Mike Anthony
Why War

Austudy Records is proud to present it’s debut release Burning It Up: Australian Reggae (1979-1986). Acompilation surveying the influence of Reggae on Australia’s preoccupation with Rock, Pop and New Wavebetween the years of 1979-1986. This selection of 8 obscure tracks originally issued on 7” records representsome of the earliest examples of Reggae sounds in Australian recorded music.

Originally released in 1988 ‘Hot Rock’ was the final single from Pennsylvanian based roots reggae band House Of Assembly. The band, comprising main songwriter Norman Bailey, Marc Campbell, Claver Campbell and Louis Putman, grew up in the Water House area of Kingston, Jamaica bonding over their shared love of Dub & Reggae. The 4 members moved to Pennsylvania in the US in the early 80’s and released one album ‘Confusion’ on the local Meadowlark label, touring throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and becoming stalwarts of the Pennsylvanian roots scene.The band started their own Concrete label in 1988 releasing ‘Hot Rock’ complete with a Dub Version possessing a potent combination of punchy 707 drum programming, killer rolling bassline, stripped back lead guitar and a rising synth line. For the official reissue there’s an added ‘Rockapella’ version not found on the original 12” and a new full sleeve jacket designed by Bradley Pinkerton.

The next official reissue is an off the wall Dub album from Ambient Warrior originally released in 1995 on the Lion Inc label. The album is rooted in Dub but has a much broader scope taking in various musical influences from across the globe.Founder Ronnie Lion explains the concept “The Ambient Warrior was created as an outlet for myself and Andreas Terrano. At the time I was running Lion Music in Brixton, a popular mainly vocal roots label, and Andreas was teaching engineering at our studio. I soon realised he was a very talented guitar and piano player (Basement Jaxx also thought so and he worked with them around this time) and like myself we both wanted to create music that reflected our diverse influences. Andreas is of Italian, Armenian and Russian heritage and these musical influences clearly come through on the LP; over a Dub and Reggae backdrop you’ll hear a Tango and Bossa Nova style. The players on the album also come from different nationalities and genres, not just from the reggae scene, so this really created something authentic and unique”.The LP has been fully remastered from the original DAT tape with new full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton. Pressed on heavyweight 180 Gram Vinyl.