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Diving deeper into the story of Japanese reggae pop, Tokyo Riddim Vol. 2 explores an electronic, new wave and often experimental sound unlike anything Japan or Jamaica had ever heard before.



The first time Ryuichi Sakamoto left Japan, he did not go to the United States or Europe - he went to Jamaica. It was 1978, YMO were about to release their debut album, but Sakamoto was in Kingston, invited to play synths for Japanese idol singer Teresa Noda at Dynamic Sound Studios in a band alongside Neville Hinds and none other than Rita Marley. It’s not a story many know, but one which would spark Sakamoto’s fascination with dub and mark a new chapter in the ongoing Japanese love affair with reggae.

The second album of 2010. Halfway between "Bad Bad Reggae" and "Working Class Reggae" includes the classics "Jibbers", "orf" and "Too strong".

From the archives of the late great Philip Smart, 20 Track Double LP, all from master tapes - vocals, rhythms, deejays - ALL Previously Unreleased fire from the inner circle of Tubby's studio in the mid '70s. Real deal dubplate biz, not to be missed!

This album from an Italian-based production outfit on Aloe Vera Records celebrates the label's early years and the unique style of one of the imprint's key acts, The Officinalis's. They were known for classics like 'Si Comme' Si' and for blending. Naples and Jamaican musical cultures. Aloe Vera Records skilfully merged these worlds in their output and created a distinctive and recognisable sound that bridges past and present. These are all well-crafted sounds with warm low ends, rich bass and plenty of loved-up melodies that make it a nice escapist listen.

With summer in full swing, F-Spot Records is proud to announce their next grooved-filled 45, 'Heavy Manners' from Germany's leading authentic reggae team, 'Marcus I meets aDUBta'. Influenced by US Soul and the early Reggae and Rocksteady sounds from Jamaica, aDUBta, a producer and musician from Bavaria, Germany, linked up with Marcus I, a Southern France notable songwriter and singer in the Roots-Reggae scene, to create a collection of work inspired by the Studio One sounds of the 1960s. Following their debut 'cut A Wire Showcase' (Hornin' Sounds Records, France - 2023), 'Marcus I meets aDUBta' kick off their next set of releases with this uplifting, flying-cymbal-style 7-inch that's an automatic vibe setter and head nodder. Featuring a minimalist riddim 'Version' on the B-side, DJs, you know you'll need doubles! After nearly 20 years as a drummer for various Reggae bands, aDUBta has recently dedicated himself entirely to the sound of '60s to early '80s Reggae. Gaining international attention as a producer with his debut album, 'Sounds From The Attic,' (released in 2023 through Oneness Records), aDUBta and musical collaborator Mauricio-Joran Ceseña (The Black Oak Roots Allstars) went back at it, focused on recording a collection of riddim instrumentals at aDUBta's Attic Roots Studio. Then, in February 2024, Marcus I joined aDUBta in Germany to write and record vocals and harmonies, deeply showcasing his exceptional songwriting and distinctive voice, which has resonated with every Roots-Reggae fan. For the final touch, aDUBta polished the mixes and dubs entirely analog on his Tascam 388 mixing console, and their first single, 'Heavy Manners,' from a new wave of releases, was sent to press and is now ready for sound systems worldwide.

The early Reggae sound that came out of Jamaica between the years 1968 and 1971 became the soundtrack to the skinhead movement in the UK. Not only was the music embraced but also the dress style of the Jamaican Rude Boys.

The skinhead style started around 1968 and by the following year 1969, had become the style and fashion of the British teenagers. The uniform of the skinheads consisted of boots, braces, button down shirts and jeans and the upbeat reggae sounds seemed to match the style perfectly. The tempo of the music in Jamaica had previously slowed down from the more up tempo beat of Ska to the calmer pace of beat called Rock Steady. Some say this was to match the extreme heat wave that was hitting the island between 1966 and 1968. But that period had now passed and the evolution of the Reggae beat had again found a new pulse to hang its songs by. A more up tempo beat that all Jamaicans, British youths and various pockets of people around the world could groove to.

We have selected a cross section of tunes from those heady times, so sit back and enjoy some of the tunes the youths were listening to when the Skinhead Shuffle was all the rage. Hope you enjoy the set….

A mixtape of Studio One 12" singles, including some very rare stuff. All recorded from vinyl.

Deeeeeep from the Ariwa archives... all unreleased music on here. Sounding absolutely essential to us. Dates of production uknown at time of writing...

