Reggae & Dancehall 255 Items

Limited Edition.

"I Man A The Stal-A-Watt" gathers together 13 sure shots from Cornell Campbell blending the very best of his all-conquering hit run of forty-fives for Bunny "Striker" Lee alongside a stretch of crucial cuts produced by Joe Gibbs - from the 1970s - 80s classic era. The title is a boast from the early soundclash era when many of Campbell's tracks, here produced primarily by Bunny Lee, would play first on King Tubby’s Home Town Hi-Fi in Jamaica. The songs run the range from clash-ready standards like "Mash You Down" and "The Gorgon" to cultural commentaries like "Jah Jah Me Horn Yah" and "Bandulu" to the lover’s masterpiece "The Investigator" which leads off the set. Stretching into the early 80s, the collection includes two originals that would spawn countless re-interpretations, "Rope In" and "Boxing Around".

A great collection of classic roots recordings from the mid-70's for the singer who came close in challenging Bob Marley & Dennis Brown for reggae's crown. All re-mastered recordings available as 30-Track 2CD-Deluxe Digipak and 23-Track 2LP-set in a gatefold sleeve, both with in-depth sleeve notes by Noel Hawkes. The release is supported by several summer festival appearances.

Only Johnny Clarke would come close to challenging Bob Marley & Dennis Brown for reggae's crown, his unequaled run of hit songs, powered by Bunny Lee and King Tubby's aggravating versions, continued without a pause during the mid-70's leading Johnny to twice being named Jamaica's Artist Of The Year (and the signing of a two album recording deal with Virgin's Frontline label). Many of Johnny Clarke's classic roots recordings gathered here were first given wider international exposure in 1998 with the release of Blood & Fire's excellent 13-Track "Dreader Dread - 1976-1978" compilation, which has disappeared from the market for several years. Now re-mastered and drastically expanded, with a new artwork and entitled "Creation Rebel" the release captures the very essence of what is now regarded as the golden age of roots music!

Cultures of Soul is very excited to announce this killer tropical reggae cover of Sade's Smooth Operator. Recorded at Circle Sound Studios in Miami the backing track was recorded by members of the famous reggae outfit Inner Circle with vocals by local area rising star at the time, Sabrina Rich. Sabrina (her real name is actually Sabrena) had been making records in her and her ex-husband's studio in their garage for years. The result of which was the disco 12" Exit/Whispering. Around this time Sabrina was performing in the Palm Beach / Boca Raton area of Florida and performed with Jimmy Bo Horne. Some time after Sabrina worked with a man named Kenneth Corey who mastered her recordings. Kenneth referred her to Roger and Ian Lewis of Inner Circle to help press up their vinyl. They became friends and around 1985 recorded Smooth Operator. During this time they were working and partying hard and experimenting with different ideas and sounds. The track was originally released in small numbers as sort of a demo and never really took off. Shortly after Inner Circle went on tour in Europe and the single went into obscurity until many years later when copies of the record turned up in New York and Toronto. This 12" includes a special discomix edit by Duckcomb a.k.a. Patrick Billard, DJ and record collector extraordinaire.

2023 repress -

The next Moonshine release comes courtesy of Australian-based Erin McKimm aka Sekkleman. It's been over three years since his last full release and we are very excited to show you what he's been up to.

Lloyd Parks is one of the greatest bass player in Jamaican music history, but he’s also a brilliant singer. He started his singer carrier in 1967 at Studio One with The Termites and then had numerous hits with songs like “Officially”, “Slaving”, “Ordinary Man”, “Mafia” or “We’ll Get Over It”. In 2013, Fruits Records producer Mathias Liengme travelled to Jamaica to record The Inspirators album, an all stars group gathering Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, Lloyd Parks, Earl “Chinna” Smith and Anthony “Sangie” Davis playing and singing together. Taken from these recording sessions, Lloyd Parks’ “No Bother Chuck It Pon Me” is for the first time available on 7” record including a wicked dub version on the B side by Roberto Sánchez.

