Monday, 8 February 2010

I was just looking on UK-D for first time in ages and saw this thread. I've been living in Jamaica now for two and a half years so well immersed in reggae. Great list John, many of which I knew but a few good new finds. One of my noughties faves was this from Max Romeo – Birth of Reggae Music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlrmrXH4Ios

And for those reggae heads, I've started writing an occasional series of pieces on life in Jamaica for the excellent Test Pressing site www.testpressing.org Check the Dennis Brown track for an incredible bass and drums break. Well worth having a root around the site as some great mixes and different bits on there.

Cheers,
Andy

wow, what made you move out there? what do you do for a living? how's things in general??

The mighty Aba Shanti-I sound system at the Trinity Centre in Bristol on the night of Saturday  6th was, hands down, no contest, the most uplifting, inspirational and just downright heavy-weight roots sound experienced in many a moon by these ears.

That rig launched bass so hard that it whacked one in the back like an unseen swing from a punchbag and had the scalp, hair, clothes and internal organs all abuzz with the low-freq shuffle. It literally took the breath away at times.

With a nod to the birthday of Bob earlier proceedings featured selected classics that sounded reworked or possibly re-freq'd live. Maybe it was the rig, but Aba's like a man possesed at the controls, literally bouncing all night long without pause even when constantly tweaking the sound. As the night progressed the tunes became just indescribable other than in physical-sensory terms, there simply aren't the words to convey the majesty of the sound. Moving to all this became involuntary, with not a motionless body in the entire house. As one, it was. Like this it is:

Conscious sound, concussive beats. Haile recommended.