Dancehall/Ragga charts

Review: The iconic Late Night Tales series scored a real doozy when they managed to lock in Don Letts for for his instalment. The British film director, DJ and musician is a vital part of the UK's musical fabric from his days making videos for The Clash and Elvis Costello to his work with the Big Audio Dynamite band he co-founded. All that history is distilled into this sublime selection of sounds across four vital sounds fo wax. There's reggae, dub, ska, a cover of Joy Division, head twisting goodness from Gentleman's Dub Club and plenty of exclusives. It's an essential listen, basically.

Review: They might be juvenile but you can't beat a nice loud ganja anthem on a hefty system in the sun. Which makes this new collection of such things from Greensleeves - on nice translucent green wax, no less - utterly unmissable. It features plenty of rootsy tooting-anthems and stoner classics from the dub swagger of 'Pass The Kutchie' to Wayne Smith's darker and more paranoid 'Under The Sleng Teng.' John Holt's 'Police In Helicopter' will always be well received by any crowd and Billy Boyo's 'One Spliff A Day' is a great tune a well as being advice to live by.

Review: Asian Dub Foundation's Enemy of the Enemy is one of the many classics in their arsenal. This is a first ever reissue of it on X-Ray Production. It as always develops their mix of traditional Indian music with electro, ragga and hip hop. This record brought with it a new sense of energy and forward momentum and has plenty of over-egged rhythms and debauched sounds that express revolt at the "liberal drifts of the Labour party under Tony Blair." The restless Londoners therefore made a social and political impact as well as physical dance floor one with this classic.

Review: Koffee is the next generation of Jamaican reggae artist who is reinvigorating the reagge-pop world. She is still only 22 but already had a global following and an influence almost as big. Her 2018 tune 'Toast' was a huge smash that found its way onto Barrack Obama's coveted playlist and then the year later she followed it up with a Grammy win for Best Reggae Album. Until recently she has managed all this success with only a relatively small number of tunes available for streaming. This new album is sure to take things to the next level though with its mix of trad reggae and modern pop flourishes.

Review: There is real fire and fury in this opening tune on the new drop from Bongo Joe Records out of Switzerland. A ceremonial chant opens up and is sure to bring dance floor delirium from the off over the high-speed dub rhythms and raw percussive sounds. The raw, high octane and primordial influence of techno looms large throughout with Chouk Bwa & The Angstromers really going for the jugular. Heft modern bass weight, deft electronics and traditional Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms all collide with trance-including and mind-melting results.

Review: GRAMMY-Award nominated reggae artist Jah Cure has already assured his musical legacy but that won't stop him coming through with more great albums. Undeniable is an 11-track long player filled with this artist's trademark sense of passion, romance and heartfelt songwriting. The sounds are a contemporary take on reggae with a fresh edge as well as a nod to the originators. The first single 'Everything' featuring Ghanaian star Stonebwoy has already pleased fans. The two collaborators hook up to great effect as they layer up soulful hooks that lament a love gone bad.

Review: Ras Demo relick! One of jungle's longest standing vocalists - whose discography dates back to seminal SOUR dispatches in 1994 - sees his album Frequency getting a reboot on this vinyl edition. Highlights include his rising vocal insistency on the steppy bubbler 'Jungle Buss Me', the powerful toe-to-toe lyrics of 'Protect The Life' with Sizzla Kalonji and the wobbled-out bass and soulful vocals of the final fire that is 'When You Ready'. Complete with a big remix from rave pioneer DJ Phantasy, the frequencies are high on this one!

Review: If you encountered the 2019 album, Essaka Hoisa, Waqwaq Kingdom's inimitable style will already be familiar. For those who never did, the outfit comprises Shigeru Ishihara aka DJ Scotch Egg and Kiki Hitomi (ex-King Midas Sound), which should give some clues as to where influences are coming from on this, their first outing since the aforementioned obscure masterpiece. Dokkoisho follows a similar line, marrying elements of 8-bit techno, African polyrhythms, contemporary electronica, dancehall, and traditional Japanese folk. Sometimes, although not always, it almost feels like it's happening all at once, like opener 'Positive Sound'. Although that doesn't mean sacrificing coherency or quality. In other moments, things are more focused, for example 'Positive Sound', which opts to strip things back wonderfully to offer a lunging, hypnotic, drum-first workout.

