Cranius wrote:I watched Rockers last night, so great to hear so much reggae I know and love incorporated into a movie. The opening scene is totally arresting, as is the montage of all the rockers preparing to go on the heist. I hadn't heard Peter Tosh's 'Stepping Razor' before, such a cool song. And Horsemouth plays himself so convincingly.

Man, I love reggae. It has a lot of uplift.

yea man rockers is awesome. the harder they come is cool too.

Here are a few suggestions, off the top of my head, based on 20yrs of listening to some reggae and three years of listening to a ton of it.

Other than this aside, I'm going to ignore most dub, b/c people talk about these things, and there are so many of the recs. I'm also going to ignore Bob Marley and LKJ, whom I love and are obvious, and people like Jimmy Cliff and Black Uhuru who made some super music and some not-so-super music.

I am not an expert, but I know what I like, and I think anyone w/any predisposition to liking any Jamaican music would like these records.

Buy these records, without hesitation:

Augustus Pablo, East of the River Nile or King David's Melody or Original Rockers. Or most of the other million ones, but those are surefire.

100% Dynamite comp, on Soul Jazz
200% Dynamite comp, on Soul Jazz
500% Dynamite comp, on Soul Jazz

Cedric Im Brooks, The Light of Saba, on Honest Jon's label

The Sound Dimension comp on Trojan

The Hippy Boys, Reggae with the Hippy Boys

Any of the Tighten Up comps

The Congos, Heart of the Congos, on Blood and Fire or whatever other version you can find. If you don't like this, just give up.

Some of this music isn't reggae strictly speaking, but so what.

If you get a couple of these and don't like them, you should probably write off Jamaica. Until then, you probably shouldn't write off Jamaica.

NOT CRAP

Excellent Sunday music. Nothing much beats relaxed Sundays and reggae laced with dub.

If you don't like soulful music, I can understand why you might not like reggae, but otherwise Jamaican music is amazing.

I've been jamming Johnny Osbourne's Meets The Roots Radics on a fairly regular basis. I still don't consider myself a fan or an authority on the genre, but I think this is a great record. Johnny does a vocal cut, and it's immediately followed a dub version (I don't know by who though). The first song, "Back Off Ringcraft" is totally great.

Maybe I'm finally getting closer to divorcing the genre from the image of Bob Marley tapestries hanging up in dorm rooms.

i do not like slow songs, generally.
i do not like quiet songs, generally.

i still like reggae.

i don't listen to it often, but when i do, it works.

For dancing to in a club for hours: Not Crap

For listening to at home for hours: Crap

Reggae music seems to always be the perfect tempo for me to dance to, and I love to dance.

Not Crap, 5 Waffles.

For Toots and the Maytals alone, reggae gets a not crap from me. "Reggae Got Soul", "Funky Kingston", a whole host of other songs. "Funky Kingston" is my favorite reggae song, period.

Then, there's Burning Spear, LKJ, Mutabaruka, Big Youth, some Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and a few others I can't remember right now.

love dub and dj. don't like much reggae.

Two Sevens Clash is a classic.