late 70s 12" reggae

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i'm always looking for this stuff when i peruse the reggae 12" bins, but never really find too much stuff that fits.

i'm thinking of stuff like janet kaye's "silly games" and other stuff produced by dennis bovell (or by him, x/o/dus, and such). or sonia's "i never knew."

any recommendations on good stuff to search out?

― Dan Gr (certain), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

Fits what? I am confused. Are you just looking for 12" or discomixes recommendations from the late 70s? Or are you looking for something more specific (more Lovers Rock kind of stuff)? Everything on this is amazing, but I doubt that the original 12"s are findable for any reasonable price (actually that's true for most of the best 12"s from this period.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

the 12" version of 'the bed's too big without you' by shelia hylton.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

it doesn't have to be lovers rock. but basically dub-reggae (as in originals that are highly dubbed to begin with) that were released as 12" singles. or failing that, things that came to your mind after you read the original description.

― Dan Gr (certain), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 22:32 (nineteen years ago)

What came to mind was:

Search: ALL OF IT

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 22:45 (nineteen years ago)

Read "Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King"

― factcheckr (factcheckr), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

i want that book dammit

― DUMBOCLAAT (eman), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 00:59 (nineteen years ago)

I got mine from Amazon UK

― factcheckr (factcheckr), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 01:07 (nineteen years ago)

actually, I've read the Bradley book a while ago. But I wasn't fishing for Jamaican music recommendations. I'm specifically loking for stuff of the likes that was released as 12"s in the late 70s (/ early 80s).

also, for anyone searching for the book outside of england, it's printed under the name This is Reggae Music (though it still makes references in the text to the title being taken from an LKJ song).

― Dan Gr (certain), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

i'm thinking of stuff like janet kaye's "silly games"

I heard that in a club the other day and it sounded incredible. That top note!

I don't really know how to answer your question, though. Sorry.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

it doesn't have to be lovers rock. but basically dub-reggae

But I wasn't fishing for Jamaican music recommendations

???????????

― am0n (am0n), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah this thread is confusing me too.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

yeah. what I meant was, say you started a thread asking for late 60s rock music from detroit and someone responded with, "read this book about the 1960s" --- it doesn't exactly target what you were asking for. I said I was looking for reggae music meant to be 12" singles released in the late 70s and someone replied with a book which, while it mentions a couple of songs that fit the bill, is a book on the entirety of Jamaican music from the 50s on through to the early 80s.

so, as I said, I didn't say, "Name me some Jamaican music," I was asking for something more specific.

― Dan Gr (certain), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

I got mine from Amazon UK

-- factcheckr (factcheck...), September 26th, 2006 10:07 PM. (factcheckr)

almost bought it there but decided to check the library first. no dice, but i did pick up a book called "this is reggae music". but wait, turns out it's the same book under a different title. i think "bass culture" is the uk pressing.

― am0n (am0n), Friday, 29 September 2006 01:36 (nineteen years ago)

I think I know what you mean. I'm also looking for Reggae that takes a deeper, dubbier, slightly digital sound to it from maybe the late 70s.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Friday, 29 September 2006 09:35 (nineteen years ago)

DL you might give the comp of Hitbound stuff "When The Dances Were Changing" a try. It came out on Pressure Sounds a few years back and sits somewhere near the cusp of roots and dancehall. The problem with what you're looking for is that the move to digital generally went hand-in-hand with a move away from deeper and dubbier. That means I'm having trouble working out what you want to hear: have you come across any examples of kind of thing you want? Maybe you mean things like "Here I Come" by Barrington Levy? I'm not sure.)

(Not much digital business from the late 70s at all, though Perry was starting to use drum machines as texture a bit more in the v late 70s, there's a good comp of discomixes called "Turn And Fire" which I was enjoying the other night, largely dubs from "War Ina Babylon" and "Party Time", I'm sure its contents have been re-anthologised many times, but I'm too old and grumpy to keep up with the stream of Perry reissues.)

Apols if you know all of the above already.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 29 September 2006 10:01 (nineteen years ago)

As for the original question, my answer is much the same as Alex in SF's: unless you've large piles of money to spend, or are very lucky indeed, then fishing in the 12" bins for late 70s reggae is a fairly fruitless task these days.

The question continues to boggle my mind slightly because of the specific nature of the 12" request: most dub versions were made for 12" as I understand. So my recommendation is to spend a fraction of the cost on buying some dub / discomix compilations. Again, this is so obvious that you know it already.

The best Bovell production on 12" in my house is the 12" cut of "A Little Way Different" by Errol Dunkley on Arawak. NB: ED cut this tune at least twice, probably more times, so locating the version of this I like so much is probably a risky business.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 29 September 2006 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

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