Customer Reviews

Trojan Box Set: Instrumentals

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This is a sweet friggin' box-set of instrumental Jamaican music for a VERY low price. There are 3 discs and FIFTY tracks here! It's like buying a small DJ crate of rare Jamaican sides for next to nothing! There is some ska-era stuff, a good deal of rocksteady, and tons of what we who enjoy these things label "early reggae." Of course the instrumental stuff from these periods were less tethered to the Jamaican popular forms than the vocals were, moving easily from r&b to soul to jazz to funk, to Latin, and all over the place, mixing up the stuff to create whole new styles. This is killer stuff, pure and simple. Beginners might want to get into classic Jamaican instrumental music with a disc such as Heartbeat's "Downbeat The Ruler" or Soul Jazz's "Studio One Scorcher," the two of which are the best of their type. Soon enough, however, you'll be wanting to add this groovin' set to your collection, and it will be worth every cent, and then some. Awesome.

P.S. - Check out Trojan's "Alpha Boy's School" disc as well, for more killer instrumentals from this period.

While some of these tracks are on the obscure side, this is one of the most enjoyable instrumental compilations in any genre that I ever purchased. I highly recommend it even to those unfamilliar with Jamaican music of the 60's (most of these tracks fall into the ska/rocksteady/early reggae period).

With Trojan Records, you'd think you'd pretty much be in the arms of Jah with anything you buy. Not necessarily so, here. Although this collection contains some decent standouts from the Harry J All Stars et. al, most of the material borders on kitsch and comes off as somewhat dispensable within just the first listen, unlike much of the instrumental/dub work of Lee Scratch/Upsetters. Unless you're dedicated to collecting all these box sets, go with another and you might get a few of the better selections offered here.