Sunshine, 8 / 9 ties

Sunshine, Now a somewhat more current perspective on Jamaican artists 8 /9 ties style. Reggae has evolved , spawned many styles, thanks to the digital age. The biggest constant..because they keep morphin'..Sly & Robbie present here with their first big morphing work Language Barrier, aswell as with their first all out assault on digital dub The Dub Factor reworking their Black Uhuru days , in the early 1990s they introduced a novel sound with the hits "Bam Bam" and "Murder She Wrote" producing the hitalbum for Chaka Demus & Pliers. Horace Andy's career is spanning a good 40 years now aswell though he's become well known only after joining Massive Attack. This resulted in rereleasing/remixing his previous Good Vibes..great. Finally two singers no longer with us, Tenor Saw's flame burnt bright but short as his life was cut short by a wreckless driver, Bim Sherman never got the credit he deserved, saleswise, but many-including me , have enjoyed his music and singing, he died days after being diagnosed with cancer.

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Horace Andy - Good Vibes
Tenor Saw - Fever
Bim Sherman - It Must Be A Dream
Sly & Robbie - Language Barrier
Black Uhuru - The Dub Factor
Chaka Demus & Pliers - All She Wrote

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Horace Andy - Good Vibes ( 96 * 311mb)

Horace Andy ( Horace Hinds) started with his first recordings, "Blackman's Country" and "I May Never See My Baby" in 1967 for producer Phil Pratt, but he didn't gain instant success, to some extent maybe because he tried in vain to sound like his then idol, rocksteady singer Delroy Wilson As with so many reggae artists, Studio One helped Horace Andy to make himself a name as a singer with several singles and records he cut for Studio One producer Clement Dodd (who also gave him his stage name), notably such songs as "Skylarking", "See A Man's Face" and "Every Tongue Shall Tell". Another Studio One classic is "Mr.Bassie", his respect to bassist and member of The Heptones, Leroy Sibbles.

Very soon many of the leading producers wanted to make records with Sleepy, as Horace Andy is also known. He then recorded - among others - for Phil Pratt again. Many tunes for those and other producers were available only as Jamaican 45s and have disappeared long ago, after the first pressing was sold out. In 1977 Horace Andy teamed up with New York based producer Everton DaSilva and from this collaboration comes the outstanding set "In the Light", which was produced together by Andy and DaSilva. Tragically this partnership, which also gave birth to a bunch of singles and 12", came to a sudden end when Everton DaSilva was murdered in 1979.

During the Eighties Horace Andy continued releasing music on a regular basis both in Jamaica(among others for Jammy, Sly & Robbie and Bobby Digital) and in the USA on his own Rhythm imprint and for 'indie'-label Rough Trade. A highlight of this period is the album "Dance Hall Style", one of two records Horace did with producer Lloyd 'Bullwackie' Barnes.
In 1990 he was approached by Bristol-based hitmakers Massive Attack to join them for recordings. Since then he contributed vocals to all of Massive Attack's records and they even reworked some of his earlier tunes. Other work of the 90s are two sets produced by Mad Professor and various singles with drum & bass partnership Mafia & Fluxy in Kingston, JAM.
October 99 saw the release of Horace Andy's latest album "Living In The Flood", with the title track co-written by Joe Strummer



01 - Reggae Rhythm - Its Gone Internationally (5:27)
02 - Serious Thing - A Serious Version (6:48)
03 - Skylarking - A Better Version (6:32)
04 - Youths Of Today - Jah Youths (7:02)
05 - Dont Let The Problems Get You Down - No Problem (6:45)
06 - Mr. Bassie Discomix (7:28)
07 - Pure Ranking Discomix (8:29)
08 - Good Vibes - Dub Vibes (6:15)
09 - Control Yourself - Version Under Control (5:29)
10 - Ital Vital - Ital Ites Dubwise (7:20)

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Tenor Saw - Fever ( 84 ^ 397mb)

Tenor Saw (Clive Bright) is one of the most influential singers of the early digital era; Tenor Saw's hypnotic wail was imbued with an almost religious fervour. He was raised in the Payne Avenue district of west Kingston, recording his debut, "Roll Call", in 1984 for George Phang's Powerhouse label after an introduction by Nitty Gritty. During 1985 he sang with Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion sound system and label, recording "Lots of Sign" and "Pumpkin Belly" (also versioned for King Jammy's). "Run Come Call Me" and "Fever" were also sizeable hits. None, however, could compare to "Ring the Alarm", which Tenor Saw voiced magnificently over Winston Riley's "Stalag" rhythm for the Techniques label. There was no bigger record that year and it continues to be regarded as an anthem in today's dancehalls. Unfortunately its one of those records that got lost during my Reggae roots nights , all that ganja ..so you'll have to do with the U tube vid Tenor Saw - Ring The Alarm

You won't find "Ring the Alarm" on Tenor Saw's debut solo album, Fever, as it focuses more on his work for Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion label. Still, even without that smash, this album is a testament to the legacy that he left. Saw's time in the sun lasted only 4 years, August 1988 his body was found at the side of the road outside Houston (Texas), a victim of a hit and run, by a speeding car. He died at 22 years of age; a great loss, not only for his family and friends, but for reggae music as well.



