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Reggae - A daily blog

Reggae - June 2006

Roots Reggae

June 30th 2006 09:00
bob marley
A review I did of an album a few days ago received a comment from an anonomous party criticising my view of it. This does not worry me because I still think it was quite a boring album and the comment was from someone not willing to leave their name. Coincidentally it was also shortly after I’d emailed the artist thanking them for sending me their CD for review and pointing them to the review. I also don’t believe any of my regular readers would have heard this album, for whatever reason.


I am not concerned about criticism of a critical review. I don’t want everyone to agree with me. I do wonder whether the genre of this music is actually widely loved. Is roots reggae adored by many? If so I wonder whether I am missing something. The thing is I love Bob Marley, who I think perfect roots reggae, but he didn’t play his music in a style that was monotonous as I think many roots bands do. You can play reggae, but I think you still have to do interesting things and you have to make you music danceable. Reggae music is for dancing. Marley was so successful because he maintained this even when he went more and more conscious.

You look at Steel Pulse as another fine example of roots reggae. It was upbeat and danceable. Though their music spreads a message, they didn’t forget when producing their albums that they had to make people dance too.

Too many roots bands forget this. Many roots bands also forget that not all reggae is good reggae. Just look at the downfall of many a legend’s career. I have no doubt also that many roots artists receive a very good reception from their live performances, but this does not automatically transform into a well received album. People want a good time when they go out so of course they don’t dwell on the negatives, but when I am sitting here analysing an album, I am not always dancing around my home, I want to be impressed. So what am I saying? I know you are (all) trying to imitate Marley but still roots bands – make it interesting!
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Mozilla Firefox is reggae friendly

June 29th 2006 12:22
Okay so today’s post is not going to be strictly on reggae. I say strictly because it could possibly help your reggae experience.

I was first introduced to the Mozilla Firefox web browser but a couple of months ago. I always had used Internet Explorer previously as most people do I suppose. It isn’t a bad browser and as many web designers don’t test their site in anything more than Explorer you aren’t faced with tables all over the place when you go to certain websites.

Is this reason enough not to try a new web browser? I think not. I took the gamble and it paid off. Mozilla Firefox is brilliant. The main benefit is the tabbing system they have introduced. You can have a number of websites open within the same browser. This greatly improves what you had to do in the past. If you wanted to follow a link and yet keep that page open in IE, you had to right click and choose Open Link In New Window. Well you can still do that, but you can also choose Open Link In New Tab. Much more easily organized browsing. In the newest version of Firefox you can even drag tabs to keep related pages close to one another.


Another enhancement to your browsing is how they have added to the home page concept. In IE, as most of you know, you can set a home page to open when you open a new browser window. In Firefox, you can set a series of pages to open in tabs when you open a new browser. For example, say I open a new browser, I can have Google open in one tab, Reggae.net.au open in another, Dizzybeat.com in another and so on. Awesome.

mozilla firefox


There are other benefits, but tabbed browsing is by far the best and the reason you need to get Firefox. Small download too.

Download it from: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
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The Signals - reggae ska mp3s

June 28th 2006 09:05
Okay this blog is a bit of a plug, but since I openly admit I can be quite a vain person, I am going to run with it.

The Signals are a band I am in. We formed at the beginning of 2004 and since then have seen numerous lineup changes, including at least four people up front on lead vocals. Despite quite a successful early stint with Jo on vocals, we've struggled to get a constant lineup for more than a single show - until now. With new members Adam and Tom, we are back in the swing of things.

We finally have some mp3s online. You can check them out over at the Signals Myspace page - http://www.myspace.com/sydneysignals. Note they are just recordings from a live rehearsal session so a bit dodgy.

The first track is a cover of Ken Boothe's rocksteady version of You Left the Water Running. I say version because it was originally a song by Otis Redding, though the Ken Boothe version is quite different.

The second is a song called Treason, a Signals original. It is an upbeat skinhead reggae/ska type number.

Have a listen and leave comments please.

