I am stuck in reggae's past, and here's why...

[stepping razor]

Stepping Razor, what do you think of this: http://www.jahtari.org/music/WERKCD004.htm ?

Very intresting.I notice their using a Roland TR-808 drum machine and the old Roland Bassline machine in a silver box.It is recorded old style and only using a computer at the final stages, if at all.Also it has space in it, where as some tunes are just filled to the brim and no gaps and space.The feel of it is very late 70s style of roots music but done in the decade of 2K.I notice quite a few versions of roots tunes and i think they have done them well.So it was done with musical keyboards and not computer keyboards.
1# very dub step riddim half speed fever tempo.
2# laid back heavy bass with horn blasts.1976 feel.
3# 808 drum box reggae hip hop style.
4# cut to prince fari dub from chapter iv.good version.
5#Easy shanking tune with keyboard parts coming in and out.
6# The one i dont like so much, to many key changes for me.
7# Cut to a lee perry tune.another wicked version.
8# Good time stepper style real dancey one.with good mixing and layering.
9# Bad cut to Fade Away,peanie peanie riddim, with mini morg sound on the keyboard.
10# Heavy roots tune with keyboard riffs and horn blasts.

It seems like it was done on a multi track recorder and have put the music parts in real time as much as possible to keep the live sound and feel.
Its good to hear something different and new.
I cant say it sounds like anyone else`s music, which a lot of reggae today sounds the same.
What i like about it is the drums aint in your face and thats all you can hear, and when the 808 is used you get a more musical product.
Anything thats musical and doing intresting things with the tempos.I can tell they liked roots music from the 70`s and early 80`s.It would be intresting to hear vocal tracks of the dubs as well, if there are any.

Peace

[Jah Glu]

Music Works selection:

Rumours: Gregory Isaacs. Killa!

Telephone Love: JC Lodge. Great!

Operator: JC Lodge. Superb!

Mind Yu Dis: Gregory Isaacs. Total badness and my message to the upstart rudes on the streets here in my town.

Love me Baby: JC Lodge and Tiger. Awesome hard edged tune, brilliant synergy between JC and Tiger.

Hardcore Loving: JC Lodge and Tiger. Once again - brilliant synergy between JC and Tiger.

Don't Test Me (etc): Deborahe Glasgow and Shabba.

Alright...to me it seems like you just havent heard enough digital. Those music works are some of the most famous songs that was the biggest hits from the digital time 1985-1989 (no dissing intended). Try listening to tunes like Ghetto People Broke - Little Kirk and tunes like that. And if you like rumours riddim i think you will also like peanie peanie riddim.

[leggo rocker]

I'm sure you are probably right Jah Glu, that I haven't heard enough digital. But I tire of it, even the stuff I really like, very quickly as the sound seems a bit harsh. So I soon settle back into roots and analogue dancehall.

But there's a lot of music out there I haven't heard and would like to. Including a lot that's outside reggae - swing, early soul, early blues, early rock and roll and R&B - mostly early to mid 20c music.

That's a lot of music. And there's little time.

But I will try and check out the suggestions you've made - if I get time

[stepping razor]

What do you think of the new Foundation Sounds Hard Drop riddim 10" EP.2008.
A1. Ras Zacharri & Jah Reuben Mystic-Lion Ina Jungle.
A2 Mikey Murka-Robberman.
B1. Dark Angel-Medication.
B2. Hard Drop Riddim.

Mixed by Manasseh & produced by King Sammy.

http://www.reggaemusicstore.com/product ... &PT_ID=all

I think its the freshest new tune in a long time.

Peace

[Jah Glu]

I'm sure you are probably right Jah Glu, that I haven't heard enough digital. But I tire of it, even the stuff I really like, very quickly as the sound seems a bit harsh. So I soon settle back into roots and analogue dancehall.

But there's a lot of music out there I haven't heard and would like to. Including a lot that's outside reggae - swing, early soul, early blues, early rock and roll and R&B - mostly early to mid 20c music.

That's a lot of music. And there's little time.

But I will try and check out the suggestions you've made - if I get time

No, no i believe you. You should keep hearing the music you like and if you dont fancy digital, then dont give it a hear! Why bother:D

[dreadrecords]

