CHOOSE AN ALBUM Aswad / Live and Direct Anthony B / That's Life Beenie Man / Many Moods of Moses Beenie Man / Art and Life Buju Banton / The Early Years Buju Banton / Inna Heights Buju Banton / Til Shiloh Capleton / More Fire Capleton / Still Blazin Cocoa Tea / Feel the Power Cocoa Tea / RAS portraits Culture / One Stone Culture / Payday Junior Kelly / Love so Nice John Holt / Police in Helicopter Gregory Isaacs / Private Lesson Diana King / Think like a Girl Barrington Levy / Duets Barrington Levy / Englishman/Robinhood Little John / Give the Youth a try Luciano / Messenger Bob Marley / Songs of Freedom Bob Marley&the Wailers/Complete Wailers I Bob Marley&the Wailers/Complete Wailers II The Marley Family Album Max Romeo & The Upsetters/War Ina Babylon Pablo Moses / In the Future & Dub Nicodemus / Dancehall Giant Ernest Ranglin / In Search of the Lost Riddim Augustus Pablo / This is... Augustus Pablo The Skatalites / Ball of Fire Sizzla / Be I Strong Steel Pulse Sound System/Island Anthology Strictly the Best Volume 27 & 28 Sugar Minot / Collector's Collection, Volume I Ron Taylor / Ethiopian Kings Tenor Saw / Fever Trinity / Shanty Town Determination Peter Tosh / Honorary Citizen Yabby You / Jesus Dread COMPILATIONS Essential Dancehall Reggae Jam Down Vibrations Joy Ride Reggae Songbirds

ARTIST: Various
TITLE: Essential Dancehall Reggae: 16 Boom Sounds from the UK's Premier Artists
LABEL: Music Club
PRODUCERS: Chris Lane and John MacGillivray
RELEASED: 1998

I've often been fascinated by the geographical differences found in reggae: how African reggae has its polyrhythmic worldbeat tendencies; or how American reggae tends to either be overly fixated with Bob Marley or else heavily cross-pollinated with other genres of music, like hip hop or pop, that remove the best parts of Jamaican music. But British reggae is different in that it most closely captures the essence of true Jamaican reggae. Probably because Jamaican artists were scoring hits in the UK all the way back to the mid-60s, or else because of the enormous West Indian population in England, UK reggae has usually managed to not only stand tall alongside its Jamaican cousin, but even in a few cases surpass it for originality, quality and just pure drum and bass thump. Sure, groups like Steel Pulse and Aswad stretched the music in new directions in the 70s, and ska was saved by bands like The English Beat, The Specials, Madness and The Selector. But it was Fashion Records, England's premier independent reggae label, that released the most important UK reggae beginning in the early 80s and continuing to the present day.

ESSENTIAL DANCEHALL REGGAE is a primer on this inventive label, starting with some of its earliest hits from artists like Smiley Culture, Pato Banton and Macka B, and continuing all the way to the present with jungle tracks from Starkey Banton and Tenor Fly.

Fashion's founders, Chris Lane and John MacGillivray, started out by cutting tracks with some of the fast talking deejays from Saxon Sound Studio International like Papa Levi, Tippa Irie and Smiley Culture. Yet the label constantly changed up and kept with the times, often working directly with Jamaican artists and producers to keep the sound as innovative and authentic as possible. The British productions of the label often featured the musical expertise of Aswad's Drummie Zeb and Gad Robinson and Mafia & Fluxy, as well as excellent engineering by Gussie P and Frenchie. Many of their records featured original production by Donovan Germaine, who would cut the track in Jamaica and then send it to England for a Fashion mix. All of these talents involved combined nicely to create a lasting series of records.

Smiley Culture's "Police Officer" leads off the disc with its witty tale of Smiley being stopped by the cops and using his fame to get him out of a ticket. "Bible Reader" allows Macka B to flex his strong lyrical muscle, running through every book of the old and new testament in what seems like one breath. Nerious Joseph is one of the few singers represented here and his "Sensi Crisis" is a hidden gem, describing the sort of crisis all smokers dread. Papa San, normally chatting at twice the speed, slows things down a bit and runs through the history of "DJ Business" in just over six minutes time. Daddy Freddy and Cutty Ranks each voice high quality dancehall tracks in an early 90s style-Cutty's tune successfully paraphrases elements of Terror Fabulous' "Action" riddim. Frankie Paul supplies one of his stronger tunes of the 90s ("Cool Yah") over a track created by Sly Dunbar and Leroy Mafia.

The end of the disc features jungle-based tracks, as Fashion continued to stay on top of changing musical trends in England. I find these to be less interesting than the dancehall oriented material. Starkey Banton's "Jungle Bungle" is a fascinating juxtaposition in that it attacks jungle music ("One bag of noise and a whole heap a sample/That's something my ear holes can't handle") over a decidedly jungle riddim. Tenor Fly's "Don't Dis The Jungle" uses the same track to defend the new musical form against its traditionalist reggae detractors.

While ESSENTIAL DANCEHALL may not quite live up to its title-I reserve "essential" to describe Junjo productions, Tenor Saw, Shabba Ranks and a few other select cuts from the era-it is nonetheless an excellent and entertaining compilation deserving of a place on your CD shelf. This is hopefully the start of a two- or three-part series, as I'm sure there is still a great deal of good British reggae in Fashion's vaults that most Americans have yet to hear. Some of my favorite Fashion tracks (like Smiley Culture's "Cockney Translation" and Pato Banton's "Allo Tosh") are missing from this retrospective and will hopefully show up on future volumes. For the moment though, this compilation will do to educate audiences to the pleasures of reggae from the Queen's country.

NOTE: The liner notes for this disc were written by San Diego area DJ and critic Roberto Angotti, who does a great job of explaining the complexities of Fashion Records' history. His expanded liner notes can be found on the internet at http://www.musicclub.com/dancehall.htm. These notes include song by song information that is indispensable to serious listeners.

By Lem

Personnel: Chris Lane, Jazwad, Annie Whitehead, Tim Sanders, Barbara Snow, Al Deval, Roddy Lorimer, Sly & Robbie, Mafia & Fluxy, Drummie Zeb, Tony "Gad" Robinson

Songs: Police Officer (Smiley Culture); The Boss (Pato Banton); Bible Reader (Macka B); Sensi Crisis (Nerious Joseph); No Touch The Style (Joseph Cotton); Raggamuffin Natty Dread (Professor Nuts); DJ Business (Papa San); Yes, We A Blood (Daddy Freddy); Limb By Limb (Cutty Ranks); Cool Yah (Frankie Paul); Request The Style (Top Cat); Slim Body Girl (Sweetie Irie); Nasty (Tippa Irie); Run 'Way Mr. Tickle (General Degree); Jungle Bungle (Starkey Banton); Don't Dis The Jungle (Tenor Fly)