Signals Official Website

The Signals
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reggae and ska on ebay

June 27th 2006 14:11
I am increasingly becoming addicted to EBAY. As I am into the skinhead/mod thing quite heavily, I love clothes. When I have money I will go to a tailor or buy from a shop, but as I am pretty skint of late, I’ve had to look elsewhere because these options, though usually quite successful, are very expensive.

Ben Sherman and Fred Perry gear is everywhere on EBAY – there is heaps more of a range than the companies offer down here. But enough on that because we are talking reggae. I won’t link to all items because it is easy to search for them.

Reggae-wise, EBAY can be pretty good too. Beginning at reggae/ska 45s, you can see that Dr. Kitch by Lord Kitchener, as referred to a few days ago here, can be had for $US 15 sent to Australia (less if you are in the US). You can also have Andy Capp’s The Law for 1 pound plus postage or The Bleechers/Upsetters 45 for the same price. Both are rare in Australia and if I was selling them it would be for more than that.

never grow old
Looking into reggae books and I found an awesome document of the famous Studio One’s singles and albums. Owned by Coxsone Dodd, this discography illustrates a very important part of reggae history. Check it out here.

If you love you dancehall dancing and why wouldn’t you? - look at the DVDs. As well as the usual Dancehall Queen DVD, you’ll also find DVDs made of dancehall boat parties, which pretty much just consists of women trying out their dancehall moves to some heavy reggae. This is a little bizarre to me but highly popular and a good way of learning some new moves I suppose.

Remember to always check out a seller’s history. It is easy to be stuffed around, but don’t risk too much money and you won’t get burnt too badly.
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Reggae review: Micharl Arkk – Easier Said

June 26th 2006 07:31
Michael Arkk
Michael Arkk was kind enough to send me this CD to review, which does happen occasionally – though probably not as much as if Dizzybeat.com was updated as frequently as I would like. Anyway, on to the CD.

I like Michael Arkk’s voice a lot. It has a haunting quality – a wail to it that adds feeling to what he is singing about. It is the best element of the album, which is a good and important thing on a solo artist’s album. Unfortunately though, the album isn’t backed up by interesting music. It is restricted to the one drop roots reggae beat, which isn’t necessarily the problem, but nearly every backing track does sound similar. It has an electronic feel to it – very much inspired by tracks such as “I show you how to reggae” by Soulful Dynamics or Billy Ocean’s Can You Feel It. It’s a shame because songs like Wheel and Dance, where they do have a different feel to them, a bit more dance friendly, just sound like they are backed by a drum machine and a casio keyboard.
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Trojan Records June New Releases

June 23rd 2006 11:44
Four new releases for June from this esteemed name in reggae. Nothing really ground breaking from Trojan this month, but interesting angles nonetheless. Checking out the prices through the Trojan website, I wouldn’t buy from them – they do seem rather overpriced, but you can usually find these releases everywhere for decent prices.

Various Artists: Trojan Sound System
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Reggae Boyz - not at the world cup?

June 22nd 2006 16:36
Though cricket was once THE sport in the West Indies - we all know the success the West Indian cricket team has had in the past, the sport that is number one is definitely football or soccer or whatever, in Jamaican and the Carribean. That and basketball.

The Jamaican national team are aptly named The Reggae Boyz and were the first English speaking team from the region to qualify for the world cup. Hello France 98. They unfortunately lost their opening game to Croatia and got destroyed by Argentina 5 zip, but they regained respect with a win over Japan in their final game. They played with the flair few Euro countries can claim.
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Madness and 2-tone ska

June 21st 2006 10:48
Madness
Still to this day I find Australians are fairly ignorant when it comes to reggae and ska – even the 2-tone period which saw some prominence in Australia doesn’t mean anything to many. Fair enough really. This however is contrasted with the English people I come across, even those who never got heavily into ska and reggae. They are very aware of 2-tone and many will tell you their experiences of seeing 2-tone bands. This just shows how big ska in the late 1970s and eary 80s was in the UK – that random English can recount stories connected to 2-tone. On top of the heap and perhaps the band that came through without the controversies and infighting of other bands was Madness.