Ites deh

Long time haven't come here but i like this topic
so here's my story

As i am a white born in Africa,"Moçambique" i grow listening african music and also reggae don't know how but reggae music reach there so until my 8 years old i have listen not taking much atention as i would prefer to go play with friends....
Then we came to europe due the war,to Portugal a place full of african since whe where colonized by Portugueses was the best and easy place to go.
Here african people where send to comunitys so there i was again with my great Black and White friends,here older guys still listen reggae and have partys in african way of life"PARTY"so i grew up and wanted to know more about dat music cause mainly was Bob and Peter dat they listen more i wonder if there was more
i listen radio and on radio here noting about reggae.
so i started with tapes get money for my vinil player still have no place to buy it i ask a frien wehre to get my own copies he told he gave me some catalogs with lots of artists dat he orders by mail...
damm again i had no money so i started to copy his tapes
it was only roots from the 70's but no names in it latter i would know dat where,Big Youth,Gladiators,Israel.Lone Ranger etc etc...
When i start working i decided to take a risk and order sometings from those cataloges from u.k the best place to get Roots music.
i get my first lp "Gregory live at academy"exactly like the tape dam how dat was great for me! wow swing with my friends at my room playng it louder than possible...
so every money i get i would keep ordering roots.
And by 1984 i decide to go deep into music as i loved reggae i get on World music cause pop and other music just didn't make me feel as reggae or world music does.
i start getting books about music not only reggae but also about what was around,so knowing a little about music i went to work on a record shop until now.
so i'm lukyto have acess to evyry style of music.
of course i listen more music i love the "Love Generation" from the 60's,and from the new music the electronic is the most amaizing as dat with a computer yu can mix everystyle of music and dats a good ting dat i saw in the music business nowadays remixing and getting fusion with all kinds of music giving some life to older or bored stuff its positive in my view...
but fe shure and for my taste older stuff before 85 and with real singers and players of instruments is the music for my ears.
and one good ting reggae has is everytime yu listen the same tune yu get a new sound wether is a bass line or a fraction of percussion there or an organ over there a brass coming fro nowhere...dats a joyfull for me maybe i'm getting older and getting this sound now then when i was younger i just wanted to jamp and prance at the dance...
So i'm realy STUCK IN ROOTS people call me crazy and always i play in a party i forward with the roots havier than heavy since here in Portugal only 2 sounds play strictly roots i know some of the audience are waiting for dancehall and ragga still i play the music .
they wil have the next soundsytem dat will play fe dem...
for nowadays is not easy to buy music for me
cause of my rent,water,electricity,food,internet..etc
so i work to live dats it
still i wont sell my music even some of the tapes i play them just for a nostalgic ting and its great.
One ting i see diferent from new gerneration is dat we older guys wanted to know about it i search for it new guys like some friends i have just don't search deep into ok they have cd,lps but books and knowing about it they know likkle
and the information is on web for everyone maybe they just want the music for the moment or because is a demand
of course not everyone is like dat some realy want to know more they make question about it ask for references
dats good and if i can help fe shure i will

This is only my tastes and my feelings nothing else...

respect everytime
dreadrecords

[leggo rocker]

and one good ting reggae has is everytime yu listen the same tune yu get a new sound wether is a bass line or a fraction of percussion there or an organ over there a brass coming fro nowhere...dats a joyfull for me

respect everytime
dreadrecords

Yes. You are so right there. I have this experience too. Even with stuff I have listened to hundreds of times over. This music is so rich, so fat!

[stepping razor]

Like a lot of people i also like music thats not reggae,early hip hop, jazz, old style riddim & blues,Street funk from the 70`s,Trouble Funk which i saw at the Kentish Town Forum in the early 80`s and they still talk about that gig today.
I feel the same way in all forms of music, that the quality is lacking and the vocals aint saying nothing constructive.Thats why music from a certain generation has caputered the mood and vibes of them times with a movement and scene.
The problem we have today is that their trying to recreate whats been done before, rather than creating something new and fresh from the 2k generation.
We used to get by on what we had, unlike today where they just want want want the next thing thats just come out and new,trainers, mobile phones,record sales success,without putting any work in and expect to get given it on a dubplate.
Its a long time since i`ve heard a new reggae tune that has a message to it.

Peace

[rokkimake]

Great thread. Now and then It is good to dig deeper and broader into musical matters.

I remember the year 1986. I was listening to a radio broadcast about the best reggae pieces of that year and I cried and cried and cried, because the music I heard was not the reggae I loved: thundering bass lines, ingeniously mixed drums, sweet horns which gave blessing to the ears.

What did we get instead?

A couple of fellas with drum machine and bass synth, which I detest the most for its unnatural sound, a rhythm guitar and a synth mimicking real horns. Actually the same thing had already been going on in funk and soul making them as uninterresting. Just wondering what was the basic reason for this kind of development in music, studio costs? Was this guided by the record companies or did the masses want some new?
I know the story behind Sleng Teng and, no doubt, in Jamaica sound system audience sets the fashion and to that a white European enthusiast has nothing say.

When thinking about why this new phase didn't quite please me I got to concept "swing". To me the 80's' black music didn't swing anymore due to these inhuman machine sounds. Yes, I know they added some inaccuracy to the drum machines to make them sound more human, but the difference to the real drummer is so huge, that I can't be wondering why people do accept these clearly inferior backgrounds. I know some people are fond of words, meanings, metaphors,messages and maybe of vocals and then the background has less importance. But thinking of dancing, one would imagine that these nonswinging rhythms would cause uneasyness among dancers. I can't dance to them, but I'm old and prejudiced. Saddest thing was that real musicians tried to mimick digital sound like on Gregory's "Dancing Floor".

The word prejudiced makes me write this paragraph. I have nearly 2000 LP's and CD's and of them under twenty are by white artists. Being white in white surroundings I started with white music as teen but soon I got it: blacks do it better, in singing, in rhythm, in emotions. Black music is so uplifting. Or should I say was, because you can't call nowaday's ragga, rap, R&B uplifting! Not to say that I don't appreciate white pop/rock when listening to radio. My only above understanding genre might be indie pop, no melody,no rhythm,no vocal skills.

Now don't get offended.I have noticed that lots of folks here seem to have come from punk or alternative rock and some have not left those bad habits behind, meaning discussion of Clash and reggae. After hearing what those blokes do to "Police and Thieves" and how it is liked, though folks in this site have surely heard the original, that I can't understand. I must admit that this Clash thing passed me far away in the horizon in the 80's when I was so concentrated in Augustus Pablo, Yabby You, Don Carlos, Bootsy Collins and John Coltrane, but as it has been stated in Leggo's prolog one tend to cling to his teenage heroes.

If there is bad vibes tingling in this message, blame on Richie Stephens CD on Prince Music (-95). Richie's voice is OK, but those backgrounds are horrendous. Can't stand it. I also checked "Telephone Love" and "Rumours", both sad cases like the most in Greensleeves Sampler 2, BUT "Girl 'E'" by Ini Kamoze is just one great digital tune.

[judahheart]

Hi All