RhoDeo 1130 Roots

Hello, last time we landed on an island with a huge place in the global music catalogue, Jamaica. A production hothouse and they say the Weed makes you slow and lazy-go figure. Without the ganja driven reggae music Jamaica would have remained a Caribbean backwater and dare i say would never have given us Bolt, the fastest man in the world. The coming months there's plenty of reggae & dub from Jamaica, today we kick off with a remastered classic, Junior Murvins Police and Thieves together with a classic by famous dub wizard Scientist who at the time wasn't aware of the real vampires he was surrounded with.

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Junior Murvin was born Murvin Junior Smith, likely in 1949 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. As a child, he sang along with records by Nat King Cole, and (later on) soul singers like Sam Cooke, and especially Curtis Mayfield, after whom his own falsetto was modeled. He began performing publicly as a youth after his family moved to Montego Bay. With some experience under his belt, he went to live with his aunt in the Kingston ghetto of Trenchtown, where he quickly made connections on the thriving reggae scene and worked on his singing technique. He performed with several bands around Kingston's clubs and tourist hotels; their repertoires often featured covers of American sweet soul tunes, and Murvin became known for his Mayfield interpretations, several of which he recorded for Harriott.

In 1976, he was ready to take another shot, and successfully auditioned for Perry -- now running his own Black Ark studio -- with a self-penned rude-boy anthem called "Police and Thieves." Recorded and released just weeks later, "Police and Thieves" became the chart-topping reggae anthem of the summer in Jamaica and England, both of which were in the throes of intense racial unrest. Murvin and Perry co-wrote some more material and completed a full album, also titled Police & Thieves, which was released by Island in 1977. Generally regarded as one of Perry's finest productions, Police & Thieves featured further singles in "Tedious," "Roots Train," and "False Teachin'.

Unfortunately, the magical combination of Murvin and Perry would never finish another album together. Although they recorded more material with Murvin's new backing band, the Apostles, and released a 12" single in 1980 ("Crossover"), Perry's increasing mental difficulties would culminate in a nervous breakdown and the destruction of his studio. Although Murvin continued to record off and on through the '80s without Perry, he never quite recaptured the lightning that was his greatest moment. He hooked up with producer Mikey Dread for the 1982 album Bad Man Posse, and switched to red-hot dancehall mastermind Henry "Junjo" Lawes for 1984's Muggers in the Street

In 1986, he recorded Apartheid with another prominent dancehall figure, Prince Jammy, and the following year cut a couple of singles for King Tubby. 1989 saw the release of his last album to date, Signs and Wonders. In the years since, Murvin has remained active on a low-profile basis, recording singles for various local sound systems in Jamaica

Junior Murvin backed by The Upsetters released Police and Thieves in 1977, it was produced as well as partially written by Lee Scratch Perry at his legendary Black Ark studio. The result was a classic masterpiece here in it's 2003 remastered edition..

Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves ( 408mb)

01 Roots Train 3:43
02 Police & Thieves 3:51
03 Solomon 2:55
04 Rescue Jah Children 3:47
05 Tedious 5:01
06 False Teachin' 4:06
07 Easy Task 3:49
08 Lucifer 3:14
09 Workin' In The Cornfield 3:46
10 I Was Appointed 3:51
Bonus Tracks
11 Childhood Sweetheart 2:54
12 Bad Weed (Discomix) 8:18
13 Roots Train (Extended Mix) 9:02
14 Memories 8:44
15 Rasta Get Ready 3:13

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Scientist, born Hopeton Brown in Kingston, Jamaica, 1960 was a protégé of King Tubby, one of the originators of dub music. Brown was introduced to electronics by his father, who worked as a television and radio repair technician. He began building his own amplifiers and would buy transformers from Tubby's Dromilly Road studio, and while there would keep asking Tubby to give him a chance at mixing. He was taken on at Tubby's as an assistant, and began working as a mixer in the mid-1970s. He left King Tubby's studio at the end of the 1970s and became the principal engineer for Channel One Studio when hired by the Hoo Kim brothers, giving him the chance to work on a 16-track mixing desk rather than the four tracks at Tubby's.

He came to prominence in the early 1980s and produced many albums, his mixes featuring on many releases in the first part of the decade. In particular, he was the favourite engineer of Henry "Junjo" Lawes, for whom he mixed several albums featuring the Roots Radics. In 1982 he left Channel One to work at Tuff Gong studio as second engineer. He then emigrated to the Washington, D.C. area in 1985, again to work in studios as a sound engineer.

He made a series of albums in the early 1980s, released on Greensleeves Records with titles themed around Scientist's fictional achievements in fighting Space Invaders, Pac-Men, and Vampires, and winning the World Cup. Scientist has alleged in court that Greensleeves sold these albums without his consent, according to his interview with United Reggae online magazine.

Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires was produced and arranged by Henry "Junjo" Lawes, The Riddim Tracks were recorded at Channel One and played by The Roots Radics Band, All the tracks were mixed by Scientist at King Tubby's Studio at midnight on June 13, 1981. Scientist sourced his material for this album from artists Michael Prophet, Wailing Souls, Johnny Osbourne and Wayne Jarrett. Several tracks from the album were featured in the soundtrack to the popular video game Grand Theft Auto III. The tracks on the fictitious radio station 'K-Jah' are composed entirely of songs from this album. When he didn't recieve any royalties an US judge told him a recording mixer was not considered the author of a musical work, but producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes was the copyright holder of the album. (Talk of evil curse of the vampires)

Scientist – Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires ( 81 224mb)

01 The Voodoo Curse 3:48
02 Dance Of The Vampires 3:25
03 Blood On His Lips 3:00
04 Cry Of The Warewolf 4:25
05 The Mummy's Shroud 4:25
06 The Corpse Rises 3:27
07 Night Of The Living Dead 4:14
08 Your Teeth In My Neck 4:38
09 Plague Of Zombies 2:49
10 Ghost Of Frankenstein 3:20

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elsewhere

Scientist - Dub From The Ghetto (99mb)
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