Madness were also the most successful. They chose not to stay on the record label, that doubled as the name given to the period, 2-tone records. I would suggest this was significant as it allowed the band to move on as ska sort of lost the attention of the general public. I wonder whether young ska kids of the time felt Madness were selling out as they went in a pop direction, but today there are many fans today with fond memories of Madness as an entire package and not just a three year period of ska hits. Of course their sound was always quintessentially Madness and perhaps this is the key, that there was enough of the old sound to keep people sticking with them.
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Reggae artist Ruddy Thomas dies

June 20th 2006 09:17
Ruddy Thomas
Yet another reggae artist has died (16/06/06). Ruddy Thomas, whose most famous song was Loving Pauper, died aged 49 while on stage during the Popular Song Contest run by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission in Portland. Although perhaps not the most famous of Jamaican artists Ruddy Thomas performed consistently, released a good deal of material and also played percussion (amongst other instruments) on the recording of many other reggae greats including Barrington Levy and Joe Gibbs. His forte was lovers reggae, though loving pauper was more rocksteady and is a great track. Michael Jackson also adapted a song he’d penned and he had decent success with duets, most notable an album with the very fine Susan Cadogan - He will be sorely missed.

His death comes soon after that of Desmond Dekker who also died on stage, as well as the recent deaths of reggae legends Laurel Aitken, Phyllis Dillon and Coxsone Dodd to name just a few.
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Rude Reggae - Dr Kitch Lyrics

June 19th 2006 13:49
Judge Dread
Judge Dread - Not your typical looking reggae star
Rude reggae is something I love. There is something intellectually impressive about using sexual overtones in your songs, but what is even more impressive is that artists in more conservative times could get away with overtly rude songs claiming a rather straight forward intention to the song. Max Romeo was a classic example with Wet Dream and Prince Buster’s roadie Alex Hughes made himself a household name doing rude reggae under the moniker of Judge Dread.

Neither was the first to use rude reggae lyrics however. A favourite song of mine is Dr. Kitch by Lord Kitchener, a great calypso song. Judge Dread actually later covered it – as did Dr. Ring Ding more recently and I think you may see it pop up in the Signals set list very soon. Check out the lyrics below. Click here for a sample of the Judge Dread version (which is nowhere near as good as the original).
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Reggae night Dancefloor

June 16th 2006 06:34
45 RPM
As 45 RPM is on tonight (Dimitris Cleveland St, Surry Hills Sydney), I thought I would suggest ten songs I want to hear to get me out on the dancefloor. Keeping in mind the DJs don’t go obscure on us at this club, playing to a pretty broad Sydney crowd, so the songs here will be pretty well known. In no particular order:

Toots and the Maytals
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Jewish Reggae with Matisyahu

June 15th 2006 09:07
Matisyahu
I’m not sure I should mention Regecide here, the Sydney ska and reggae (or at least they once were) band who we took as our own Jewish connection to the (chosen) genre. Why not I suppose, although they don’t really play reggae anymore, they did point me towards this artist Matisyahu.

Matisyahu is apparently a superstar within the Jewish community. His “uncanny, electrifying fusion of orthodox Judaism and classic reggae” (http://www.matismusic.com) is aimed at a huge market worldwide and the USA where he resides considering the number of Jews.
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Damian Marley - Welcome to Jamrock

June 14th 2006 12:16
Damian Marley
You would expect there to be a certain pressure being the son of the most respected name in reggae, Bob Marley. The advantages of sharing the great man’s name however would also be immense and I would think the positives would outweigh the negatives, opening doors many reggae artists don’t even get to stand in front of.

