Horace Andy
Pure Ranking

2021 repress.The legendary movie soundstrack based out of Kingston, Jamaica in April 2008, telling the story of the original vocalists and musicians involved. The sixteenth release on the Moll-Selekta label shares its title with a wonderful film, a heartwarming homage to the golden age of rocksteady. It documents the recordings being made for this very album at the Tuff Gong studios, Kingston, Jamaica in April 2008, telling the story of the original vocalists and musicians involved. Excerpts from an all star reunion concert staged in Kingston and older archive material complete the picture. Never before in the history of Jamaica, which already occupies a unique place on the world map of song, its sound embraced by western popular music, has such an illustrious collection of singers and players been assembled. The album showcases 15 rocksteady classics in sparkling, deeply inspired new versions, recorded in the studio which also played host to album sessions of a certain Bob Marley. Under the musical direction of Ernest Ranglin, a guitarist of considerable renown not only on the reggae circuit, but also on the jazz scene, mixed by legendary engineer Errol Brown - in Duke Reid's employ at the Treasure Isle studio in the sixties - and freshly arranged by Lynn Taitt.

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.

COS024LP - US - 2019