Roots & Culture 170 Items

Debut vinyl album from Boston's top roots dub reggae band, whose sound is truly of another time and place. Deeply in debt to the original Jamaican engineers of the 70s who turned mixing consoles into the lead instrument, the Vipers drop steady drum & bass rhythms w/ post punk attitude.

Nu Roots Records is the brainchild of UK based Grammy nominated Mix Engineer and Record Producer Daniel Boyle.

Daniel has released many records with a number of Reggae greats, including Max Romeo, Sylford Walker, Winston Mcanuff, Lee Perry and many more, culminating with his 2014 Grammy nominated album for Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – ‘Back on the Controls’

The vision for Boyle's new label is to combine the best of the old and new, and at the same time creating a platform to help, in a small way; with the current Reggae Revival movement that the world is seeing..

A third and final volume of Jamaican doo wop & R&B records taken from the late 50s and early 60s.

These records represent a period in which sound-systems were beginning to dominate the island, with Duke Reid and Sir Coxsone Dodd stepping up their rivalry by beginning to make and release their own records rather than rely on US imports for use in their dances. Many of these records are definitely more-or-less imitations of the American records, as the uniquely Jamaican ska sound was yet to take hold - however many of the future stars of ska, rocksteady and reggae were beginning to cut their teeth in the industry on these records, incl. Alton Ellis, Derrick Morgan, Derrick Harriott and more, and provide a unique view into the fledgling independent record industry culture in Jamaica that would prove to be unbelievably prolific and unparalleled for an island of it's size.

This Road' is the debut LP by one-to-watch Denise Sherwood, which features writing, production and instrumental contributions from Adrian Sherwood (On U Sound), Lee "Scratch" Perry, Mala (Digital Mystikz, Deep Medi Music), Mark Stewart (The Pop Group, Mark Stewart & The Maffia), Skip McDonald (Tackhead, African Head Charge, Little Axe) and Doug Wimbish (Living Colour, Tackhead). In addition to this extended family who came together to help her talent flourish, the album also features drums by the late Style Scott, who the singer lovingly recalls as my "my beautiful uncle." Portraying dark themes and damaged characters through an empathetic filter of bittersweet optimism, 'This Road' is a work of contrasts, which musically matches the mixed emotions felt in life. Bass pressure, contemporary club beats, nourishing roots music, sumptuous instrumentation and accessible, pop-schooled melodicism are woven together by her soothing but heavy-hearted voice, which is perfectly matured and full of depth. Saturated in vibes and an ingrained cognitive understanding of recording, 'This Road' is in part the product of childhood/teenage osmosis spent imbibing the sounds at her father Adrian Sherwood's On-U Studios. The impressionable youth gained an unparalleled education in music and also human nature, living in a house/studio where Lee Perry, Neneh Cherry, Jah Wobble, Big Youth, Little Annie, Style Scott, Tackhead, Bim Sherman and countless more made tracks. Like an epic coming-of-age movie focussing on Denise's part in the ongoing On-U chronicles - charting her changing roles as daughter, musician, mother, lover and more - it's little wonder 'This Road' is both contemporary and timeless, spanning time like a family tree.

Killer roots reggae tune produced by Alvin "GG's" Ranglin in 1977. Taken from the "Best of Freddy McKay" Album. First time on 7 inch with Dub on the flip !

Second single by Black uhuru. Recorded in 1975 at Randy's Studio. Augustus Pablo on Melodica. Produced by Clive Chin.

Cover with bumped corners

Limited Edition EP, Tribute to Stare McCallum. Four deep roots titles from the 70's with extended version.

First 12 inch on "Sound of Thunder" Label. Meeting between the SOA band and Ossie Gad, founding member and lead singer of the 80's roots UK band "Naturalites". On A side a recut of the "Black Roses" tune that appeared on the album "Picture on the wall", on the flip side, a version of the famous "Drifter" Riddim. Both come with dub version.

Masterful Gregory from 1997, sounding spooked and hunted over a juddering, propulsive Music Works rhythm, fulgent and full-on, with deep, pounding bass, clattering percussion, parping horns, classy backing vocals and harp starbursts... top-notch Gussies.
Two extended vocal versions, and two dubs, all quite different.