01 - Lots of Sign (3:34)
02 - Shirley Jones (3:26)
03 - Pumpkin Belly (3:20)
04 - Eni Meeni Mini Mo (3:47)
05 - Roll Call (3:52)
06 - Fever (4:34)
07 - Jah Guide Amd Protect Me (3:43)
08 - Rub-A-Dub Market (3:31)
09 - Run Come Call Me (3:25)
10 - Who's Gonna Help Me Praise (3:40)
Bonus Dub
11 - Surely Dub
12 - Run Come Dub Me
13 - Lots Of Dub
14 - Jah Guide Dub
15 - Rub-A-Dub Dub
16 - Dub Fever
17 - Eni Meeni Mini Mo Dub
18 - Praise Jah With Dub

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Bim Sherman - It Must Be A Dream ( 95 * 451 mb)

Born Jarrett Tomlinson in 1952 in Kingston (Jamaïca), Bim Sherman alias J. Vincent, In the early seventies the young Sherman swapped trades from fisherman to electrician when he moved in with one of his brothers in central Kingston. His closest musical friends were Keith Porter and Ronnie Davis, who would go on to form premier vocal group the Itals, but his first recording experience was with his early mentor Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderson at the famous Treasure Isle studios. His first record to be released was cut at the Federal studio with Sid Bucknor who was the engineer for '100 Years'. 'Love Forever' followed, a self-financed affair on the Element label and then came a string of tunes now recognized as reggae roots classics on Sherman's own Scorpio, Red Sea and Sun Dew imprints. These singles met with a degree of local success and appreciation which convinced him to continue.

Like so many other young Jamaicans in the seventies Sherman decided to try his luck in the UK, after being persuaded to join 1979's Roots Encounter tour alongside renowned toaster Prince Far I, Creation Rebel and Prince Hammer. In fact his first album 'Love Forever' had been issued a year earlier on the Tribesman label, including the title tune plus nine other previous Jamaican singles. Sherman settled in the UK cementing a friendship and business relationship with the young reggae producer Adrian Sherwood, a long-time admirer of the singer. Bim Sherman decided to stay in London and became a regular collaborator for On-U sound. He also started his own label, Century Records.

Throughout the eighties and early nineties he was a featured vocalist on the highly acclaimed, Sherwood-produced "Singers And Players" series of albums for which he sometimes would record new versions of his old material. In 1984, Bim Sherman started "Century Records", originally through On-U Sound, and released two albums : "Bim Sherman And The Voluntary" and "Danger". "Century Records" then stopped releasing material, and Sherman's products started to appear on RDL, the "Revolver Distribution Label". Towards the nineties Century became operational again, with straight reissues of the RDL releases and with compilation CDs featuring tracks from the RDL albums. Subsequent Sherman releases were on Century, often featuring On-U-Sound musicians. Although Bim Sherman had a lot of devoted fans in the UK and Europe, it lasted two decades after he started his recording career before he finally made a commercial breakthrough in the UK charts. It was the release of Bim Sherman's acoustic masterpiece "Miracle" - released in 1996 - that made things happen for Sherman. Dance producer Steve Osbourne took the album track "Solid As A Rock" and made a remix. After it was released on single it scaled the UK charts and helped to re-energize Sherman's career. The next year saw the release of another strong album , "It Must Be A Dream", a collection of remixes.

On Friday, November 17th 2000, the news of Bim Sherman's death - one of the true unsung heroes of roots music as well as reggae's most enduring cult figures - reached the reggae massive worldwide. After he got injured as a result of a fall, Bim Sherman was admitted to hospital where, on examination, he was found to have cancer. Then health matters didn't go well and within one week he passed away. It is obvious that his unexpected sudden death is a great lost for his family and friends. But be convinced that Bim Sherman's many committed fans, who supported the artist and his music for two and a half decades , mourned for the lost of this truly very underrated, extremely talented and diverse artist.