The A Side is a Mad Professor produced version of Aisha's 'Give a Little Love', given the UK treatment. The Dub is a proper roller.

Side B is the unheard African Message Dub (Parts 1& 2). Recordings ft Jah Shaka on bass, Norman Grant (Twinkle Brothers) on Drums, Sgt Pepper and Mad Professor on the desk. Masterful UK Dub from these key figures.... pulled out of nowhere.

Not to be missed!

Cancelled. Originally released in 1976, Jimmy Cliff's "In Concert" was recorded at shows in Massachusetts and New York, and overseen by former Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. Accompanied by legendary Jamaican musicians like guitarist Ernest Ranglin, Cliff is at his best reinventing some of his greatest hits in these live recordings. This 1LP 10-track best-of on exclusive 140g transparent red vinyl includes reimaginings of "You Can Get It If You Really Want," "Vietnam," "Many Rivers To Cross," "Fountain Of Life," a cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World," and more! 140G transparent red vinyl

Operation Sole like the summer, hopefully, imminent; “Operazione Sole” like the 1967 song by Peppino Di Capri, considered, perhaps wrongly, the first ska in Italy, but certainly the first to talk about Jamaica and upbeat rhythms. The record you have in your hand is intended to be a testimony to how much the sounds born in Kingston between the '60s and '70s had a significant influence on local pop. With the first explosion of reggae in England between 1968 and 1970, as well as with the rise of Bob Marley to a worldwide cult phenomenon, parallel to the all-English phenomenon of Two Tone and the ska revival, Italy, always attracted by the new trends not only English, he certainly couldn't stay on the sidelines. Therefore these innovative and unknown upbeat sounds, derived from the blues of the 1950s and mixed with a Caribbean sauce, have also taken hold in the Bel Paese. It began as early as 1959 with the song “Nessuno” by Mina, considered to all intents and purposes a Jamaican shuffle, to arrive in a few years at blue-beat (I4 di Lucca, Claudio Casavecchi) and ska (Margherita, Peppino Di Capri , Silvano Silvi, Renzo and Virginia) and be exposed to the first reggae (for example Jo Fedeli and his Italian version of “Israelites” by Desmond Dekker). Thus, we quickly reach the end of the decade of the economic boom and the culture, styles, references change: everything becomes more busy (on a cultural, artistic and political level). After a stalemate phase that lasted more than five years, Bob Marley's reggae (considered a sort of new Messiah) conquers the planet, including Italy: the producers and artists, even at a high level, for a few years do not remain at all indifferent to this novelty and decide to introduce the "upbeat", primarily reggae, into the various pop repertoires: well-known names such as Loredana Bertè, Mario Lavezzi, Rino Gaetano, Ivano Fossati, Ilona Staller, Adriano Celentano, Edoardo Bennato throw themselves headlong into new sonic adventures, in a pioneering way, but often with excellent results. The "Operazione Sole" collection wants to take the credit, instead, of proposing and discovering lesser-known artists (with the exception of Gino Santercole, former associate and relative of Il Molleggiato), often real meteors in the Italian musical panorama, who have tried to achieve (or achieve again) success by adapting the pop that was so popular in those years to the new black sounds prevailing in the West. We are in the early 80s and we range from the most classic reggae, to Italo-disco contaminated by dub up to the true Neapolitan style which, on more than one occasion, in its being endemically "black" and full of groove, has wrung out the watch out for agreements made in Kingston and London. “Operation Sun”: a pleasant philological work, but surrounded by an equally pleasant aura of disengagement.

Stefano De Santis kicks off this Best Of Various with Murk, as the name suggests its a dark workout from one of Rome’s finest producers. Following that are Batavia Collective from Jakarta. When we first heard the live demo for this we were blown away and had to get it out on TLM. Batavia Collective are Elfa Zulham on drums, Doni Joesran on keys and Kenny Gabriel on synth bass. All mixed by Stefano De Santis. Rounding off the A side we have Cormac Fulton and his follow up to Perplexed on Tlm025 with a new track called Loungeware. Based in Salford this is another atmospheric track from Cormac featuring Netherlands born but now Rio de Janeiro based flautist Floor Polder. Floor also appeared on Steve Conry’s rework of Guinu - Eletromadinga which featured on Colin Curtis Presents Jazz Dance Fusion 4 Part 2. Loungeware was mixed by Steve Conry and Matt Cox. Onto the AA side and we have Montreal resident Mike Perras with Soullous, a superb dancefloor track, live drums and amazing keys, in fact everything you want from house music. Next up is Future Jazz Ensemble from Vibo Valentia who follow on from their Rough Time EP Tlm028 and appearance on Tlm030 with another broken jazz monster of a track called Over The Rainbow. Finishing off side AA is Takahiro Fuchigami from Fukuoka with another fine track called Outer Heaven, a great follow up to Strange Acquaintance which was on Tlm034.