Orange Street, Kingston, Jamaica the epicentre of the Reggae world.

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A blistering collection of ska tunes from Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd's legendary Studio One Records, Jamaica's foundation label of reggae music. Featuring classic cuts from the originators of Ska - The Skatalites, The Wailers, Lee Perry - alongside a heavy dose of superb rarities from the might vaults of 13 Brentford Road - pure Ska Fever !

This release by The Band of Enlightenment, Reason & Love presents a new instrumental version of the heavily sought after debut release "Zota Yinne" by Alogte Oho, the meanwhile classic second release on Philophon from 2014 (PH45002). So far, The Band of Enlightenment, Reason & Love, as Philophon's house band, never had any release under its own name, but here we go! It's sure: more will follow.

"Zota Yinne" is a dubbed out variation of the original Frafra gospel classic with the one and only Jimi Tenor as a guest on flute and synth. "Starlet Road Filling Station Romance" is an other-worldly search for love, perfectly characterized by Jimi Tenor's love cries on the saxophone.

Ark Angel Jah Mel is a recording artist, songwriter and musician from Jamaica. Beginning his career as a performer on the stage shows of the Twelve Tribes Of Israel of which he has been a member since his youth, Jah Mel made his debut sharing the stage with artists such as Dennis Brown, Bob Marley, Freddie McGregor, Sugar Minott, Brigadier Jerry & Denroy Morgan. His writing credits include songs written for Marcia Griffiths, Cecile, DaVille, Itana & Jah Mali, for whom he also produced tracks on his debut album El Shaddai. Jah Mel has worked with all of Jamaica’s top producers & musician in Jamaica such as the great Sly & Robbie, Steely & Cleevie, Earl Chinna Smith, Steve ‘Lenky’ Marsden & Donovan Germaine to who’s Penthouse label Jahmel was signed.
Jah Mel sees himself as a musical bridge between the original reggae sound & the dancehall sound of today, representing what he calls the real dancehall revolution, merging the spirituality of the old school & the energy of the new school. “Guiding Star” and “Stand Up To It” are the perfect examples to overstand this definition. Both song were produced by Roydale Anderson aka Andy's. “Guding Star” will definitely give you thrills if you are into deep synth and heavy digital rhythm while the superb piano notes will warm you in the analog style. Beware of “Guiding Star” dub version called “Guidance (Dance Mix)” that will break any bunker. “Stand Up To It” rhythm is an adaptation of one of the most classic Jamaican riddim called “Heavenless”. You will never know this riddim like before; This version takes the riddim to another level. A positive song with a bionic nuclear bomb dubwise! Play it loud, Jah is our guiding star!

Stix Records rounds up all recent Mato’s 7inches anthems into this extended player, with all the cuts remastered for the occasion ... this collection
also includes four unreleased hits: “Gangsta Lovin’” by Eve, “La Saga”
by IAM, “Whateva Man” by Redman and “Off The Books” by The Beatnuts.

Black Uhuru first formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru (Swahili for 'freedom'). Over the years the group has undergone several line-up changes with Derrick "Duckie" Simpson as the mainstay. As a unique singer in his own right, Delroy "Junior" Reid had the opportunity to reach a wider international audience when he was offered the chance to be the lead singer in Black Uhuru in 1986. Jr. Reid was from the same area of Kingston, shared a similar vocal style and already had a reputation for writing strong reality lyrics. After joining the group, Jr. Reid elevated the group to another level delivering militant songs such as Let Us Pray and Dread In The Mountain. Songs as these taken from the "Brutal" sessions, sung over typically robust rhythms from Sly & Robbie, tailored to fit in with developments on the international scene whilst upholding Black Uhuru’s penchant for uncompromising roots music with the emphasis on tight, forward-thinking arrangements.