One can imagine these words echoing in the wizard's mind of teacher and keys and synth man Nathan Spicer just before conceiving this, his "never meant to be released" masterpiece dub experiment. He, along with the lions share of the members of his Seattle-based funk/afrobeat group, Polyrhythmics, render a profound dub album as majestic and dynamic as if the members each had simultaneously recieved this missive from on high. Was it King Plachacha himself that dubbed these funk squires as true knights of the coming Pleiades/Earth 4th dimensional consciousness ascension portal event? The music seems to indicate so. As soundsystem technicians/prophets who came before such as Tubby, Perry, Scientist, and Pablo, Rezin Tooth and engineer/bass player Jason Gray succeed in manifesting a sonic blueprint of this possible fourth dimensional realm where peace and enlightenment flow freely as the true currency of the universe. Fellow Funk parishoners in this holy temple of dub are Ben Bloom (strings), Grant Schroff (drums and symbols), Lalo Bello (percussion) Art Brown (reeds) Elijah Clark (horns). Yes, praise the lord, Spicer et al did heed the call and indeed dubbed themselves. And you are now holding in your hand the Chronicle of their efforts. Rezin Tooth lays their new album of contemplative dub upon dub's mighty altar as an expression of their reverence to this beguiling and communal Jamaican art form. With this offering, they take communion with dub's sacrament from the basements and sound systems of planet earth and tape-echo it back out to the Pleiades. -Lucky Brown

This is the first release on All Nation Records new label, courtesy of French producer Simon Nyabinghi.
With all instruments and mix done in his freshly rebuilt studio, Simon delivers a proper roots and dub riddim that has already done the rounds as dubplate magic around the globe prior to its official release. With the help of young and upcoming talent Youthie on trumpet duties, this uplifting track will rock any sessions as well as your living room, especially when followed by the wild dub mix you’ll find on the flip of this record.

Richie Phoe returns with a catchy reworking of Jacob Miller's classic "baby I Love YOU SO". This time he's joined by Kassia Zermon & Leroy Horns (resonators) on vocals & sax. The B-side "baby I DUB YOU SO" features a blissed out dubbed version.

11 Bob Marley cover songs by Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, Cocoa Tea, Marcis Grifiths & Tony Rebel, etc.

For us is a big pleasure to work together with Claudio AKA Abeng , other than a long time friend is a great musician with a deep Ska , Rocksteady & Roots Knowledge , we have been asking him a riddim which we could use for an instrumental and that's the 1st of the few we are working on right now (Yes we love instrumentals!)! It's always a pleasure to open new cooperations , have new musicians and studios playing together to create Roots Music! Rootikal Horns is the horn section of an historical Reggae Band from our area (Countryside of Milano) , Rootical Foundation , Gabri (Trombone) & Filippo (Sax) came to studio with us and we recorded few lines that will appear in a number of future releases. Obviously from this meeting , some more seeds has been planted and hopefully flowers will appear probably in the early 2021... Eeyun Purkins at Waggle Dance Studio, made a great job mixing the A side and Dubbing the B side! Many of you may already know this name ;) , founder of the Co-Operators and of the Waggle Dance Studio/Records have delivered a number of killer Roots productions in the last months and years , that's the 1st of a number of projects we have been working on during Lockdown Period , expect some Fyah Roots music from this Roots Heads meeting!

"Watt" rhythm.

The Croatian dub duo Dubble are stepping up with their 4th release on Dub Tunnel Records. For this outing they are travelling the dubwise road with veteran JA vocalist Earl 16. Earl 16 is known worldwide for his work with the entire A to Z of Reggae and beyond, from Augustus Pablo to Zion Train. Dubble are Vanya and Dubolik based in Zagreb, Croatia and will be launching this record at the 2016 Outlook Festival.

Dubble are the latest heavyweight sound to come stepping out of the
thriving Balkan Dub scene. The dangerous Dubble dub duo of Vanya O &
Dubolik were part of Zagreb's legendary Radikal Dub Kolektiv, and now
they take the same DIY dubwise spirit to their new project. Dubble
make tuff UK style dub, but bring in subtle influences of Dubstep and
Trance to create a unique blend of future sound, all played and mixed
live as they combine classic retro dub mixing with analogue synths,
live vocals & melodica.