Review: Jahlin was not only a talented singer and songwriter but was also someone who made music with a strong message. He got his education in Canada after moving there in 1975 following his younger days in amid and after booming a welder - which seems a popular first career choice for eventual reggae stars as Bob Marley took a similar path - he pursued his musical career. His 'Roots Reality' is as the title suggests a roots reggae song from the Roots Reality label in 1983. It has a positive vibe and the rather rare addition of a violin which is not so often heard in reggae tunes.

Review: DJ Vadim's Feel Up Vol 2 was, we're told, inspired by things as different and unusual as Nassau, Covid and Grace Jones. It is an album that he lured himself into when the world shut down during Covid and has resulted in a vibrant record that mixes up dub, hip-hop and reggae. It is said to reflect the "tropical music festival" he created in his mind while in lockdown and brings pop, soul and African influences to the fore. Plenty of guests feature such as Rayjah45 & Javada, Queenie & Syross and Lasai & FABjustfa amongst many more across four sides of superb wax.

Review: Hugh Maddo's Pop Style is one of those super rare but cult late 80s reggae and dancehall albums that just hit a perfect sweet spot between styles. Thankfully, Death Is Not The End sub-label 333 has got the rights to this full reissue of the original which was recorded in Jamaica at Byron Lee's Dynamics and Herman Chin-Loy's Aquarius studios in 1987. A wealth of musical talents of the day all feature on it including Winston Wright, Bobby Ellis, and Mikey "Boo" Richards, but the standout is the sublime vocal contribution of Killamanjaro's Hugh Maddo.

Review: Jamaican reggae and dancehall star Sean Paul did a lot to popularise the genre in the UK and US way before the current wave of artists who dominate. Dusty Rock is his seance album from back in November 2022 and it spawned plenty of chart-climbing singles that helped it, and Paul, go on to become a worldwide phenomenon. Of course, the standout single that still gets plenty of hammer is 'Gimme The Light' while 'Like Glue,' 'I'm Still In Love With You' and 'Get Busy' are all bangers, too, on a record full of big hooks, fresh rhythms and big energy.

Review: This new 45rpm single on Humble Action includes the original version of 'Musical Healers' by Hummingbird as well as a remix by Aryeh Yah. The a-side version is a nice twisted dancehall cut with some hot stepping rhythms that sound like they could well have been sampled by The Streets at some time. It's a future sounding cut even now with its sleek synth leads. It's a real trip too at over eight minutes long, and the remix is no less adventurous but has a more heavy low end.

Review: Meets Kelly Ranks At Channel One is one of those classic dub albums that is very much deserving of this reissue on nice heavyweight wax. Michael Palmer is the man who did the meeting per the title and he is a leading Jamaican reggae and dancehall artist who has helped shaped the culture no end. This record fuses togther elements of both of those foundations sounds with nice lead horns and swaggering rhythms topped with carefree vocals full of soul but also carrying great messages.

Review: All throughout the superb Woman On A Mission 2 compilation on Scoops Records, the reggae vibrations that are serve dup resonate with empowering fervour. The fantastic follow up to the still brilliant first volume once again amplifies the voices of female artists within the dub and reggae world. Each track is a testament to resilience that proudly celebrates the strength and spirit of women on a quest for justice and equality. Through soulful top lines and powerful lyrics, these tunes ignite a flame of solidarity and determination which mean that Woman On A Mission 2 stands as a vibrant mosaic of voices which, between them, weave together tales of empowerment and liberation with infectious rhythm and soul-stirring melodies.

Review: Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken stuff in beautiful ways and thus embracing the item's history. It is also in part the name of this new Kintsugi Soul Stepper's album that mirrors that concept by "celebrating the beauty found in piecing together diverse fragments to create a harmonious whole." Filipino Canadian collective seekersinternational and beat-maker jjuwanstockton lead the charge, on a record that celebrates the fusions of many diverse sounds from dub to soul to nostalgic 1980s Japan, as well as many different cultures, and identities.