Enjoying the new album from Gramps Morgan. Nice uplifting and positive Country tinged album recorded in Nashville where Gramps has now made home
David Rodigan
Sublime 1977 album from the great Bob Andy- Lots Of Love And I recorded with producer Sonia Pottinger.
Streaming now but a “first time on CD” re-issue soon come with bonus tracks from Doctor Bird who put out the fantastic Culture 3CD Children Of Zion anthology of their recordings with Sonia Pottinger, so looking forward to this.
( you may remember back in the day he, along with Marcia Griffiths, as Bob & Marcia riding high in the charts with Young Gifted & Black)
Just arrived this week from the UK. After 40 years from the original release the classic UB40 album Signing Off 180gm. I think the groups greatest album. I love that this was recorded in a bedsit and you can hear the birds singing outside on track Adella.
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One of a series of Spaghetti Western themed Upsetter instrumental albums…
Return Of Django (Trojan 1969)
Not played this in a long while, to be honest I got rather dismissive of this period in favour of the later Black Ark productions but re visiting it now it sounds better than I ever remember.
Mostly slightly bonkers organ led instrumentals including the massive Return Of Django title track that was a big hit on the charts as a single.
From reggae-vibes.com;
This set is a solid showcase for the producer Lee Perry, and the players of instruments, who lay down irresistibly danceable riffs, in a mix of reggae, funk and rhythm and blues. The twelve tracks, all of them are instrumental gems in their own way, are mostly fully dominated by upbeat organ riffs and soulful horns solo’s, and some are peppered by mysterious, spoken intros. The sound and atmosphere of this album are miles away from Lee Perry’s rootsy Black Ark sound which made him famous
The title track Return Of Django, the second single on the Upsetter label, backed with Dollar In Teeth spent 15 weeks in the Top 50, becoming one of the best-selling Jamaican produced releases of all time. In 1973 Neville Grant charted with his vocal version of the riddim called Sick And Tired. The fine instrumental Night Doctor, featuring Ansel Collins’ livid organ scales, is the first recording on which Sly Dunbar performed. Always in for an awkward version, Perry reworked the US standard ballad Moonlight Bay by Doris Day and named it Ten To Twelve. The result is fascinating: a crazy intro with chicken sounds, soul-driven by an energetic saxophone, and bubbling keyboards. Live Injection, with its glorious organ riffs is the instrumental take on The Ravers’ Badam Bam Bedam Bam.
Eight For Eight also known as 8-For-8 is the single which launched the new label. The instrumental is probably performed by Gladdy’s All Stars. Soulful I is the moody instrumental take of the heartfelt lovers’ tune by David Isaacs, Since You Are Gone.
Man From M.I.5, the domestic security service of the United Kingdom, was the instrumental version of The West Indians song Oh Lord. Check the interaction between the organ riffs and the guitar licks! The swinging tune Medical Operation was used by a few years later by the mighty I Roy for the tune Dr. Who, a superb deejay version of the tune
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Used to play this to death back in the day
Dillinger vs Trinity Clash (Burning Sounds)
Features amusingly titled tracks like Rizla Skank, Starsky & Hutch, Cricket Lovely Cricket and…Shelley With The Electric Belly! 
An often overlooked gem from the prime period Black Ark that brought us Super Ape, War In A Babylon, Police & Thieves etc…
George Faith - To Be A Lover aka Super Eight
Super Eight is the original mix/version of the album with To Be A Lover the slightly different mix given to Island Records (personally I prefer the latter)
Great Soul singing, George Faith has a lovely voice, of Winston Picket, William Bell etc all mutated through Lee Scratch Perry at the helm of the Black Ark.
Highly recommended if I may say so
Upsetter 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle
Originally released 1973 in JA only on a couple of hundred pressings.
Subsequently numerously and unofficially re issued with a completely different track listing as Blackboard Jungle Dub.
2004 Auralux officially licenced the album in its correct original form from LSP albeit with a different sleeve on double vinyl.
Some claim this to be the first ever Dub album proper but that’s very contentious, this is though more or less where Scratch started his excursion into the Dub Cosmos and beyond at his newly built Black Ark studio.
A brilliant early classic of the genre illustrating the emerging idiosyncratic genius of Lee Lee Scratch Perry
Scratch cooking dinner…
Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread
Not just a genius but one of lifes great characters
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The distinctive gnarly and gravel voice of Prince Far I, kind of Tom Waits meets Dub after smoking a Bong load of Ganja 
Fine 1980 album Jamaican Heroes
Streaming and re issued on the black stuff from MOV
Prince Far I - Jamaican Heroes
Prince Far I - Jamaican Heroes. The chanter’s 1980 album is being reissued by Music On Vinyl in a limited edition on coloured vinyl.