Despite being born into a rich reggae family, there was no mimicking of Muscial Youth’s popularity through the appeal of adolescent reggae for Damian Marley. 1996 was the year for his first release – Mr Marley. Though by no means old, his music has come from a thoughtful reflective process. It wasn’t until 2001 that he released on a major label – rather fittingly Motown, a label as famous for some of its talent as the Marley name itself. This album on Motown, Halfway Tree won the Reggae Grammy in 2001, which is some feat.
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Dancehall Queen - Keiva the Diva

June 13th 2006 13:09
Okay so I have recently explored more of dancehall dancing, pointing out that it is a huge phenomenon in Jamaica. There is a huge competition called Dancehall Queen - a movie was also made of the same name. Dancehall Queen, Keiva the Diva is apparently right up there when it comes to dancing so I thought I'd check her out. I hit Youtube, which is awesome source for video, to see whether she is all that. I must say, having seen the video below, I am not entirely convinced. She can definitely move - her hips definitely suit the nature of dancehall dancing, but is it just me or is she extremely skinny? I don't suppose it really matters, but in the highly sex slanted nature of dancehall, she has quite a different body shape to the Jamaican norm.

I suppose judge for yourself though. Look out for the excellently named dance The Jerry Springer!
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Paris Hilton and Jennifer Lopez Reggae!?

June 12th 2006 10:56
I will admit I didn’t get this information right from the source, but rather from the very good reggae/ska forum Dancingmood. I don’t know what I think of Paris Hilton recording a reggae song. I have never really had an opinion of her previously – she is someone who just never crosses my thoughts. The video is pretty bad and the song, well the song isn’t so bad I suppose, but it isn’t great either. The backing music is definitely woeful. I am assuming Hilton is using the tried and tested Gwen Stefani method, who of course was in the ska influenced (particularly early on) band No Doubt. The difference between the two is that Gwen Stefani forged her profile through No Doubt where Paris Hilton forged hers through a mix of porn and being rich. Anyway, check it out.


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Dancehall dance steps DVD

June 9th 2006 06:13
It's All About Dancing
I’ll be honest I haven’t seen the DVD, It’s All About Dancing, but having seen the trailer I really want to. You can see it too over at: It's All About Dancing Trailer. Though a completely legitimate DVD, I can’t help but laughing at an instructional video on reggae dancing set on the beaches of Jamaica. There should be more of this. I would say that only Jamaicans can get away with something like this, but they may not be the only ones. I could probably name a few people who couldn’t get away with.

Despite my comic perception of the DVD, it does seem to have some very good aspects to it. Dancehall dancing is a movement in itself in Jamaica and around the world, really very popular for punters. There are a huge array of dances, from the very basic to the very complex. This is consistent with the entire Jamaican music tradition. For example The Ska was a dance as was the rock steady. Never before have there been so many dancers though. The dancehall queen competition and the competitors are viewed almost as favourably as the dancehall stars.
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Mikey Dread - at the Controls

June 8th 2006 12:00
Mikey Dread
I bought someone’s record collection recently and in contained a couple of Mikey Dread recordings. I wouldn’t normally listen to this type of reggae – deep roots with use of MCing and lots of innovation in the effects. I am however starting to open my mind to it. For me it is perfect Sunday afternoon music. Kick back with, as Mikey puts it, Dread at the controls. Relaxing to such a hypnotic sound as dread produces is not difficult to do.

Dread has a rich history and he doesn’t mind telling you. He believes in his own hype, one might say, but he probably can get away with it – he has really pushed Jamaican music and forged some very strong relationships. He has been broadcasting on Jamaican and UK radio for 30 years now and gained prominence through his work on radio and his collaborations with UK punk band the Clash. The Clash were very well known for their reggae influenced sound and Mikey Dread was in there helping them develop it. He worked on both Black Market Clash and Sandinista and it was this work that set him up to be a voice pushing reggae music around the world.
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Dub Cricket and 45 RPM

June 8th 2006 03:16
Just a quick post to make up for no post yesterday. Will pull out a more substantial blog this evening.

The very fantastic Dub Cricket is apparently no more. Dub Cricket was a night in Sydney that was held every so often down underneath the railway bridge in Jubillee Park in Glebe. They would play everything from 60s reggae and ska to jungle, dancehall and even drum and bass (to my displeasure). It was meant to be on Sat 17th June, but apparently it has been canned due to noise complaints.
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Jamaican Label Art

June 6th 2006 11:43
I’d found out about the website Jamaican Label Art on the Trojan Forum. It is pretty cool. There is already a website doing a similar sort of thing over at: Dancecrasher.co.uk, but it wasn’t laid out especially well and it lacked in a section I was more keen on, which is the sleeve covers reggae records went in. There is also room for more websites like this that do well in presenting a very interesting side to reggae and keeping a historical account. All types of Jamaican music is here whether your taste is U-Roy, Sizzla or Prince Buster or you love you Calypso, ska, roots or dancehall. Catered for.

