Review: Stockholm-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Art Longo impresses here with Echowah Island, a new album sure to wind its way into your affections. It was crafted over years in his home studio and is "psychotropical pop" drawing deep inspiration from late 80s music and dub. The album's lush soundscape evokes orange sunsets and ocean breezes and is layered with spring reverb, space echo and wah-wah effects that smooth out the edges as the steady pulse of vintage drum machines moves things on down low. A standout feature is Claudio Jonas, whose ethereal vocals recall classic French femme fatale singers of the 60s. Her poetic, kaleidoscopic lyrics add to a nostalgic dream world that gently bends reality and makes his both escapist and thought-provoking.
Review: Leonard Dillon aka Ethiopian is a bonafide reggae legend who was backed by a top shelf selection of musicians for this previously unreleased album. Omnivore Recordings have acquired Nighthawk Records and Blackheart Music Publishing which is what has made this possible, and they do a fine job with it. The original album was recorded in 1987 when Leonard had already penned two great albums. This one was inspired by hearing tales of a Jamaican drummer on tour who talked of playing with a hot studio band. Leonard wanted to recreate that, and so followed this all-star session band.
Review: There is frankly an endless amount of dub music from the one and only King Tubby to explore, with both solo albums and collabs all offering bottomless depths in which to get lost. Dub From The Roots was actually the legendary dub technician's first ever exploration of the long-player format and it proved to be one of his best. It is crafted from 14 rhythms by Bunny Striker Lee and then transformed and translated on the mixing desk by Tubby who took it into futuristic and heady new sound worlds with endless chambers of echo.
Lloydie Slim All Stars - "Why Did You" (version) (2:48)
Lloydie Slim & The Agrovators - "Version Stormy Weather" (2:53)
Lloydie Slim & The Agrovators - "Festival '75" (version) (2:33)
King Tubby - "King Tubby In Fine Stile" (3:16)
Review: Digikiller Records, perhaps suggestive by the name, are keen purveyors of proper organic roots reggae. This new one comes as a collection of dub versions by Jamaican producer Ivan 'Lloydie Slim' Smith, and compiles 10 of his best and most rootsy originals - not only his own tracks but also versions of tracks by fellow legends, including Sparkes, The Upsetters, Solid Explosion Band, and King Tubby. With its advanced harmonics and emotive lilts, this one rightly forms part of the Record Smith Production series, which continues the work of Smith's eponymous label started in the early 1970s.
Review: Pachy Garcia is an LA-based dub and reggae artist who first cropped up in 2019 with his Pachyman In Dub LP, and has since fostered his own corner within the modern dub landscape. Now signed to ATO, Pachyman delivers his fourth album as a perfect fusion of Garcia's Latin roots and his deep affinity for Jamaican riddims. He wrote, played, sang, recorded and mixed every bit of the album, making this his most personal release to date. It's infectious and timeless, written with a sharp focus and capturing the sun kissed warmth of his hometown in true laid-back Californian style.
Review: Death by Tickling is a masterfully intricate new collaborative album from Scotch Rolex and Shackleton. The is the sort of brain boggling and mind melting album that demand to be listened to loud, in the dark, on a great sound system or up close on headphones. It's a melange of languid dance music rhythms with experimental synths and percussion adding freaky details up top. Full of wildly unpredictable changes and weird time signatures, zoned out trance music and darkened dub, cosmic synth freak outs and ferocious sound designs, this is a truly unique record on every level.
Review: Jamaica Soul Shake Vol 1 is one of the many seminal compilations put together by Soul Jazz. It first arrived in 2006 and provided, as you would expect, a perfect overview of the goddamn funky Sound Dimension. They were one of the many crucial in-house bands that worked at Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd's pioneering and influential Studio One. The original has been impossible to find since forever so do not sleep on this new, one-off limited edition pressing on silver coloured double vinyl. The sea re all rocksteady rhythms and delicious dubs that will keep you moving and grooving for days.
Roy Panton - "Control Your Temper" (with Los Caballeros Orchestra) (2:27)
Desmond Tucker - "Press On" (with Los Caballeros Orchestra) (2:39)
The Diamonds - "Expo '67 (Silhouette)" (3:33)
The Diamonds - "Look Away" (2:39)
Los Caballeros Orchestra - "James Bond" (3:01)
Los Caballeros Orchestra - "Keino Ska (Tribute To Kenya' S Keino)" (3:30)
Desmond Tucker & Los Caballeros Orchestra - "Danger Man (Climb Every Mountain)" (2:53)
Review: Based out of Naniwa-ku in Osaka, Japan, Rock A Shacka deals in rare reggae and dub from around the world. It has been doing so for 20 years and now comes another crucial compilation. Rocksteady People: JDI's Supreme 13 Hits comes with its own booklet and assembles a fine selection of ska and reggae classics all played by the cult Los Caballeros Orchestra. Plenty of vocalists lend their buttery tones to the say going to-and-fro rhythms, with big horn sections and a load of nice shiny brass.
Brentford All Stars - "The World Is A Ghetto" (3:51)
The Jay Tees & Brentford Rockers - "Forward To Jah" (part 2) (2:59)
Roy Richards - "Summertime" (3:04)
Lennie Hibbert - "Snow Bird" (3:12)
Pablov Black - "Dread Head" (3:27)
Cedric Im Brooks - "Glory To Sound" (3:21)
Jackie Mittoo - "Lazy Bones" (4:26)
Dub Specialist - "Message From Dub" (3:13)
Jackie Mittoo - "Sunshine Of Your Love" (3:37)
Roland Alphonso - "Tenor Man Trip" (3:47)
Ernest & The Sound Dimension - "Surfin'" (part 2) (2:29)
Review: Barely a week goes by without another Soul Jazz compilation, and never are they anything else than superb. This time out we're cerated to another collection of tunes from Kingston's seminal Studio One, but rather than the straight up reggae we're used to, it is more of a melting pot of funk, soul, jazz and dub. All of these tunes were written in the 1970s under the watchful eye of studio chief and producer Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd and there is a wealth of deep, sunny, funk cuts that have more than stood the test of time.
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