Ska and Reggae Record Store Day 2021 Releases of Note: Jerry Dammers, Desmond Dekker, LKJ, Madness, The Selecter, Blue Beat, Jump Up, Studio One, and More!

As always, the Record Store Day offerings for ska and reggae fans in the UK are simply better and more plentiful that they are in the US. And with the insane cost of shipping LPs from the UK to the US these days, even if you are able to track down a UK-only RSD release you want for more that you want to spend, you're going to get absolutely killed by postage.

The only bright spots for US fans are domestic releases from The Selecter, Desmond Dekker, and two Soul Jazz Studio One compilations.

Please note that Drop 1 is on June 12 and Drop 2 is on July 17.

Blackbeard (Dennis Bovell): I Wah Dub (LP, PLG, UK only, Drop 1)

Joseph Cotton, Winston Reedy, Barry Isaacs, Vin Gordon: Kiki Kiki EP (7" single, Room in the Sky Records, UK only, Drop 1)

Jerry Dammers: At The Home Organ: Demos 1980-82 "Ghost Town (Original Demo) b/w "Theme from The Boiler" (10" single, 2 Tone/Chrysalis, UK only, Drop 2) These two previously unreleased tracks are Jerry’s home recordings made on cassette in 1980/1982. This is a rare glimpse into his working practice, including The Specials' most famous recording "Ghost Town," which celebrates its 40th Anniversary in July this year (and is being reissued by 2 Tone in both 7" and 12" formats).

Desmond Dekker: The King of Ska Live at Dingwalls (2xLP, Burning Sound, UK only, Drop 1)

Desmond Dekker: King Of Ska - The Ska Singles Collection (10 x 7” box set, BMG/Trojan, US & UK, Drop 1)

George Dekker: "Run Dem" b/w "Foey Man" (7" single, G.D. Records, UK only, Drop 1)

George Dekker & The Inn House Crew: "Nana" (7" single, Room In The Sky Records, UK only, Drop 1)

Jah Floyd: "20 Years Inna Leaky Boat" (7" single, Jamaican Recordings, UK only, Drop 1)

Owen Gray: Sings (LP, Burning Sound, UK only, Drop 1)

Linton Kwesi Johnson: Making History (Color vinyl LP, UMC, UK only, Drop 1)

Jump Up Records: Chuck Wren is releasing four LPs for RSD: Bim Skala Bim's new album Sonic Tonic; a reissue of The Skatalites' Bashaka; an anthology from Skanking Lizard; and the first-ever vinyl edition of The Scofflaws' fantastic debut album originally released on Moon Records in 1991!

Madness: I Do Like To Be B-Side The A-Side Vol 2 (LP, BMG, UK only, Drop 1)

Freddie McGregor: "Never Run Away" (12", Greensleeves, UK only, Drop 1)

Mungo's Hi Fi: Antidote (LP, Scotch Bonnet Records, UK only, Drop 1)

Lee "Scratch" Perry: Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread (LP, VP Records, US & UK, Drop 1)

The Selecter: Live In Coventry ’79 (Clear vinyl LP, 2 Tone/Chrysalis, US & UK, Drop 1) This is the vinyl version of the live concert included in the forthcoming 3xCD reissue of Too Much Pressure. Read about this concert and this reissue here.

Millie Small: "My Boy Lollipop"/"Something's Gotta Be Done"/"Don't You Know It"/"Until You're Mine" (7" Island/UMC, UK only, Drop 2)

Toots & The Maytals: Funky Kingston (LP, Get On Down, US & UK, Drop 1)

Various Artists: Legends of Blue Beat: The Blue Beat Label (LP, Blue Beat Records, UK, Drop 2)

Various Artists: Soul Jazz Records Presents Studio One Ska Fire! (5 x 7" box set, Soul Jazz Records, US & UK, Drop 2)

A: Bob Marley and The Wailers – "Rude Boy"
AA: Derrick Morgan – "It’s Alright"

A: Don Drummond – "Don D Special"
AA: The Maytals – "A Man Who Knows"

A: The Skatalites – "Something Special"
AA: Lee Perry – "Open Up (aka Cook Book)"

A: The Regals – "Shammy Back"
AA: Bob Marley and The Wailers – "Diamond Baby"

A: Jackie Opel – "The Mill Man"
AA: Ethiopians – "I Am Free"

Various Artists: Studio One Soul (2 x LP, Soul Jazz Records, US & UK, Drop 2)

Wailers & U-ROY: My Cup Runneth Over (LP, Tsosume Records, UK only Drop 2)

Wailing Souls: Wailing (2 x LP, 17 North Parade, US & UK, Drop 2)

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Updated 4/8/2021.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Big Youth and George Dekker "Everything Crash"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

