DRUMBAGO & THE BLENDERS Schallplatten & CDs

Review: This limited reissue revives an ultra-rare 1968 reggae anthem, originally released on the Blue Cat label. Featuring Dennis Walks' 'Belly Lick' and Drumbago & The Blenders' 'The Game Song', both tracks epitomise late 1960s Jamaican music as a genre with bite, as these contemporaries foregrounded womp-basses and impactful offbeat guitars, as always emphasise the 2s and 4s, and infusing the world-famous reggae genre with the lesser-spotted, banjo-led Jamaican music category of mento. Written by Walks and produced by Joe Gibbs, these gems were once highly collectible, fetching blasphemously high prices, but this reissue brings the them back for collectors to enjoy for their own sake.