TITLE: Sweet Reggae Music 1979-84
LABEL: VP
Barrington Levy is one of the seminal artists in the development of Jamaican popular music’s dancehall genre, in which vocalists extemporize in song, rap (“toast” or “deejay” in the local parlance) or both over backing tracks in the studio or in live performance. Producer Henry “Junjo” Lawes first teamed a 15-year-old Levy with the mighty Roots Radics rhythm session in 1979; they released a ton of now-classic material over the subsequent five years. The Levy/Junjo/Roots Radics sound (all of disc 1), combining Barrington’s spontaneous, androgynous singing with the Radics’ hard, danceable roots riddims and dub-influenced mixes by Scientist, Prince Jammy and Kojak, is some of the best of dancehall’s early years. And as Levy branched out to work with other producers (most of disc 2), Jah Screw re-purposed him as a “sing-jay” to brilliant effect (2-19 and 2-20). If you like lovers’ rock, try 1-10 and 11; for gospel, 1-17 and 2-13 (the latter features Sly & Robbie); for straight roots, the best are 1-2, 6 (amazing!) and 14; and 1-20 is classic early dub. Brilliant, essential stuff.
TOP TRACKS: Disc 1 – 2 6 10 11 14 17 20 Disc 2 – 13 19 20
ALSO RECOMMENDED: Disc 1 – 4 5 7 9 15 16 Disc 2 – 2 3 10 15 17
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