Not long ago I was watching a documentary on Youtube about the
developement of reggae in the UK. I really liked it, the birth of two-tone
for instance, wonderful video which I added below. It’s a great piece of
history I enjoyed a lot. There is one group however of which I would
have loved to find some footage in the documentary. This lp by Merger
was a personal favourite in the early days and I think the group deserves
a place in that story. One way or the other, it’s never too late to give
them the attention deserved so here is 77 which is obviously their
1977 lp. It brings back memories, were you there..?
Get it & spread it..

tracks;

01 – 77
02 – Ghetto child
03 – Life song
04 – Exiles ina babylon
05 – Understanding
06 – African lady
07 – Have you heard ?
08 – Waterfalls
09 – Massa gana

We knew them as Michigan and Smilie but here on their first
lp they are still called General Smilie and Papa Michigan.
They scored big time with their hits Rub-a-Dub Style and the
second song on this lp, Nice Up the Dance. Being one of the
first duo’s, they caused a craze for this type of reggae, they
toured Europe early eighties. I saw them in the Amsterdam
Paradiso. On the famous Studio One label, produced by
the great Sir Cocksone Dodd who also arranged it and
took care of all engineering and sound recording.
Don’t you just love their style, towell and all..
It was big fun those days.

tracks;

1 Rub-a-dub style
2 Nice up the dance
3 Thank you jah
4 Compliment to studio one
5 Time to be happy
6 Eye of danger

First, light up a spliff, then sit down and suck in
this slice of dubbing adventure. Okay, now light up
another spliff, turn up the volumes of your stereo,
kick aside your furniture and experience some of
the best pounding dub beats ever made on earth.
It was 1981, a flock of spaceships entered the
London atmosphere. Hopeton Brown, better
known as Scientist was luckily around with
the Roots Radics to save the day. Tony
McDermott made the snapshot at a
perfect moment and captured our
young hero in full action.
Sowell, Bingy Bunny,
Flabba, Style & Santa,
Sky Juice & Skully,
Steely & Winston,
Gladdie, they were all
there with Maxie, Banabas
& Crucial Bunny, Linvall Thompson
and Mickie ‘Roots’ Scott,
Dub away…

tracks;

1 Beam down
2 Red shift
3 Time warp
4 Cloning process
5 Pulsar
6 Laser attack
7 Dematerialize
8 Fission
9 Supernova explosion
10 Quasar

Recently I found this missing piece in my Barrington Levy
collection. I have been waiting for years to encounter this
lp. It is an obscurity, very funny thing is they wrote his
name without the letter “G”. I always wondered how it is
possible to release an album and write your own name wrong.
Or do you think it’s done on purpose? Somehow I missed this
lp in 1984 when it came out. It is recorded with Scully on
percussion, Willie Lindo – lead rhythm, Robbie Shakespear
and Lloyd Parks on bass, Piano by Robbie Lyn and Bubbler
and Drums by Sly Dunbar. Get it & Spread it !

tracks;

1 Money move
2 Jah save my life
3 True love
4 Misunderstanding
5 I feel free
6 Hard to believe
7 Come in a dance
8 Suffer the little children

Back in 1982 I bought this album for fl.21,95, which was
still in the time we had our old Dutch currency, the guilder.
I found out yesterday that prices for this lp go up as far as
€ 150,-. It seems to be quite rare so I thought I’d post it
for you to listen to without charge. Our guilder was worth
less than half of the euro so it’s worth has increased
substantially. Lacksley Castell died very young at the
age of 24 years. He worked with Hugh Mundell
who helped him and his buddy Junior Reid to
start in the music business. He was a very
talented singer and songwriter,
read more..

tracks;

1 Leaving
2 Morning glory
3 Righteous stand
4 Message to my woman
5 Cold winter night
6 Speak softly
7 Doctor love
8 Bound in bondage
9 Government man

Hear this ! In a much earlier stage, still in the beginning of the
old page back in 2008, I was asked to remove these here albums.
Greensleeves was re-releasing some of them and didn’t like me
to give them away. Now my buddy who owns a recordstore in
my hometown told me most of them are out of print at the time
being so I thought, “Good, let’s post them all again and see what
happens.” If you have a problem with either one, the way to protest
is using this disclaimer.
So happy reggae listeners, don’t miss out on these classic lp’s.
I love them piece by piece and want to share them with you all.

