Doctor Bird Vinyl & CDs

Review: Although he first entered a recording studio in the late 1960s, it wasn't until 1973, and the release of the Alvin 'G.G' Ranglin-produced single 'Love Is Overdue' that Gregory Isaacs career started to take off. The success of that record persuaded Ranglin to record an entire album with Isaacs, In Person, which became the now legendary reggae singer's debut full-length. This expanded edition of the album presents the album on disc one, alongside alternative dub versions and other singles Isaacs recorded with Ranglin during the period. Disc two, meanwhile, offers a celebration of Ranglin's other works of 1973 and '74 - Jamaican hit singles (and their corresponding dubs) which are largely lesser-known outside the Caribbean.

Review: While not as celebrated as some of his Jamaican contemporaries, Winston Holness AKA Niney The Observer was a hugely successful record producer. This excellent two-disc set does an excellent job in rounding up the best of his output between 1973 and '75, a period where he enjoyed countless hits at home and over in the UK. There's naturally plenty of goodness to be found amongst the 49 tracks on show, with cuts featuring now well-known Jamaican scene stars - think Junior Delgado, Delroy Wilson, Big Youth, Max Romeo, Junior Byles, Horace Andy, U-Roy and ska survivor Tommy McCook - being joined by more dubbed-out 'versions' (credited to his studio band The Observers') and local hits by artists whose fame rarely spread beyond the Caribbean (Winston Wright, Hubert Lee, Earth & Stone). In an indispensable introduction to one of Jamaica's finest producers of the 1970s.