"All great singers and vocalists have one thing in common - their voice stands out like a uniquely tuned instrument that only one person can play. Bim Sherman [was] a singer/songwriter with a truly golden tone." ( Adrian Sherwood)



01 - My Woman (Groove Corporation Mix) (10:15)
02 - Just Can't Stand It (Youth Mix) (4:15)
03 - Can I Be Free From Crying (The Underwolves Mix) (7:38)
04 - Missing You (Tim Simenon Mix) (6:32)
05 - Lovers Leap (Skip McDonald Mix) (4:59)
06 - Simple Life (Adrian Sherwood Mix) (5:36)
07 - Solid As A Rock (Steve Osbourne Mix) (9:49)
08 - It Must Be A Dream (Mr. Scruff Mix) (5:50)
09 - Bewildered (Steve Osbourne Mix) (4:01)
10 - Over The Rainbow (Coco & The Bean Mix) (4:40)
11 - Golden Locks (Alan Adiri Mix) (5:02)

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Sly and Robbie - Language Barrier ( 84 ^ 277mb )

Da Riddem Twins
Drummer Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar (getting his nick Sly from listening to Sly Stone) and bassplayer Robert Shakespeare meet in the mid seventies. Dunbar already had quite a reputation as a drummer. He had played on several Jamaican hit records, a.o. Double Barrel by organist Ansell Collins. His rhythmic innovations to reggae drumming were becoming a trade mark for Channel One when he got acquainted with Aston 'familyman' Barrett's youthful protege bassplayer Robbie Shakespeare. Shakespeare had already done a good deal of studio work, like 'Stir it up' from Bob Marley and some stuff with the Aggrovators. When they heard each other playing, it didn't take very long for them to decide to form a rhythmic drum-'n-bass partnership, and Sly & Robbie was a fact.

Their first major project was providing backing for the late singer/songwriter Peter Tosh in his backing band Word Sound and Power. In this period they scored their first major worldwide nr 1 hitsingle with Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger: (Keep on walking) Don't Look Back. They recorded five albums with Peter Tosh: Equal Rights, Legalize it, Bush Docor, Mystic Man and Wanted Dread and Alive. While on a world tour with Peter, they lived on bread and water to save money to be able to start their own record label: TAXI Productions.
When they returned from touring, they indeed raised the TAXI label. They joined the band Black Uhuru and from there things really started. Black Uhuru, consisting of singers Ducky Simpson, Puma Jones and lead singer Michael Rose (now known as Mykall Rose) and Sly & Robbie on drum and bass turned out to become the most progressive sounding reggaeband of that time. In this line up 6 albums were released: Showcase, Sinsemilla, Red, Chill Out, The Dub Factor, and Anthem, each album being a large step forward towards innovating reggae music. After Anthem, Michael Rose left the group and was replaced by Junior Reid and two more albums were produced Brutal and Positive.

Far from restricting themselves to the Jamaican scene, (in which they have played for virtually every prominent Jamaican musical artist, they have became one of pop music's most sought after rhythm sections.
An artist with whom they were recording was Grace Jones. Sly & Robbie played on three albums. Everybody knows songs like 'I've seen that face before (libertango)' and 'Pull up to the Bumper'. The work with Grace Jones was the start of a heap international artists wanting Sly & Robbie to produce and/or provide the drum 'n bass backing for their songs and albums. Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Ian Dury, Herbie Hancock, Maxi Priest, Cindy Lauper, Barry Reynolds, Carly Simon... In reggae they backed and produced a talented new singer, Ini Kamoze, who's first album was a massive hit among the reggae audience.

They changed the face of Reggae several times: in 1976, they introduced a harder beat called "Rockers", which quickly replaced the then prevalent "One drop" style, then introduced the "rub a dub" sound in the early 1980s. Sly and Robbie were important in developing the trend towards computer assisted music and programming in the mid 1980s. Presented here, Language Barrier is an onslaught of aural alarms and craziness. Yet, holding it down like a rock are the inimitable Sly and Robbie. This is a great record. Very urban, self assured insanity, in a weird way. An album that has Bob Dylan on it, not to mention BIll Laswell, Wally Badarou, Herbie Hancock, et. al. . Daring stuff and i guess thats why they are still out there doing there thing.

Around 1990 a new turn in reggae music came up: raggamuffin or ragga. The drum computer became an important ingredient and started to replace live drumming on studio recordings. The Rhythm Twins released 'The Summit'in 1988, which is a record that contains eight instrumental tracks. Hard to define whether it's live drums or a drum computer (it is live drums), and this album can be seen as the last one on which Sly & Robbie play their instruments. From now on, Sly focuses on drum programming and production (Robbie still plays the bass), and again they produce a gigantic world wide hit: Murder she Wrote by Chaka Demus and Pliers.

They continued to innovate during the 1990s and early 2000s, fusing Dancehall and Latin music sounds (La Trenggae) or Dancehall and hip hop/R&B (their 2004 Big Up riddim). In 1999, their "Strip to the Bone" album paired them with electro producer Howie B, and together they explored new dub territories.

