things and time will tell.

Ghetto Priest with Skip McDonald & Adrian Sherwood – Auld Lang Syne c/w The Slave's Lament Not On Label (Graham Fagen Self-released) CD Single, UK, Feb 11, 2005 This New Year's Eve share might be too somber for a party night... but I'm hoping I'm still on good paper after the Louie Vega Xmas disco records and that you'll forgive me if this is less aimed for the holiday dancefloor. I'm no expert, but it seems that Scottish artist Graham Fagen has produced a number of works over the years exploring the history of connections between Scotland and Jamaica (especially via the slave trade). He has collaborated with musicians to produce music and sounds to accompany his installations and visuals, several times working with members of the On-U Sound family. For a 2005 exhibit called Clean Hands Pure Heart , Fagen asked that team to produce a recording that combined the New Year's standard  Auld Lang Syne with another song, The Slave's Lament , also written...

Lee "Scratch" Perry – Makumba Rock (2019, 10" vinyl) Adrian Sherwood X Lee "Scratch" Perry – Time Boom X The Upsetter Dub Sessions (2019, CD) Lee Perry stayed very active in his later years, but plenty of music industry attention was always spent playing up the wild image he had built. Not making light of it at all, but at times it could leave the impression of his antics walking the line between mental health crisis and marketing scheme. In a lot of ways, many Lee Perry albums starting at some point in the 80s were selling "Scratch" the character as much as anything he necessarily contributed to the music. The result was more than a few CDs released under his name and featuring his vocal ramblings over music produced entirely by others that were far from essential (and far from the heights of Perry's most inspiring, innovative or beautiful work from earlier days). (Confession: That " Lee Perry meets Andrew W.K. " album? I admit to buyin...

Jah Thomas ‎– Gwan A School Midnight Rock Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Jamaica, (1981/1982?) Info Chicago teachers and students are heavily on my mind as they've just started returning to in-person school (under stressful and unfair conditions, natch)... I figured a return to our occasional series of school house reggae tunes was in order. "Gwan A School" is Jah Thomas self-production released on his own Midnight Rock label, likely in 1981 or '82. Nkrumah Thomas landed hits both recording deejay cuts as Jah Thomas and as a producer for other classic dancehall vocalists. Here, Thomas rides a recut of the "Mean Girl" rhythm, named for Larry Marshall's track from the late 1960s(?). Jah Thomas comes with lyrics that are straight PSA meets early 80s dancehall: If you really can't spell / Then say a school gon' help / If you really can't write / Then say you really not right... A verb is a doing word /  Adjective is a describing word / A noun i...

We return to Bim Sherman for Reality,  his 1992 album backed by Style Scott's Dub Syndicate.  Bim Sherman & Dub Syndicate - Reality Century Records - Century 1700 Vinyl, LP, Album, UK, Nov 1992 More info on  Discogs Tracklist A1 Over The Rainbow A2 Brother And Sister A3 Keep On Moving A4 Fire A5 Rock Crys Out B1 Wake Up Reality B2 Take Me B3 Go To The Mountain B4 Best Of Love B5 Too Hot The album isn't an official "On-U Sound production," being one of the few records credited to Dub Syndicate without having Adrian Sherwood at the controls. Instead, Mad Professor contributes the mix with the great Skip McDonald as "engineer" for the actual recordings. Skip McDonald is the former Sugarhill guitarist mentioned in my last post, who not only played on pivotal funk and disco recordings and helped invent the sound of recorded hip-hop, but went on to be a central figure in the On-U orbit of artists. His guitar (and production work) became def...