Est. reading time: 14 minutes
An interesting discovery thanks to @ewemon
forgotten album from 1977 by the group Merger. Formed in that year by ex-pat Jamaican multi-instrumentalist Barry Ford alongside Mikey Dan aka Mike Dorane and Winston Bennett, Merger created an experimental variation on the contemporary roots reggae formula and made many friends amongst those on the London gig circuit appearing on the same bill as punk and new wave acts, rather in the manner of Steel Pulse and the Cimarrons. Indeed, the track Rebel is a homage to Johnny Rotten. They were an album band rather than a singles band which meant they failed to make much impact on the London reggae scene, which was heavily tilted towards music from Jamaica and the sound system culture, and so the group remain, like many of the UK reggae groups from those days, an unrecognised and non-celebrated part of the UK’s reggae history. They split in 1980 after recording some tracks in Jamaica with the Studio One Band at Harry J’s Studio, two of which; Rebel and Freedom Fighters, are added to this release. In retrospect, Exiles In A Babylon is an entertaining and very musical album that addresses the usual reggae concerns but in a more outernational style, closer to Jamaican performing bands such as Zap Pow or Third World than the rootsier approach of, say, Aswad.
Dub Vendor
two essential Scratch anthologies
I Am The Upsetter - Trojan
Arkology - Island Jamaica
RIP Lee Scratch Perry
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If asked to pick my favourite L£P, an almost impossible task, push come to shove I would select the original 12" of Police & Thieves. 4 cuts segued togethor, Junior Murvin vocal, Jah Lions toasting cut, Glen Dacasta’s sax led instrumental and the brilliant Upsetters Grumblin’ Dub
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A couple of favourite earlier L£P albums
Africas Blood from 1971 & Double Seven from 1973 both on Trojan
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Upsetter Record Shop vol 2 1969 - 1973
Brilliant Heartbeat label compilation of Scratch’s formative years prior to building the Black Ark, sourced from the master tapes
Includes such gems as The Inspirations Tighten Up & Dillingers version Tighten Up Skank. Tighten Up of course was the inspiration for the series of classic Trojan compilations
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Essential 3CD expansion of The Heart Of The Congos on VP label. If you have the excellent Blood & Fire version you still need this.
Includes the previously scarce original mix of the album along with the more familiar international release and a disc of 12" mixes and dubs.
Fantastic!
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New name to me The Emetarians
Lovely album from Spanish Reggae band The Emetarians - Roots O’clock, well worth checking out
Romain Virgo - Lovesick
Really surprised Romain Virgo hasnt reached wider attention or had much crossover attention.
He’s recorded some consistently good albums, singles and EP’s since his album debut in 2010
Mrs Dread loves him
latest round up of recent Marley offspring Ghetto Youths International productions
Set Up Shop Vol 4
Reggae’s Queen, Marcia Griffiths - Shining Time
Strong album from 2005
Shining Time Review
by Rick Anderson
For legendary reggae singer Marcia Griffiths, this 2005 album constituted a look back on a career that had spanned over 40 years – a career during which she had served as a backup singer for reggae music’s most legendary figures as well as achieving significant success as a solo artist and (with Bob Andy) as half of a popular vocal duo. But Shining Time isn’t a compilation of vintage Marcia Griffiths recordings – instead, it’s a collection of new songs, some of which look back in time explicitly either in theme (“Back in the Days,” “Shining Time”) or by implication (her cover version of Bob Marley’s “Crazy Baldhead,” for example). The rhythms are provided by a variety of producers and mostly hark back to the glory days of roots reggae (note, for example, how “Back in the Days” makes brilliant use of the “Tune In” rhythm), but the album’s sound has a crisp and modern sheen throughout. Several A-list guest vocalists join her for duets – they include the bouncy “Harmony” (featuring Shaggy) and the lovely “Live Life to the Fullest” (featuring Hopeton Lindo, who also produces several tracks). There are a couple of clunkers, most notably the unfortunately album-opening “My Heartbeat,” which sounds wan and regretful rather than warm and romantic, but overall this album is a triumph.
Nice re-issue from Doctor Bird
Bob Andy’s fine and classic 1977 album Lots Of Love And I “produced” by Sonia Pottinger
• First CD issue of one of the greatest reggae albums of all time
• All but two tracks new to CD
• Includes two previously unreleased 12- inch mixes
Having become firmly established as one of Jamaica’s premier singer-songwriters in the ‘60s and early ’70s, Bob Andy cemented his place in the pantheon of musical greats with his seminal album, ‘Lot Of Love And I’.
Originally released in 1977 on Sonia Pottinger’s High Note label, the LP has since become widely acclaimed as one of the most musically accomplished collections of the roots era, as Andy, backed by some of Kingston’s finest musicians, demonstrates the range of his talents with ten sublime original compositions, including the popular title track, ‘Revelation’, ‘Unchain Me’ and the celebrated ‘Ghetto Stays In The Mind’.
Now, 44 years after its original release, ‘Lots Of Love And I’ is finally issued on CD, with its track-listing augmented by four bonus cuts, two of which have remained unreleased until now. If you only ever buy one roots reggae release in your life, this should be it.
Track Listing:
1 Lots Of Love And I *
2 Feel The Feeling *
3 You Lied *
4 Troubled Woman *
5 My Time (I Deserve) *
6 Unchain Me aka Set Me Free *
7 Stepping Free
8 Mash It Up *
9 The Ghetto Stays In My Mind
10 Revelation *
BONUS TRACKS
11 Slow Down (12” mix) +
12 Unchain Me aka Set Me Free (12” mix) *
13 Movements (instr.) (12”mix) *
14 The Ghetto Stays In The Mind (12” mix) +
- Previously unreleased
- New to CD
Extract from an interview with Bob Andy about the album from 2018 around the time of the MOV vinyl re issue
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