Studio 1 Jamaica Vinyl & CDs

Review: Alton Ellis is known as the Godfather of Rocksteady and has put out several key albums such as Mr Soul Of Jamaica from 1967. The genre innovator has the smoothest of smooth voices and shows that again on Sings Rock & Soul, which is actually heavy on the soul and light on the rock. This limited edition reissue on Studio 1 sounds superb and all of the 12 tracks are gorgeous things with unhurried reggae rhythms and his soaring vocals backed by sympathetic guitar riffs and neat chords.

Review: Twelve originals from Lone Ranger aka. Anthony Waldron, the Jamaican reggae DJ, first released in 1982. His sixth album, but nonetheless his first to be released on the reggae label Studio One (now reissued on the same label), this is a star piece of early Afrofuturist dub, equivocating badness behind the mics and tape delays with a Cold War-style space race. From 'Automatic' to 'Three Mile Shank', Lone Ranger guides us into the great cosmic vacuum for a meticulous blastoff.

Review: 'From The Vaults' are fresh collections of dub versions of classic reggae songs from the legendary Jamaican label Studio One, reissued for the present day. In some fashion, be it production or oversight, Studio One founder Clement "Coxsone" Dodd was surely behind these gems and curios, most of which carry the enduring weight and force of history into the present era. Twelve sweet classics play out across the album's two yellow sides, cycling through the vocal and instrumental incantations of Alton Ellis, The Saints, Jennifer Lara, and Marcia Griffiths, and all are mixed with heavy, yet sweetly raw, frequency balance. Soundboys need hardly tweak a knob.

Review: Studio One keep the wheels turning with their third and latest instalment of the 'From The Vaults' series, spanning the insightful gamut of their most esteemed artistic retainers over the years; be they The Royals, Marcia Griffiths, Alton Ellis, or Count Ossie and his very own Sound Dimension. Classics as they come, the tracks on this LP are both cute and heavy, primed for lovers and system-huggers alike. As should be indicated by the title 'From The Vaults', it's clear Studio One sit on a historic treasure trove of archival recordings in dub and reggae; to sit around twiddling one's thumbs and to not release them in a format such as this, would be a crime against humanity. God's work!