"Everything Crash" is the fantastic second single released in advance of Prince Fatty's forthcoming In the Viper's Shadow album, which will be issued on October 4, 2019 and can be pre-ordered now (the first single off this record was "Get Ready," which we reviewed here). This track, of course, is a cover of The Ethiopians' 1969 hit (inspired by public worker strikes during an economic crisis in JA in '68: "Firemen strike/Water men strike/Telephone company, too/Down to the policemen, too...What gone bad a-morning/Can't come good a-evening, whoa/Every day carry bucket to the well/One day the bottom must drop out"), but in this version--featuring the always brilliant Big Youth and wonderfully mellifluous George Dekker (The Pioneers)--the concern is about global environmental collapse due to humanity's incredibly poor stewardship/outright abuse of the planet. Big Youth impassionedly chats: "People need to take a check and look at what we do/Take a likkle stop and look at what we do/Leaders of government/Leaders of war...We need to take of our nuclear waste/We need to find a better place/Global reasoning/This is global argument/There's so much emission in the air..." (he goes on to decry fluoride in the water, though that seems pretty low on the list of extraordinary damage we've done to the land, air, and other living things, but his point is still well-taken--the water's not pure and clean). With this track, Prince Fatty, George Dekker, and Big Youth have created an "Armagideon Time" of sorts for our man-made global warming Anthropocene era. As always, this is a top Prince Fatty production and signals just how great his In the Viper's Shadow is likely to be...

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Big Youth and George Dekker "Get Ready" b/w "Get Ready Dub"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Prince Fatty featuring Big Youth and George Dekker "Get Ready" b/w "Get Ready Dub" (7" vinyl single/digital, Evergreen Recordings, 2019): This extraordinary 1966 Smokey Robinson-penned and produced track for The Temptations--one of the defining songs of the 1960s (and for Motown)--has a brilliant, menacing edge to the bass and horn lines that belies the subtext to the chorus, "Get ready, 'cause here I come," which (apart from the double-entendre) was clearly a message of black empowerment and support for the civil rights movement (and probably a nod to Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" of a year earlier). The white radio and TV powers that be--and many white teenage Motown fans--took the love song lyrics at face value (and for most of the '60s, Motown head Berry Gordy didn't want any overtly controversial lyrics getting in the way of record sales), but there was another nation of receptive ears receiving the signal loud and clear. Prince Fatty's take on this soul classic (which follows recent covers of Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" and William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful for What You've Got") with the amazing George Dekker singing Eddie Kendrick's falsetto lead and Big Youth augmenting it all with his head-over-heels DJ chatting ("Maybe we could settle down/If you have children/I've got some/But we could have some more...10 to 10/This love will never really end/10 to 10/You'll never fall in love again") presents it as a straight-up love song--and he gives it the usual, fantastic Prince Fatty production. But given the times, perhaps it would have been even better if Big Youth had emphasized the hidden anti-racist aspect of the original and chatted about combating white supremacy to make the world a better place for his woman and kids...

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Duff Review: "Prince Fatty vs. Mungo's Hi-Fi"

Mr. Bongo Records
LP/CD (several tracks released as 7" singles, too)
2014

(Review by Steve Shafer)

If you're wondering whether or not to pick up the new Prince Fatty vs. Mungo's Hi-Fi soundclash album featuring what have to be the two best reggae producers/collectives/sound systems today, it's a no-brainer--this is unquestionably one of the top reggae releases of 2014. Yes, all of the songs from both crews have been previously released--but the raw material used here is incredibly good (Mungo's Hi-Fi tracks come from their albums Sound System Champions from 2008 and their Forward Ever from 2011 and feature Sugar Minott, Top Cat, Soom T and Marina P, while the Prince Fatty cuts are from various releases featuring Hollie Cook, Winston Francis, Horseman, and The Pioneers' George Dekker--most notably Cook's debut album, Prince Fatty's Supersize, and Prince Fatty Versus the Drunken Gambler) and what each producer does with their allotment of tracks is nothing short of phenomenal.

The brilliant twist here is that Prince Fatty and Mungo's Hi-Fi have versioned each other's songs in their own particular style--and both, in many ways, have improved upon (and not merely re-fashioned) the other's work. I'm a bit embarrassed not to know the Scottish (!) sound system Mungo's Hi-Fi better; I had to look up samples of the original tracks in order to be able to compare them to Prince Fatty's versions. But, I discovered that the Mungo's Hi-Fi source tracks vary between loose, late-70s roots reggae to early, computer-y dancehall. In Prince Fatty's hands, everything is tightened and revved-up, and given a full, rich, warm aural sheen. I particularly liked Prince Fatty's versions of "Herbalist" (with Top Cat), "Scrub a Dub Style" (with the great, late Sugar Minott and Horseman), and "Under Arrest" (with MC Ishu)--which features the terrific lyric, "Hands up a Babylon/You're under arrest!/Selassie are ya victim/Haile Haile the best!" that turn these driving-while-black/stop-and-frisk times on their head.

