reggae
Playlist: John Peel Show 26.6.88 tracks
Whatever John Peel show you use, compiling a complete playlist, or even an accurate one, given the breadth of the music chosen, much of it remaining in obscurity, is nigh on impossible. One of the enjoyable things though, it’s – apart from the cross genre breadth that Peel utilised meaning the music jumps from one …
Track: Thievery Corporation – Let The Chalice Blaze
Thievery Corporation are back with their new track, “Let the Chalice Blaze”. After 20 years, you may be familiar with the sophisticated shuffling bossa nova beats, but it’s still impossible to resist the head nodding on a Thievery Co track, especially when the cowbell kicks in. With the new album recorded in Jamaica, it’s reggae …
News: David Rodigan to release autobiography – My Life in Reggae
It’s an unlikely story. A 65 year old Oxfordshire born man who, over the course of his life, has become a world renowned, international DJ and broadcaster who has championed the music of Jamaica across the world, despite, as he says ‘…looking like an accountant or a dentist.” He’s headlined festivals, has regular shows on …
News: Prince Buster, An Obituary 1938 – 2016
Ska and Rocksteady pioneer Prince Buster died on the 8th of September, at his home in Miami at the age of 78. Cited as creating the ska sound when he told his band to play on the off-beat, his influence on Jamaican music was vast. Buster (real name Cecil Campbell), a street boxer, teamed up …
New Music: Stephen Marley Review – Revelation Pt. II: The Fruit of Life
Hip hop owes a debt to reggae although it’s one that is not always appreciated or acknowledged. Jamaican foundation DJs of the early 1970s, like U Roy and Big Youth, chanted over riddims that were usually instrumental versions of popular songs in Jamaica and individual sound systems battled to rule the dancehalls. Fast forward to …
Album Review: Bunny Wailer – The Solomonic Singles Pt.1 (Tread Along 1969-1976) & Pt.2 (Rise and Shine)
In the reggae pantheon, no one stands taller than the original Wailing Wailers, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. These three men, as members of that seminal group, ushered in the roots reggae revolution of the 1970s and still exert a profound influence on the genre and, music in general, today. They were artists …
Album Review: Ziggy Marley – Ziggy Marley
It’s taken Ziggy Marley six albums to run out of ideas on the title front and settle for a self titled effort, and while he’s not quite run out similar ideas for his songs, you feel album number seven may need a change in direction or some fresh ideas or its going to get stayed. …
Track: Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno – A Life Worth Living feat. U-Roy & Alice Russell, plus UK tour dates
Out on 13th May on the essential Tru Thoughts label, ‘A life worth living’ is the taken from the latest album from the incredibly prolific Quantic aka British producer, musician and band-leader Will Holland, in his tropical dub infused guise, the Flowering Inferno project. It features legendary Jamaican toaster U-Roy, about whom Holland says “I’m …
Track: Protoje – Who Knows ft Chronixx (shy fx remix)
Legendary London drum and bass producer/DJ Shy FX has got hold of the Who Knows from Jamaican artist Protoje. Already no stranger to radio play, the track comes from his breakthrough 2015 album Ancient Future, and features fellow Jamaican Chronixx on the vocals. Originally a straight up reggae belter (do people outside Wigan refer to …
See: Steel Pulse release video teaser for documentary Dreadtown
Legendary Birmingham reggae band Steel Pulse have teamed up with the director Yoni Gal and the Oscar nominated producer Mile Lerner to launch an Indiegogo site to raise the funds needed to finish a feature documentary about the band, titled Dreadtown. Expected towards the end of 2016, it explores the history of the band, through …