Name: Listen Up! Dancehall
Brand: Kingston Sounds
SKU: 30061995
Price: 16.75 USD
Availability: InStock

Listen Up! Dancehall

Rating

Album: Listen Up! Dancehall
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Laser Beam	More Info...
2)	Love Trap	More Info...
3)	Wicked Them a Say	More Info...
4)	Tribal War	More Info...
5)	Mr. Landlord	More Info...
6)	Bad Boy Posse	More Info...
7)	King of the Arena	More Info...
8)	Got to Tell the People	More Info...
9)	Mr. Babylon	More Info...
10)	Satisfaction	More Info...
11)	Prophecy	More Info...
12)	Ababa John I	More Info...
13)	Time and Place	More Info...
14)	Take Heed	More Info...
15)	A Class DJ	More Info...
16)	Just Care for I	More Info...

Album: Listen Up! Dancehall
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Laser Beam	More Info...
2)	Love Trap	More Info...
3)	Wicked Them a Say	More Info...
4)	Tribal War	More Info...
5)	Mr. Landlord	More Info...
6)	Bad Boy Posse	More Info...
7)	King of the Arena	More Info...
8)	Got to Tell the People	More Info...
9)	Mr. Babylon	More Info...
10)	Satisfaction	More Info...
11)	Prophecy	More Info...
12)	Ababa John I	More Info...
13)	Time and Place	More Info...
14)	Take Heed	More Info...
15)	A Class DJ	More Info...
16)	Just Care for I	More Info...

Performer Notes

Personnel: Earl "Chinna" Smith , Tony Chin (guitar); Lennox Brown (alto saxophone); Tommy McCook (tenor saxophone); Bobby Ellis (trumpet); Vin Gordon (trombone); Ansel Collins (piano); Winston Wright, Bernard "Touter" Harvey (organ); Robbie Lynn (keyboards); Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Sly Dunbar, Carlton "Carly" Barrett (drums).
Recording information: Channel 1; Harry J's; King Tubbys; Randy's Studio 17; Tuff Gong.
Continuing its series of excellent compilations of obscure reggae tracks by genre, U.K. reissue label Kingston Sounds offers up the dancehall chapter of its Listen Up! series with Listen Up! Dancehall Originals. Focusing more on the roots-originating early-'80s dancehall sound than the digital-derived one that would follow by the middle of the decade, the 16 songs here are mainly slower, driftier affairs, with wide-open rhythmic skeletons to hang upon the laid-back vocals and chants of the genre in its earliest days. Licensing and time constraints keep the collection from being a definitive document of essential early dancehall, but a fair number of key tracks show up, including Johnny Clarke's strutting "King of the Arena" and the summery "Ababa John I" by Don Carlos. Those looking for hard-edged rhythms and thick-voiced dancehall DJs will want to look elsewhere, as the closest this volume of Listen Up! comes to the shape dancehall would take in the later '80s and afterwards are the occasional computerized sound effects on "Take Heed" by Ronnie Davis and the dribbly scatting on Cornell Campbell's "Got to Tell the People." Though it may be a little too early in the subgenre's development to be categorized as dancehall by some listeners, taken even as a collection of killer reggae this scores high marks, and maintains the great batting average set by the rest of the series. ~ Fred Thomas