Wackie's US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Veteran Wackie's artist and reggae don Coozie Mellers returns with a fresh ten-track long player that bridges the label's deep roots heritage with modern reggae sensibilities. It blends crisp digital rhythms with heartfelt lovers' rock and roots textures and features the standout track 'You Move', which was previously released as a 10" single in 2015. Mellers' vocals are beautifully soulful and glide over the smart dubwise arrangements and bring a mix of both warmth and grit, with jams like 'Special Friend' unfurling slowly and seductively and 'Your Love Is Dangerous' being sentimental heart swellers.

Review: Wackies impress upon us their latest compilation; this time, it's another (sixth) edition added to their Jah Children Invasion series, which charts the critical juncture at which dub reggae shifted from live-drummed beats and into drum-machine led, steppers' embraces. The result was a welcoming of 8-bit themes and pixelations, leading to the infamous coinage, digidub. Jah Children Invasion harks back to this not-so-small step for mankind, compiling scene contributions from such legends as Horace Andy ('Drop Off'), Jackie Mittoo ('Majority Rule'), Milton Henry ('Now You See The Scene'), and Chris Wayne ('Streets Of Africa'). The resulting sound is not one of total fascination with the 'digi' aspect of the sound, but a prototypical, melting-pot point at which the leap into increasingly sequenced progressions lent dub a cruder, but more driven development of the sound. A sonic Faustian bargain with a machinic devil, if you will.