Sly and Robbie may well be the most prolific recording artists ever. One estimate is that they have played on or produced some 200,000 songs, considering that some of their riddims such as "Revolution" have been used on over 100 songs. After 30 years together, they still tour and record relentlessly.



1 - Make ' Em Move (7:58)
2 - No Name On The Bullet (6:03)
3 - Miles (Black Satin) (7:20)
4 - Bass And Trouble (6:06)
5 - Language Barrier (6:51)
6 - Get To This, Get To That (5:17)
Xs
7 - Boops (4:55)

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Black Uhuru - The Dub Factor ( 83 ^ 227mb)

Black Uhuru was founded in the late seventies by the then already established singer Don Carlos and Duckie Simpson ; after a while Michael Rose , who sang in hotels on the north coast of jamaica for tourists joined the group and the trio was complete. It was Michael Rose's rockstone gruff voice and his phrasing of syllables and consonants that made the sound of this vocal trio so distinguishly different from the multitude of other Reggae Trios . They had a local hit with the Prince Jammy produced "I Love King Selassie" . 'Puma' Jones , who was raised in New York heard this song and fell in love with this tune immediately . So she joined the group in time for their first international distributed album 'Sinsemillia' (Island Records 1980) on TAXI - Productions/Jamaica . This album was a huge success already and some of these songs are still played in bars , coffeeshops and Hippie hang-outs worldwide . The strength of songs like "World Is Africa"; "Push Push";"Every Dreadlocks";"Sinsemillia" and "Fire" make them timeless anthems . They toured and recorded with Michael Rose as Lead vocalist and further releasing the powerful RED album with more militant songs like 'Youth Of Eglington' or 'Sponjie Reggae' (maybe their best song) , A Live album from 1981 called "Tear It Up" , the still solid "Chill Out" the spacy "Dub Factor" and their 1983 album "anthem".

Quarrels about the status of Duckie Simpson (the Founder) and Michael Rose (the voice of Black Uhuru) lead to internal problems and Michael Rose left and Junior Reid replaced him . This lead to a rejuvinated sound and another highlight in the career of Black Uhuru . 'Brutal' and 'Positive' were good and advanced dub albums and both very successfull, and their tours were (nearly) as successful as before . The same problem occurred again . Junior Reid was the voice and wrote the hit songs , while Duckie Simpson stayed out of focus, his songs were no hits - but he was the head of Black Uhuru . So Junior Reid left as well to pursue a sucessful solo carreer, to make matters worse 'Puma' Jones died of cancer in 1990 .

So Duckie Simpson contacted his old buddy Don Carlos , but this duo didn't have the potential to perform the anthems , that made Black Uhuru the giants they were , so they recruted young singers , who loked good and had the ability to reproduce the songs from both Michael Rose and even Junior Reid for the bread & butter earning live tours . Sad. In recent years Sly & Robbie toured with them as Black Uhuru and at the big Reggae Festivals .



01 - Ion Storm (3:47)
02 - Youth (3:47)
03 - Big Spliff (4:04)
04 - Boof 'N' Baff 'N' Biff (3:27)
05 - Puffed Out (3:47)
06 - Android Rebellion (4:01)
07 - Apocalypse (3:45)
08 - Back Breaker (3:39)
09 - Sodom (3:17)
10 - Slaughter (4:24)

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Chaka Demus and Pliers - All She Wrote (93 ^ 333mb)

Chaka Demus ( John Taylor) is a well known reggae musician and deejay, best known for a string of hits which enjoyed chart success in the 1990s, in both his native Jamaica and around the world. He began his career in music after being caught up in the sound system scene, working for various systems such as Jammy's and Supreme. He became well known under the name of Nicodemus Jr. (a tribute to 1980s deejay Nicodemus) but by the time in which he began to record, he changed his stage name to the more formal, Chaka Demus. Under the productional guidance of Sly & Robbie Chaka Demus' rough DJ vocals were matched with Pliers' sweet, melodic, soul-influenced singing; this unusual vocal pairing created its own followers.



01 - Murder She Wrote (4:06)
02 - I Wanna Be Your Man (3:55)
03 - One Nation Under A Groove (4:18)
04 - Roadrunner (4:05)
05 - Friday Evening (3:56)
06 - Sunshine Day (3:54)
07 - Tracy (3:50)
08 - She Don't Let Nobody (4:08)
09 - Bam Bam (4:05)
10 - Tease Me (4:06)
11 - Let's Make It Tonight (3:54)
12 - Nuh Betta Nuh Deh (4:00)
13 - Twist And Shout (3:56)
14 - Gal Wine (3:34)

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