STUDIO ONE

The golden oldies of Studio One... that is if I don't get endlessly interrupted tomorrow like I did today! Lawyers calling (good) metal scrapers (good) and my seventeen year old daughter with prom dress fittings (very bad!)

CE'CILE!

Why I listen to CE’CILE?

The long lost original BAD GYAL version.

 I’ll start with a biological reason. 

My male of the species DNA consists of both the X and Y chromosome, so when I catch a glimpse of her irresistible double X chromosomes, I turn caveman. 

Basically one part of my brain turns to cerebral mush while the suppressed primal animal takes control.

The E.P. that left everybody wanting more!

The non-scientific explanation… she makes fucking great music. It’s that simple.

Her music is aural pheromones. It shimmies across the dance floor in impossible high heels. CE'CILE is ladies room girlfriend consul between hot gyals fixing their lipstick in the mirror. She is dirty minded and full bodied as CRISTAL CHAMPAGNE. She is bubbly pillow talk with a playful bite.  She is everything feminine without the motherly instinct. 

A delicious photo session packed version from Kingstone Records!

She pleads alluringly if she's WORTH IT? 

Sure six of the big tunes here are shared between all three releases. I know she's worth it because I've bought both the BADGYAL and the WAITING versions and I don't feel ripped off! Somehow these disc play as very different affairs.

The no-expense spared version from SoBe Entertainment. 2008

I feel like I'm cheating on mi LADY SAW!

ACHIS

The online reggae encyclopedia known as ACHIS is under the impression that he is going to retire his very necessary blog by next year. Apparently, ACHIS is unaware that his massive readership is not gonna let the happen. Even if I personally have to chain him to his computer's keypad...so be it! Hey, I'll put out a fresh bowl of water every day for ya! I'm not inhumane ya know. 

No seriously, this void of flowing information will form an insidious black hole deep within the Internet universe. We may never find balance. 

Now I lost count after reading only 42,000,000 reggae reviews that he's written and generously posted. Don't believe me about those review numbers? 

Besides his BLOG check his AMAZON "page" for proof. AMAZON are the Internet universes biggest entity and ACHIS'S reviews take up more than half their carbon footprint! What writer in his right mind wants to follow in those shoes? My own BLOG wears a smallish size 9 PUMA. 

Yep out of all the endless reviews ACHIS has written, I guess I'll allow him one mistake! RICHIE SPICE'S "IN THE STREETS OF AFRICA" ranked a 2.5 out of 5. That means it is 50% bad. Are ya laces tied too tight? 

STATE OF REGGAE ADDRESS

The start of a DYNASTY.

Brethren Marley

I'm not gonna knock Borders and not because they're financially falling down, but because I've pulled some hard to find selections from their music bins. I was curious to see what Reggae was in stock. 


Rasta and Reggae ambassador to the world Bob Marley was present and accounted for with Survival. 

Not perfect but damn close.

Bob's eldest son Ziggy was represented by his breezy reggae-ish Dragonfly disc. Not crucial stuff but good lazy summer in the sun vibes all around. 

Stephen had his massively persuasive Mind Control. After standing in the shadow of his siblings as their producer, STEPHEN finally steps into the solo spot-lite with a blazing entrance.

More of this please.

When this record came out I had it spinning in circles everyday for almost two seasons. I still play parts of it to death. I'll never get sick of the mighty THE TRAFFIC JAM tune. 


 Brethren Ziggy and Stephen show up again with older sistren Cedella and Sharon as the Melody Makers. A best of set. Very 80's styles aimed at a world audience. It was working until everybody grew up! I vaguely remember catching dem MARLEY youth live. Hey, those were hazy times! 

Black sheep of the family, Kymani's Many More Roads was stocked. (Read his book for an explanation on that.)

Does the Marley legacy justice. Strong record.

A copy of youngest son Damian's mature masterpiece Welcome to Jamrock was hiding behind it.

Perfect.

WELCOME TO JAMROCK is my most listened too record of the entire MARLEY family. That includes family patriarch BOB. Kymani's RADIO is close second.


Okay...


BUT where the Hell is Julian? 

"Is anybody looking for me?"

Sadly, I've never seen or heard a full disc of his stuff. Alright he does lay down some guest vocals on Stephen's IRON BARS.


None of mom Rita was shelved either. That was their entire REGGAE selection! Usually, there is at least some PETER TOSH or MATISYAHU avialable. Definitely always a TOOTS disc. If there were any more, it was hiding behind the massive rack of the latest Black Eyed Peas.

ALPHEUS from CREATION

Fueled by imagination.

Science fiction writers have been going back and forth in these "vehicles" for generations. Hundreds of fantastic stories have taken place because of this contraption. In the real world Einstein suggested at it's theoretical existence. He published papers hoping that someday technology will play catch up to his "blueprints." 


 It has. What the hell am I babbling on about?  I'm talking about a time machine folks.  And it has arrived with this here disc! 

Proof that time is flexible!

Producer and musician, ROBERTO SANCHEZ, from northern Spain stuffed singer ALPHEUS into a time machine. And then loaded the entire LONE ARK RIDDIM FORCE band along with tons of today's state of the art recording gadgets. Must of been tight in there. And then ROBERTO spun the dial to mid 1968. They created the freshest batch of heart felt ROCKSTEADY since ALTON ELLIS'S heyday. And to keep things from getting too sleepy, they perked up the other half of the tunes with a percolating SKA shuffle. These beats are haunted by ghosts of horn greats TOMMY McCOOK and DON DRUMMOND! This is the genuine stuff. Not that rock-n-roll junk with a horn section. Along with COURTNEY JOHN'S latest flashback, I like this "new" trend. 

