010 continues to be a truly vintage year for digital re-issues on vinyl, the word is that Deadly Dragon Sound have something very special coming soon so watch this space…
A couple of nice interviews that you should check out:
After releasing no less than eight different Laurel Aitken CD’s and an anthology too you’d be forgiven for thinking that 
I think this was supposed to come out a while ago but has only just hit the streets; Napthali – Hole Up Your Hand/Version on a 10″ single re-issued by 
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