Good morning groovers, once again I find out through a comment
that our former host, blogger, has thrown away one of our precious
old albums. It concerns a very nice lp by the great African Brothers.
The Best of Kwame Ampadu used to be on my blog long time ago.
It is another surprise to find it gone but no worries, every time you
come up with a disappeared album, I’ll re-post it and this time it is
going to stay here. So enjoy this rarity and pass it on..

p.s. I’m checking my other African Brother posts as well,
maybe more have disappeared, I’ll get back on that soon..

tracks;

1 Yaa amanua 1
2 Yaa amanua 2
3 I will pray
4 Eye a na me mu
5 Menyame misu fre wo
6 Enye wo yem
7 Nea moye yi mahu
8 Yaw berko
9 None but you
10 Someone tell me
11 Afia dufie

About time I hear you think. I have always loved reggae music
and speaking of reggae and love, Gregory Isaacs with his sweet
voice was famous for his lovers-rock. This here album is not one
of his best known ones but may be all the more welcome for that
same reason. On Trojan records we have this lp from 1976,
“All I have is love”. Now I’m quite sure this one
is not going to stay up for long, so
get it, spread it and do it fast..
Enjoy..

tracks;

1 Give hand
2 Since the other day
3 All I have is love
4 Sinner man
5 Help us get over
6 Hold me tight
7 Promise land
8 Way of life
9 Coming home
10 Lonely lover
11 Hard road to travel

About this one, recently I had to play a reggae
set at a friends party and decided to make it the number five
in our ‘Reggae Monster Originals’ series. It contains tracks
from various artists that I found on lp and cd. Let’s see if
Zippyshare leaves them untouched. Have fun listening..

tracks;

1 Lee Perry & the Upsetters – Run for cover
2 Horace Andy – Mammie blue
3 Junior Byles – Demonstration
4 Larry Mashall – Run babylon
5 Max Romeo – Tacko
6 Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Favorite dish
7 Errol Dunkley – The prodigal returns
8 Junior Dread – A wah dat
9 Lone Ranger – Everything she want
10 Dennis Brown – Sitting and watching
11 Dennis Alcapone – Fever teaser
12 Burning Spear – Rocking time
13 Al Campbell – Take a ride
14 Lui Lepke – Sharron
15 Bob Marley – Hammer
16 Burning Spear – It’s good
17 Zoot Sims – Small garden
18 Tappa Zukie – Oh lord
19 Culture – Two sevens clash
20 Jacob Miller – Suzie wong
21 Augustus Pablo – Rockers dub
22 Jah Stitch – Black harmony killer
23 Jackie Bernard – Jah jah way
24 African Dub Almighty – Chapter three
25 Slim Smith – Everybody needs love

Something special tonight, a compilation of songs we used
to play a whole lot in the past. Tagrijn was a youthcenter I
frequented at the end of the 70’s and early 80’s. Tonight’s
reünion made me compile this little collector for those who
are interested. Some songs are younger but they breathe the
atmosphere we all loved in those days, hope U like..

tracks;

1   Big Youth – Marcus Garvey dread
2   Mink Deville – Spanish stroll
3   Black Uhuru – Sponji reggae
4   Ian Dury & the Blockheads – Billericay Dickey
5   Jimmy Cliff – The harder they come
6   The Clash – Armageddon time
7   Althia and Donna – Uptown top ranking
8   Elvis Costello – Watching the detectives
9   Barrington Levy – Black roses
10  Iggy Pop The passenger
11  Prince Buster – Al Capone
12  The Meters – Jungle man
13  Dave and Ansell Collins – Double barrel
14  Allen Toussaint – Everything I do gonna be funky
15  Linton Kwesi Johnson – Want fi goh rave
16  Cypress Hill – Hits from the bong
17  Junior Byles – Demonstration
18  Booker-T & the MG’s – Green onions
19  The Maytals – Broadway jungle
20  Shabba Ranks – Wicked inna bed