I guess the Grammy organization after ignoring JAMAICA'S massive contribution to music, is trying to right it's past wrongs. They started to include reggae in 1985. BLACK UHURU'S 1984 ANTHEM took the statue home. They're self admitted weakest inna brilliant run. Slightly weaker.

ALPHEUS. Making history by repeating it.

So they are nominating artists that have no or little importance to the current pulse. Proof needed? Out of all the acts of genius, Lee Scratch Perry, has committed to reggae history, they included the ramblings of a self medicated damaged soul. His current records are for the morbid curiosity seekers. Do not get me wrong, Scratch should have dozens of the award statue decorating his studio. One for the Dubs of the Blackboard Jungle, another one for the Super Ape series, another one for the Heart of the Congo, another one for Junior Murvin's Police and Thieves and so on and so on. But to place his latest releases against the work of young talent creatively peeking is ludicrous. 

A token for mediocrity.

What has this got to do with ALPHEUS'S brilliant follow up to Special Delivery's EVERYTHING FOR A REASON. Umm, nothing, I just never got a chance to foul mouth that music organization.

Should this disc win next years Grammy's? No this disc should clean sweep the Grammy's in 1969!

RASTA GOT GUILTY VERDICT...

BUJU... whether guilty or innocent; whether you believe him or not...he's been a victim of character assassination.


 Those close to him are explaining that BUJU likes to talk a lot of shit. Whirlwinds of bravado. RASTA GOT COKE?  Government agents have proof of BUJU sampling the merchandise. All my friends that claimed that he jumped to the RASTA way of life as merely a business decision said, "see...I told ya so!" 


In essence that claim is bull. Why? Several big names making even bigger entertainment dollars like Elephant Man or Sean Paul make no association with RASTA ideologies. So RASTA doesn't equal FAME and MONEY. Now that's a foolish accusation!

Those same friends also claim that SIZZLA is faking it! Huh? We know he was raised into the faith by Rastafarian parents! 

Before the world got all PC on us, there was a young thug from Salt Lane Kingston working the mic. Back when Mark Anthony Myrie, Buju's real name, was hungry for woman, hungry for dollars and hungry for everything that success brought with it. Working the mic became a means to survival. Working that mic was a means to escape from further ghetto suffrage. 

To be enjoyed at face value. BUJU doesn't hide behind any false pretenses here. In 1992 the teen aged BUJU is openly homophobic, he is braggingly misogynistic and BUJU is performing his real self here. That self? A hormone driven youth possibly facing a future he was told that as a poor BLACK MAN he would never have. Arguably, environment plays a large part in shaping his lyrical content...so spin this disc as an Anthropological experience. It provides a valuable peek into places to dark for the sun to shine. Do I agree with him? No, but personally I do believe the RASTA GOT SOUL. Hell, there is a lot of shit about my own youth I'm not proud of! 

Life, image and doing business in BABYLON caught up to him. Remember folks we are all human first and pious secondly. 

Will this guilty verdict destroy BUJU'S career? Sure gigs and sales may be immediately affected, but the big picture could tell a different story. Check the legends of folk heros like HUDDIE WILLIAM  "LEAD BELLY", JOHNNY CASH and MERLE HAGGARD. A few years from now, you'll be able to add LIL WAYNE'S name to that list. 

Coke and Bobo don't mix but BUJU and PENTHOUSE RECORDS were meant for each other. I can't get enough of it!

SCIENTIST DISCOVERS CRUEL BUSINESS WORLD

It is acknowledged that SCIENTIST'S (real name Overton or Hopeton Brown depending on the source) best work was released on the GREENSLEEVES record label all throughout the 1980's. After a quick Internet search, all these albums/discs are long gone. Out of print and fetching hefty sums. Even the MP3 format has been lost in circulation. How can you sell out of a digital copy? Are GREENSLEEVES waiting to remaster them again and then box 'em up affordable like they did with their essential 5 box sets of the EVOLUTION of DUB series (20 discs total!) 

Or could it be because of a more human trait...the deadly sin of greed. SCIENTIST had some lawsuit trouble with some tunes used in Grand Theft Auto. Mostly...he didn't receive one royalty penny for his work. SCIENTIST went before an American Court and pleaded his case to a Judge and Jury of deaf ears. Nobody could understand how he had claim to the cash if he didn't play any instruments or sing any vocals on the records. Or that he didn't pay for the sessions that produced the tunes or spot the funds for the records release. What he did explain is... what cunning genius it takes to cut a DUB album. The manipulation of backing tracks. The remixing or in most cases the removing of vocals.  He explained how all the recorded sounds channel through his mixing console and how he has complete creative control over the finished tracks. He explained how the studio is really his musical laboratory. Nope, nobody got it. He argued that for nothing else, these tunes were sold and marketed under SCIENTIST'S good name and reputation. The album covers have his name printed in big bold letters. SCIENTIST lost. 

Used on Amazon starting at $62

The court ruled...that a record engineer/mixer is not the author of a musical work. Producer Henry Junjo Lawes as the copyright holder gets all the proceeds. And I'm sure a few pennies get pinched by the record label.

2 used copies starting at $49 on Amazon

I'm seriously hoping that the bad blood is washed away and everybody concerned is getting down to re-releasing these tunes to a new generation. 

Amazon has the disc selling for $99

Four releases just begging to be boxed up in one convenient set. Is anybody listening? Hey you in the accounting office...make the numbers happen.

Amazon has it listed new for $151.58!!!

Umm...sadly JUNJO LAWES is no longer around to defend his side of the story. On June 13th 1999 in London he was gunned down in the street.