Friday 25 March 2011

25th March 2001 I:B:23

Welcome back to Choose My Music. Today I have managed to find a way to add tracks to every post thanks to the wonderful people at Mflow. If you are not a member of Mflow, I suggest you get on it now...or drop me a message and take advantage of their referral scheme.

To accommodate this great service from Mflow I have also had to move my blog, so this site is now hosted on Blogger as opposed to the very restrictive Wordpress.

Anyway, lets not mess about for this one.

This weeks selection came from a chap called Andy who, like many people I have discovered since starting this blog, has such a magnificent passion for music. He also knows my sister...but you don't care about that.

After a little bit of alphabet confusion Andy chose I:B:23 which for the first time, lead me to a boxset. In keeping with the social media lead aspect of this site I had to go back to him to ask which CD I should play (he chose CD 3)

The Front Line Box Set



Front Line was a reggae label started by Richard Branson in 1978 and was a sister label to Virgin.

Virgin Records has been releasing reggae singles since 1974 and Branson, noticing the links created between punk and reggae fans took John Lydon over to Jamaica to sign some artists. The trip was a huge success with artists such as Prince Far I, Big Youth and Sly Dunbar (from illustrious group Sly & Robbie) all signing on the dotted line.

Front Line is by far a favourite label of mine, mostly because the mid to late 70's Reggae is by far my favourite era as the music became more political.

The CD's in this collection each have a theme. Roots & Reality, Love & Harmony, Dub Encounters and the one I listened to, Dangerous Deejays.

The Deejay culture in Reggae laid down the foundations for rap and hip hop 20 years before Grandmaster Flash and The Sugarhill Gang. The practice known as 'Toasting' was developed in Jamacian music sometime in the last 1950's by Count Machuki. He would go to sound systems and add vocals to the hit Ska tracks of the day. Eventually a whole wave of Deejays came to the forefront of reggae thanks to people like U-Roy, I-Roy, Dennis Alcapone and Dillinger to name but a few.

There are some classic tracks in this box set, including the wonderful 'Natty Rebel' by U-Roy which makes use of The Wailers hit 'Soul Rebel'


Other notable tracks include the heavy heavy sounds of Price Far I on 'Message From The King' and Poet & The Roots 'Five Nights Of Bleeding'



This truly is a fantastic Reggae box set which focuses solely on a very short, yet very productive period of Jamaican music. Price wise it is perhaps a little much for someone who is starting out, but most of the albums released by Frontline have since be re-issued and can be picked up quite cheap

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