On the 50th anniversary of the band's inception at an event in Harlem, NY to commemorate Malcolm X's birthday on 19 May 1968, influential spoken word artists, poets and commentators The Last Poets are set to make a glorious and relevant return with their first album in over 20 years, 'Understand What Black Is'.
Produced by Ben Lamdin (Nostaglia 77) and Brighton legend Prince Fatty, whose speciality is traditional reggae and dub production's, 'Understand What Black Is' is a ten-track album which speaks of a revolutionary struggle defined by both race and identity, that has never sounded more relevant. Released on Studio Rockers, there will also be an accompanying single featuring remixes of the title track "Understand What Black Is" by Mala (South London collective Digital Mystikz) and UK Dance music innovators Dego and Kaidi.
Since the initial line-up of Dahveed Nelson, Gylan Kain and Felipe Luciano formed in East Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, The Last Poets have produced under various guises over the subsequent years. However, it was their seminal output, namely 1970's 'The Last Poets' under both Umar bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole that secured their legacy, becoming one of the most important influences in early hip hop.
Throughout the last 20 years, the band have remained largely on hiatus. But their influence could still be felt with their tracks being sampled by The Notorious B.I.G, NWA, A Tribe Called Quest, Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg. Umar has recorded various solo albums and featured on Common and Kanye West's Grammy Nominated 'The Corner'. Abiodun appeared on the Red Hot Organization's album, Stolen Moments which was named "Album of the Year" by Time. He also conducts weekly open house poetry readings, where he constructively critiques upcoming poets, helping to nurture them. He has also conducted classes at Columbia University, where he teaches creative writing.
The inauguration of Donald Trump as US President in 2016 inspired Hassan and Oyewole to resurrect the group to create a brand new record, modern and edgy, and deeply relevant and reflective of our times.
Tracks on 'Understand What Black Is' include 'How Many Bullets', which bridles with defiance as Oyewole works through a litany of injustices suffered by black people in the US: " You've Tried
To Blow My Brains Out With Bigotry, Chopped Off My Wings, So I Couldn't Fly Free, And Dared Me To Be Me, Took My Drum, Broke My Hands, Yanked My Roots Right Up Out Of The Land, And Riddled My Soul With Jesus" 'What I Want To See' describes a utopia - a refuge from hurt and those who'd make "our vision blurred, and our faith obscure", whilst the title track 'Understand What Black Is' aims to transcend ethnicity: "understand what black is….It's the source from which all things come...black is a hero, not a villain."
The album even takes reference from Prince's 2003 album of instrumentals, 'News', which Hassan drew comparisons from with his own childhood experiences: "That poem took me about a year to write….I just kept writing and writing but not getting too far and then I heard that album and the musicianship was amazing. I was left wondering if it was jazz, classical, rock or maybe something new but all those images that I write about came to me from listening to that album. I loved Prince in that movie Purple Rain because my father was a talented musician but he was into brutalising Mama at times and in the movie there's a Jerome and my name is Jerome, so it was like he was telling my life story as well."
The album acts as a body of work between individual members each speaking of their own personal journeys, but feeding into the much larger narrative of struggle and oppression, alongside a fervent hunger for social change. These are struggles and tests of personal resolve that have directly shaped and moulded the bands' unique sound over the course of an impressive 50 years, and their powerful and influential commentary remains as relevant as ever.

The studio and label Digital B of producer Bobby "Digital" Dixon became the ruling production house in the musical revolution that swept through Jamaica from the mid-80's onwards with a lethal selection of dancehall weapons and chartbusting reggae hits. "X-Tra Wicked" gathers many of his bestever productions from those heady times when specialist stores were awash with 7-Inch singles, freshly arrived from Jamaica, and reggae music was once more on the rise. This great double 2LP-set presents 24 selected tracks in a double wide vinyl jacket, with just the top hits from the two Bobby Digital Reggae Anthology releases.

