Customer Reviews

In Fine Style: DJ Spooky - 50,000 Volts of Trojan

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DJ Spooky pays tribute to the earliest of the deejay cultures, the reggae dancehall selectors in his newest cd, "In Fine Style." In the 70s, a real authentic underground culture of Jamaican deejays, toasters and sound engineers pioneered roots consciousness style of the earliest reggae music. Spooky's selections are from the massive vaults of Trojan records founded by Duke Reid, a prominent deejay and music producer from the earliest days of the dancehall sound system in Jamaica. In addition to the superlative remix album, a bonus album of unremixed reggae classics is included.

The Jamaican deejay culture had a big impact on the emerging New York hip hop scene when Jamaican performers like Big Youth and U-Roy brought the technique of toasting (rhyming lyrics over a vinyl riddim track of music) in the mid-Seventies. Long before rap music mogul Russell Simmons' first protege, Curtis Blow, emerged as one of the earliest rap artists in 1980, the Harlem and Bronx hip-hop dance scene was inundated with the sound of Jamaican toasters rapping in the Trenchtown native tongue patois of the Queen's English.

Hip hop expanded the horizon by adopting Trenchtown rapping to a uniquely American "ghetto-style" treatment. Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC rhymed their street poetry to the music of planetary funk masters like James Brown, Afrika Bambaataa and George Clnton's Parliment-Funkdelic bands. In essence those early years of Trojan Records and the emergence of reggae defined the direction of American pop music for the next thirty years.

Producers like King Tubby, Duke Reid and the Mad Professors created drum n' bass heavy dub plates of popular reggae dancehall hits, especially designed for toasting. Dub plates had crashing waves of psychedelic echoes and a remix that often emphasized the "one drop" or the third beat of the measure in which a reggae drummer would hit the snare. Reggae "riddim" breaks from the conventional emphasis of the 2nd and 4th beats in most blues, rock and pop music. This down tempo off-rythym technique of "one drop" drumming and rythym guitar playing gives reggae music it's distinctive "heartbeat" quality.

Most of the songs here like the remix of Max Romeo's "Iron Shirt" & Desmond Dekker's "007 Shanty Town" are familiar to early reggae/ska enthusiasts and DJ Spooky resists the temptation to overplay his hand by doing anything more clean up the master tapes with a cleaner mix of the music. The second CD is similar to Thievery Corporation's 2001 selection of unremixed virgin masters from the vault of Verve's jazz recordings.

Intrestingly enough, DJ Spooky's selections vary between jazz and pop influenced tracks and the more traditional roots reggae. A lot of the tracks are hard to find, even for a hardcore vintage Trojan Reocrds collector like myself.

For roots reggae collectors, the 34 selected early reggae classics make "In Fine Style" the roots reggae reissue jewel of the year for 2006. For those who are newer fans of reggae, trust me on this...DJ Spooky's selections may sound a bit antiquated upon your first listen; but you will discover many rewards with repeated listening.

A case could surely be made that this is the best reggae compilation of all time. Not only is it "heavy" and "funky" and "soulful," it also has a sense of fun. Don't worry that DJ Spooky merely collected these tunes without applying his remixing magic. That doesn't matter. He should be thanked for putting together such a top-shelf compilation. Lots of tracks could be discussed, but I wish to call attentioin to one track in particular. I think it's track 7 on disc one: DISCO DEVIL. This, in my opinion, is the true gem of the entire compilation. If you're familiar with that Lee Perry produced song, "Chase the Devil," you know, "I'm gonna put on an iron shirt, and chase Satan out of Earth..." Well DISCO DEVIL is another version of that song that Lee Perry put together and it is absolutely brilliant, I can't stop listening to it, it's so cool. So I thank you, Mr. Spooky.

I agree with all the others, just a great compilation of early ska, dub, reggae, etc. not mixed, but it still has a great flow. However some people may not know, but Spooky recently released another 2 disc set called "DJ Spooky Presents: Riddim Come Forward 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records". I think it is a strictly UK thing. I couldn't find it on here, but you can find it at the Amazon UK site. Really worth checking out, just order it from them, it really doesn't cost much more than anything bought from this amazon either. The first disc on the second version is a "mix", not totally manipulated like Spooky can do, but it still is a continuous mix with Spooky throwing in his own flare. The second disc is just another compilation (not the same songs as the first disc mix). So you get two more discs full of great music. Just listening to it for the first time, but it is in the same vein as this release, just lots of classic tunes. Check it out.

Dj Spooky has done this great music service by simply compiling and sequencing it into a fabulous mix. The first disc especially is incredibly diverse and richly satisfying for neophytes and seasoned reggae lovers alike. Highly recommended.

These old school Jamaican rhythms will transport you back in time with some of the finest reggae and ska you will ever hear.

Though these CDs are a great collection of pioneers in reggae music, listeners looking for DJ Spooky's frenetic style of cut and paste remixing will find that he left all of the songs untouched. Instead he put his efforts into organizing the compilation and letting each song play in it's entirety. I was disappointed at first that he didn't remix the music but after listening to the cds a few times this collection of classics has become one of my new favorites.

this is an awsome cd and if u like reggae and like to party this is the cd for u

This is one of the best reggae albums i own i listen to it all the time, it gives u a old jamica feel and the kids and adults love it too, when i put the cd in everyone asks where i got it, i ABOSOLUTLEY reccomend this album to anybody even if reggae isnt your feel of music..... one love