Bob Marley, Exodus on MFSL gold CD (if you can find one) is superb!
Quality recordings of reggae/ska and alternative
I need help expanding my "reference" cds of reggae, ska and alternative rock; I'm interested in those with the highest quality recording and wide soundstage (if possible with this genre of music!). Does near audiophile quality exist for these genres? What are your recommendations? Some of the favs in my collection are: Cake, Ben Folds, Beck, Bare Naked Ladies, Bob Marley Legend, Steel Pulse, They Might Be Giants, Muse; I could go on with my list but want your suggestions on music that sounds great on 2 channel audiophile systems. Thanks!
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The Specials The English Beat Madness Have all produced some awesome stuff ....enjoy. and for something modern Rebelution |
Bad Manners,(buster Blood vessel rumored to have eaten 24 big Macs in one sitting, and I am sure he had a good sitting afterwards,lol) Fun Boy 3, *Ian Dury & the Blockheads- 'New boots & Panties'- a must! The Selecter Maxi Priest The (English)Beat Prince Buster Dave & Ansel Collins *The Bolshoi-'Lindy's Party'- Desmond Dekker Jimmy Cliff Public Image Limited *high quality. The rest, who knows? Check out this site for a comprehensive list of Ska bands http://www.billtanner.net/ska/skabands.html Now where's my ancient Ben Sherman, braces, Doc Martins & Harrington Jacket. Nostalgia. |
Great recommendations, so thanks everyone! I'm very familiar with many of the 80's ska/reggae bands (I enjoyed many UB40, Specials and English Beat shows and even saw Selector at the Whiskey in 1980), but there are many bands here I'm not familiar with, so I'm loving this! The Rebelution song on Youtube(link in earlier response) is great, so it's a must buy! Please keep the recommendations coming! |
Arkology: the 3 CD retrospective of Ark Studios in Kingston: the near complete Lee "Scratch" Perry Asward Augustus Pablo Black Uhuru Burning Spear Chaka Demus & Pliers The Congoes Devon Irons Dillinger The Heptones Jacob Miller and Inner Circle Jimmy Cliff Junior Dread Luciano Max Romeo The Meditations Mikey Dread Peter Tosh Raphael Green Steel Pulse Third World Toots and the Maytals U-Roy |
The Specials first album should be in every collection. Amazing writing, playing and production. There is also a wonderful compilation from the 1980s called the "2 Tone Story" that assembled all the English bands together, including the Bodysnatchers, The Beat. Madness, Rico, the Selecter and the Specials. Island Records came out with a similar compilation called "Island 40th 1972 - 1995 Reggae Roots" that has many of the seminal artists listed above. I highly recommend "Arkology Volumes 1 to 3" for dub reggae by Lee "Scratch" Perry and some of the newer Trojan Records compilations for lessor known Reggae groups. A great source of information is Wax Poetics Magazine, which has featured Jamaican artists over their 37 editions. Check out their website. |
If you really want to expand your horizons; you should give the Jazz Jamaica All-Stars a listen! In particular; 'Massive' & 'Double Barrel'. Big Band Ska/Reggae, beautifully recorded and very well played. Huge added bonus is that one can usually find these on the very cheap on Ebay! Don't be fooled by the price or the seemingly 'gimmicky' genre, this is outstanding music! |