Mungo's Hi-Fi take Prince Fatty's highly polished tracks and bring them back to the future of early 80s Prince Jammy-style dancehall. Since I'm very familiar with all of the Prince Fatty songs here, I particularly appreciate and love their transformation via Mungo's Hi-Fi imagination in the control room. Hollie Cook's haunting "Sugar Water" (one of my favorite songs ever) now floats above a fantastic propulsive bass and drum track, George Dekker's "Say What You're Saying" sports these Inspector Gadget-like keyboard lines, and Winston Francis' "Dry Your Tears," and Horseman's "Horsemove" receive equally as cool and inventive treatments.

Fans of both Prince Fatty and Mungo's Hi-Fi are really going to dig this album--but even if you've never heard a track from either group, this is an essential purchase for all fans of ska, roots reggae, dub, and dancehall.

If we're lucky, the gods of music will permit/facilitate another collaboration like this between Prince Fatty and Mungo's Hi-Fi in the near future...

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Duff Review: Hollie Cook "Hollie Cook"

Mr. Bongo Records
2011
CD and LP

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Hollie Cook has branded her compelling mix of roots reggae and Sade-like, chanteuse-styled vocals (a contrast in styles that works brilliantly here) as "tropical pop." While this label connotes images of sculpted and curvy young bodies cavorting alongside crystalline Caribbean waters (and helps her to avoid having this album shunted solely to the reggae section of iTunes, the record shop, and radio playlists), the oftentimes gorgeous music and lyrics reflect a far less happy place--with lovers using, isolated from, betraying, and (psychologically) maiming each other.

Cook's producer/collaborator/co-songwriter Prince Fatty has done a superb job of creating a warm, confident, golden-era-of-the-70s reggae sound that plays extraordinarily well off Cook's modern pop vocals (and what a pure, ethereal instrument she's got) on her nine-track debut. The rotating backing band is consistently spot-on, with guest artists like guitarist Dennis Bovell (Linton Kwesi Johnson) and singer George Dekker (Pioneers) raising the level of quality even higher.

The album leads off with two tracks that comprise her excellent first single (reviewed by The Duff Guide to Ska here). "Milk and Honey" is about someone so removed from life--aware of everything going on, but disdainful of and unable to take any joy in it: "Every day/in the morning paper you/You got the News of the World/You're gonna make them change/It’s time to laugh all alone in your room/If only you could shine through the darkness." And the only path to salvation/deliverance (milk and honey are fruits of the promised land, after all) is to "taste" life again--to choose to live, not merely exist. "That Very Night" may remind one a bit of a Specials AKA In the Studio-type reggae excursion (where Dammers delved into alienation, madness, betrayal, addiction, and agoraphobia)--particularly Hollie's detached and disaffected vocal delivery (think Terry Hall) as she sings, "You are the perfect boy/for my brand new number/I have bought the purse/and the spring time flowers...all around, oh/You'll be a charming boy/not like my previous one/'Cause he disappeared and left me all alone/with my frozen heart...oh." The track is shimmeringly, nite club gorgeous, but could never mask the emptiness and pain of "going through the motions" evident at the core of Cook's vocals.

The cover of The Shangri-las' "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" is even more haunted and lonely in this reggay-fied version and, of course, recounts the shell-shocked devastation ("Oh, what will happen to/the light I gave to you/What will I do with it now?") at receiving a "Dear Jenny" letter after the singer's boyfriend went overseas (to war?). The protagonist of "Sugar Water (Look at My Face)" has been so damaged by her relationship with a lover that it's almost as if her very body chemistry has been monstrously transformed: "Look at my face/look what your charm has done to me/and the sugar water runs through my veins/it's really so odd...sweet darling, is it night or day?/Can you say my name?/Can't you see I'm losing my head because of you?" The spectacularly deep and dubby bass line of the track plods along, as if reflecting the singer's stumbling around in a daze, as she loses her grip on reality. It's a chilling song--one can almost imagine the inevitable and furious revenge to be visited upon the guy who messed with her.

"Shadow Kissing" starts out with "That Very Night's" eerie organ line, but then blossoms into a wonderfully different version of this cut with some lovely, evocative imagery: "I'm shadow kissing you/on my balcony/A serenade from you/echoes in the street...Oh, we know we're magical/I hear your thoughts/and you read mine." You can hear the longing and ache in her singing due to their inability to directly, physically connect, but it's like the very air they share transmits their feelings and touch.

In a way, the perfect, glowing reggae-pop of "Body Beat" (which may remind one--in a good way--of Scritti Politti's "Word Girl" off Cupid & Psyche '85) resolves all the conflict, tension, and misery that precedes it, both in sound and content. The errant lover has returned (for a duet with Horseman, whose toasting is excellent throughout the LP) back where she belongs, but doesn't regret the journey: "It's been so long since I've been home/(I've been missing you from the start!)/My body beats and I'm feeling raw/Too many places I have gone (Where?)/Playing the game/Scoring my name/It couldn't have been so wrong..."

Hollie Cook's album should go over very big with ska and reggae fans--but also could have massive appeal to the more pop-oriented or alternative scenes, which as of late seem to be much more receptive at least to reggae-hybrid artists (Santogold, MIA, etc.). If any new reggae record this year deserves to be heard and loved by a lot of people, it's this one.

Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A