Dennis Brown: No Man is an Island

Fantastic debut album recorded when Brown was 12-13. Brown's only Studio One album including the great title track, an Impressions cover, the reggae classic Going to the Ball and many more. Walks a fine line between rocksteady, lovers rock and reggae. (And vinyl fans, check out Ernie B's reggae they have a lot of these Studio One reissues cheap, the quality is so-so, decent pressings with mediocre masterings mostly, but this one was only 6.99 so totally worth it to have these classic albums back in print)

Big Youth: Screaming Target

Landmark DJ album. If you at all doubt reggae was the godfather of hip hop go give this a listen. The original album was 12 tracks of DJ toasting/rapping over a host of classic rhythms that had been remixed for the occasion with extra reverb, drop outs and other effects, all from 1972. Beyond being a landmark, the album is just damn good. Big Youth is engaging and the musical backing is fantastic. I'm not generally much a fan of a bunch of bonus tracks, but the 2006 reissue of this one with a ton of bonus tracks is fantastic. They include the vocal versions of the backing tracks with vocals by Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown and others making for nice contrast, and they toss in a couple additional dub versions of tracks as well . This release has more bonus material than the original album and as good as the original is, the bonus tracks are every bit a match. I've got a vinyl version of this on its way right now, actually, but I'll still keep hold of this CD edition for the bonus material.

Scorpions || Love Drive
Scorpions || Lonesome Crow

SCORPS!!!!

Alex Barnett: Push

Short (20 minute) cassette release on Draft Tapes. Mostly minimal synth tunes here, but with enough going on to keep them interesting. Mid tempo stuff with solid rhythms. Has a sorta Blade Runner feel. I dig this, just wish it was longer. Hopefully he'll put out something full length in the near future.

pretty sure that's "Poni", the drummer from The Ettes, in that JTE album cover.

I may be in love with Poni after seeing the Ettes live a couple years back. That girl can play those fucking drums.

Cuban Gold: Various Artists 3CDs

I know very little about Cuban music so I don't have a much helpful to say about this collection other than so far so good and it is sounding excellent to me. This quote seems to accompany it online..."Presenting 3CDs and a 24 page book from the best Cuban music catalogue in the world! We’ve selected over three hours of classic tracks from Cuba’s largest record label, Egrem, the authentic gems from the original artists… the real sound of Cuba!" I recognize several of these songs from versions of Buena Vista Social Club, but I believe these are original, older versions of those tunes. Lots of artists I've never heard of, but most of the big Cuban artists I have heard of are on here, Beny More, Tito Gomez, Perez Pardo, and more. Seems to me if you're curious about Cuban music, you could do worse than this collection.

Is this new? I haven't kept up with these guys?


P.S. Good (and potentially good stuff I haven't heard) page here.

Never realized how muddy-sounding this album was. I'd love to hear a remaster sometime. Especially with production as detailed as Brion's

Nice.

Been OD'ing today on Scruggs.