Roots Archives Forum

Well i can't give you an introduction to Roots but i can and will to dub. Trojan Dub Massive Chapter 1&2. It's legendary dub tracks but with sound effects and really like mixed into a new heavier deeper dimension. It's fantastic. Other great dub albums to be mentioned would be:
Kamikazi Dub - Prince Jammy
Scientist Rids The Evil Curse Of The Vampires - Scientist
Termination Dub - Glen Brown & King Tubby
Dub Forever (This is just Crucial Dub and Dub Fever together on a 2 cd boxset) - King Tubby
All of this especially the King Tubby albums is the oldschool style dub and not like Mad Professor or Jah Shaka style of dub

I would recommend listen to it all.

I like all music from mid 1960's to the year 2180
ska,mento to ragga to roots to diggy to instrumental from chattin to singnn from dub to version ,dancehall to rockers ,lovers rock to rocksteady.What can i say im reggae FaNaTiC

Greetings everyone! I can't thank you all enough for your responses. By the looks of it, there are many more precious diamonds out there waiting for me to unearth! I truly value your insight & recommendations.


Youthman Deh - Well put! We share a common experience. It was that sunny, relaxed, laid back sound that gravitated me to reggae in the first place, but it was Black Uhuru's Anthem that first opened my ears to more that this music had to offer. Whoa, what a difference it was, but when I first heard the bass thump out on What is Life?, I was hooked! Then, I discovered Roots, Rock, Reggae which pointed me in the direction of Scratch's Black Ark sound amongst many others of course. And since then, there's been no turning back! Had I listened to deep roots first, I may not have had the same outcome.

Little One Selecta - It is that album, Dub It to the Top and the Yabby U/Prophet/Scientist album darewon referred to that I have. I would think it is a little heavy for new ears, but then again, that's only my opinion!

Papa Ahmz, darewon, arize, Jah Glu - Absolutely love your tastes! I haven't heard some of those but now they're on my radar & I look forward to hearing them especially The Viceroys since it appears most of their stuff is only available on vinyl.

buster - I feel your passion for the music!

Jah Bless everyone!!! and thank you once again!

besides the obvious bob marley collection,i recommend starting out with the earliest from lee perry, king tubby, horace andy, barry brown, abbysinians, johnny clarke, linval thompson, dennis brown and gregory isaacs. you gotta have a solid foundation to start with and these artists were a crucial part of reggae beginnings.

My advice (for what it's worth) to a new reggae listener would be to go for roots vocal groups / singers like Gladiators, Wailing Souls, Mighty Diamonds, Meditations, Israel Vibration, etc. The music is sweet but subtle, like the best classical music - you can listen to it over & over & still find new things. As in anything, perseverance is rewarded - pop tunes are easy to listen to but soon get stale. Good reggae is the opposite of this - may take a bit of effort but keeps getting better & better.

I would recommend the Trojan Roots Box Set -http://www.roots-archives.com/release/3759. It runs over 3 CDs, is readily available and can be obtained (in the UK) for about £10 (£13.99 is the most expensive I have seen it).

It will definitely give your friend a cost-effective idea of what he/she does/doesn't like.

Black Uhuru - Red, Brutal, Guess Who's Coming to dinner, Black Sounds of Freedom
Michael Rose - African Roots
Horace Andy - Good Vibes
Don Carlos - Raining Tonight
Prince Far I - anything here will work
King Tubby - Dangerous Dub
Midnite - Assini, Jubileez of Zion, Ainshant Maps
Culture - Baldhead Bridge
Dennis Brown - a greatest hits album will set you off with some righteous cuts
The Heptones - Cool Rasta

I could go on forever, this should hold you for a minute.

First of all, in my opinion, Prince Far I is hugely overrated, and damned hard to get into. I certainly wouldn't recommend him to any reggae beginner. I have listened roots vibrations for quite some time now, and have only rather recently begun to appreciate the man _a little_.

The Original Rockstone is indeed original, but in my book that does little for the quality of his musical output. This will probably raise hell amongst any roots listeners, but I rate him mainly for his productions - just check Rod Taylor's "No One Can Tell I About Jah". As a deejay, I like "Psalms For I", but not _that_ much. His On-U output is more or less terrible listening, and the tunes for Gibbs are mainly just bo-ring and dull.

Prince Far I might be important to the genre history-wise, perhaps even style-wise, but still I would recommend for beginners something else. As a matter of fact, I think all of the 70's deejays might be a bit too much for the casual listener. Ruff 'n' tuff, yes, but carrying tunes only half of the time at best. Which is enough to scare the hell out of any would-be reggae listener.

Don't get me wrong, I do rate deejays, they speak the sufferer's voice like no other - the feeling they are able to deliver is incomparable. It's just that tuning in to it takes time and effort, and that's why the beginners might be better off listening something else.

I quite agree with that opinion but I have to say that the album that made a friend of mine become a reggae fan is Doctor Alimantado's Best dressed chicken in town, same for my cousin with Dillinger with songs like ''fernando sancho'' ! hu !
With my personnal experiences, I would first recommend stuff like Gladiators Dreadlocks the time is now, Max Romeo War ina Babylon (appreciated by everybody), Third World 96 degrees, LKJ Bass culture, of course Marley. Still, I think the most efficient is to listen to any music you really really like with your friend and communicate to him/her the vibe it spreads : I made my grandmother of 92 years old dance on mighty diamonds ''talk about it''. Every kind of listener can love reggae, universal music.

for a beginner pretty much all the actual bob marley albums are good staters also try these
peter tosh- mama africa
culture- cumbolo
"rockers" -movie sondtrack
a lot of compilations in stores willl not be strait reggae more like dancehall and tother new stuff anything with sean paul on it is not gonna be roots probably