During the 80’s dancehall era a number of record producers claimed to be the real authentic sound of downtown Kingston but Ossie Thomas’ Black Solidarity label, operating out of Delamere Avenue in the heart of the ghetto, was the real deal. “Black Solidarity was a youth club in the Kingston 13 ghetto in a road named Crescent Road and it was a Rasta come up with the name Black Solidarity. But through the political violence a get high man start to spread rumours saying Black Solidarity a go get guns to go kill off people and it’s a revolutionary Cuban thing we’re there ‘pon! A lot of people used to go away to Cuba and we called them brigadista. So though it was in a PNP area man start spreading rumours saying the PNP a go plan to send the whole of Black Solidarity to Cuba and them all turn brigadista!

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.

Studio One Freedom Sounds is the new collection from Soul Jazz/ Studio One focussing on the intense period in the second half of the 1960s when Studio One’s vast and unbeatable output of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae made it literally one of the hottest musical empires in the world.
During this highly successful period, Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd released hundreds and hundreds of superlative singles seemingly on an almost daily basis, in the process making huge stars out of Jamaican singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Wailers, Slim Smith, Jackie Opel and many more.
Powered by the finest in-house musicians working in Jamaica, whether it was The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo’s Soul Brothers, The Sounds Dimension or The Soul Vendors, Studio One functioned as hit factory on the scale of Motown in the USA, shaping and defining reggae music for decades to come.
Singlehandedly Studio One’s founder Clement Dodd was able to create the most successful vertically-integrated record company that Jamaica had ever known with pressing plant, printers, studio, shops, and sound systems all running at once, with over 50 employees and hundreds of artists working with Studio One during this time.
Studio One Freedom Sounds tells the story of Studio One in the 1960s with a stunning set of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae killer tunes as well as informative sleevenotes and track-by-track info by Noel Hawks. The album is released as heavyweight double vinyl (+ free download code), deluxe CD and digital album.

Original limited edition vinyl (500 copies)

Original limited edition vinyl (500 copies)

Featuring Johnny Clarke, King Tubby, Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo, Tommy McCook, The legendary Aggrovators, The Mighty Diamonds & many more.

This years annual Dub-Team-Up 7" from Moss Norway, 10th issue, a decade strong with double A-side. Kambo Super Sound flexing a hard & heavy, ultra steady ghost-town stepper. Don Papa meets DJ Sotofett in the matters of dub & funk with that significant Latino Dub twist, live drums & percussions. A true crossover – true to its roots!

Tommy McCook’s mighty hornsman version of Yabby You’s “Jah Vengence” re-mastered and reissued in perfect style. This 7” finds the great multi-instrumentalist re-imagining the dark vocals of the original track as a slithering horns track that bursts to crescendo amid the heavyweight bass and drums. The B-side offers up echo-drenched dub.

12" reissue of killer cuts from the Canadian label, Oswald Creary's Half Moon.

A one-off limited pressing from her forthcoming album. Sensational singer, Leba, daughter of reggae pioneer Toots Hibbert, highlights her vocal prowess & charm, on her first release for 2018 - a cover version of the Bob Marley classic.

Backed by the Taxi Gang Band, recorded and mixed at Channel One Recording Studios, Kingston Jamaica. Produced and arranged by Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare.

2 track Single from Millions released by Typhoon/Dub Store Records!

Dub like it used to be from the High Note and Gay Feet labels.
A selection of rocking rhythms from The Revolutionaries masterminded by Jamaica's finest female record producer, Mrs Sonia Pottinger, and mixed by Duke Reid's nephew, Errol Brown, chief engineer at the legendary Treasure Isle studio.

Obscure little black ark roots tune produced by Lee Perry. Brother Noah is a harmonic re-telling of the biblical flood by The Shadows, three singers named Sam, Don & Errol. First time reissue on 7" vinyl.

Heavy Roots Track called Ethiopian Romance by The Cimarons recorded in the early 80's @ Easy Street Studio.
Has been released on CD back in the 90's but unfortunately never on vinyl.
Now released for the first time on vinyl !

Dub version was sadly never recorded…
Now the flip side received a proper Dubwise recorded & mixed @ Honey Studio.
Mastered @ Rectape Studio.
Limited Edition /// Letterpress printed the old fashioned way.