The third solo album of the Italian producer is released eight years after his previous At Song Embassy, Papine, Kingston 6, an album/documentary recorded and filmed in Jamaica back in 2015. Over this eight-year span, Baldini intensively toured through Europe, United States and Latin America, and worked as a producer for artists like Mellow Mood, L.A.B., Forelock, Noiseshaper, Imperial Sound Army, Dubblestandart, and for well- established reggae labels like Pressure Sounds and Echo Beach. Differently from his previous albums, in which Baldini’s approach was tightly linked to the tradition of Jamaican dub (and where his works focused on re-editing and re-purposing materials coming from different sources), the starting point for the beat-making of In The Shell was the writing of original music, a blank page on which to develop every single track. This time, the core of the production and song-writing is rooted in the creation of instrumental tracks in the studio; only at a later stage did Baldini look on the outside, establishing the necessary connections and collaborations for the entire album. The shared element among the songs in the record is the use of a palette of ethnic sounds and samples, recorded and archived by Paolo Baldini himself during his various trips to Africa, and on which he later carried out his unique electronic production and post-production work – the distinctive feature of his musical aesthetics. The personal and family ties that led the Italian producer to visit Sub-Saharan Africa, and especially Senegal, granted him an exclusive observation standpoint on day-to-day contexts which are usually not accessible to those who don’t have a key to participate in the family life of these communities, and allowed him to respectfully use this advantage to record original and unique samples.

Death Is Not The End together all three LP volumes of the critically acclaimed If I Had a Pair of Wings LP compilation series for a bundled edition.
"...all of the music on this compilation is the result of the forward-thinking artists and producers that realised the worth of local Jamaican artistry during a time when the island's leading political figures had not yet managed to throw off the colonial yolk. These are sounds with a certain innocence and the optimistic promise of better to come, with the influence of American pop ballads and doo-wop looming large, yet already pointing to the innovations of the future. Listen keenly and take in the sounds of the Jamaican music industry at its very beginnings, its singers and players drawing from the popular styles of the island's larger neighbour and already changing those styles into something their own." - David Katz
Lauren Laverne's comp of the week on BBC Radio 6 Music w/c 11th Jan.
Guardian feature: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/12/a-thousand-teardrops-how-doo-wop-kickstarted-jamaica-pop-revolution-reggae-rocksteady

All killer no filler 10 track compilation of peak late 80s digital tunes from Park Heights' most productive period. Pure fire produced between Jamaica and New York City. Featuring two previously unreleased tunes and the rest reissued for the first time.

Ten great tracks from Park Height's productive late '80s period, where Mr. Francis produced a lot of great early digital reggae both in Jamaica and right here in NYC. We've selected eight great never before reissued tracks from the catalog, plus two previously unreleased gems. As always, housed in a fresh jacket with the vibes of the time.

Death Is Not The End turns 10 years old in May, and as part of the celebrations are committing a selection of Dinte NTS Radio shows from over the years to cassette. Kicking off with the recent special Skateland Soundtapes, 1980-1986 - comprising a selection of clips from sessions held at Halfway Tree, Kingston's most storied roller skating rink during the dancehall era's golden period of the early to mid/late 1980s.

Audio sourced with the indefatigable efforts of the Who Cork The Dance crew - big thanks going out to Jayman, Ruff House, Keimo, Omar, Gee Wizz and the one Jah Humble.

Years ago we were lucky enough to get an incredible and uncredited Acetate with a deep instrumental cut of Satta Massagana , long story short after few weeks we got it the plate totally cracked and became unplayable. We managed to send the plate to Rome at Vinyl restoration who made a little miracle and somehow fixed it well enough for us to export a digital crackling recording of it to keep in our archives. Few years later , we played the noisy recording to the great musicians from Dig This Way All Stars and we decided it was absolutely the case to attempt a modern remake of it. Thats how Abeng , Sere and Monz made the structure of the Riddim , than Rootikal Horns handled the Trombone and Sax version , Nicola Gallo did the Organ part and Jonny De Ambassador played the percussions! The final touch is done by Yakka who mixed a couple wicked dubwises of it and Pressure Mastering that made it sounds proper! The 45rpm is pressed in 250 black copies.