I was disappointed to discover the website was already down in its very early stage because of the popularity. They exceeded their bandwidth in no time! I was hanging out for it get back up and now it is. It is surprising how something like Jamaican label art can be so popular, but reggae fans are often fanatical and so would find a huge database of record artwork fascinating.
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Sean Paul - Trinity

June 5th 2006 11:05
Sean Paul
So Sean Paul has a newish album out (Trinity) and is due to have a new album out in late 2006. What does a purist with a love of early reggae think of this? Many have expected me to dismiss dancehall as a bastardisation of reggae, but this has never been the case. I like dancehall. Does this mean I like Sean Paul? – Not necessarily. I like his attitude, mainly because he is respectful of his roots. In his interviews he commonly refers to reggae and one-drop which are obviously an important part of his music. I like some of his songs, particularly those raw songs where it is just him strutting hist stuff. What I don’t like are these dabbles in duets – doing songs with Beyonce and Rhianna, particularly when he says “I’m a dancehall artist all the way”.

Of course Sean Paul wasn’t the first to head in this direction. Jamaica is close to the USA and reggae is the roots of hip-hop, so this entry into the USA market by dancehall artists is common. Beenie Man, Buju Banton and Yellowman have all had a go which is fine – props to Jamaican artists for receiving some of the success and money they deserve. I just wish that USA labels didn’t get their hands on them, obviously pushing their ideas. These guys are cutting tracks back in Jamaica that are popular worldwide, there just isn’t a need to stuff with that. Leave it raw and make your money by harnessing this rawness.
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Acoustic Reggae

June 2nd 2006 08:09
A Sweet Serenade
A Sweet Serenade
There seems to be a bit of a trend in reggae circles at the moment to try your hand at it acoustically/using raw basics. If I hadn’t heard some of the latest efforts of acoustic reggae, I think I’d be a little sceptical. I have though and I must say I love it. Chris Murray has to be given some credit for getting this raw style of Jamaican music really going. His popularity led to him forming a regularly gigging band called The Chis Murray Combo, which keeps the raw feel, but suits bigger gigs. He also inspired others to get in on the action.

The best thing about this acoustic/raw trend is a lot of the songs are just put on the web as mp3s. Many of the artists are in other bands as well so they put out these songs because they can. Good for free music.
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Alton Ellis

June 1st 2006 08:16
Alton & Hortense Ellis
Alton Ellis is definitely in my top five when it comes to Jamaican artists. Rocksteady really is my main tickle and with his dominance in this genre, it isn’t surprising I like his music so much.

Ellis was born in 1944 and like many reggae artists grew up in Trenchtown, Kingston. He attended Kingston Senior School with the likes of Slim Smith and Jimmy Riley and began his recording career with Coxsone Dodd doing a duet with Eddie Perkins titled “Muriel”. (sources vary – some say it was in 1959 while others in 61). When ska came along, he’d moved into Duke Reid’s stable and in 1965 recorded the very popular song Dance Crasher. It was with vocal group The Flames, made up of Winston Jarrett and Eggar Gordon. Rocksteady was upon them by 1966 and it really suited the laidback style of Alton Ellis’ voice. He and The Flames recorded one of the most well known rocksteady songs, Girl I’ve Got A Date in 1966 and it led to much success. Ellis would go on to record a sting of songs with Duke Reid at Treasure Isle and back at Coxsone including Cry Tough, Rock Steady, Can I Change My Mind and I’m Just a Guy and Ain’t That Loving You. His peak period also included a tour to England with the Soul Vendors. He also went in a more conscience direction which resulted in songs such as Back to Africa and Lord Deliver Us for Lloyd Daley and Keith Hudson.
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