Minimalism at its best.

With an artist called Ranking Barnabas, and a kinetic title like ‘The Cold Crusher’ you’d be forgiven for expecting a chaotic and action packed cover.

Guess they ran out of ink.

That said, this simple cover works well with the music contained within – this is a no-frills, raw dub album that is well worth checking out if you can find it.

Track List:

• Roast Fish & Stout
• Raw Meat
• White Whale
• Cold Crusher
• 11-9-0
• Dub Them Roots Man
• Murderer
• Run For Cover
• Dub Me Right
• Corn Meal Porridge

Recording Engineer : Bunny Tom Tom
Mixing Engineer : Ranking Barnabas

Producer : Phil Pratt

Drums : Sly Dunbar
Bass : Robbie Shakespeare
Rhythm Guitar : Bingy Bunny
Lead Guitar : Rad Bryan
Piano : Ansel Collins
Organ : Bobby Kalphat
Horns : Herman Marquis & Tommy McCook
Percussions : Sticky & Scully Simms

Studio :
Channel One (Kingston, JA)

Listen to Dub Them Roots Man by Ranking Barnabas:

Listen to White Whale Dub by Ranking Barnabas:

This is more like it.

Elephant Man is on a mission to bring the fun back to Dancehall. His latest album is called “Dance and Sweep – Adventures of the Energy God”, and it features a fantastic piece of cartoon cover art that brings back memories of those old Greensleeves album covers (especially the Scientist ones). This is released on VP records, who actually acquired Greensleeves a while back – so the link between the two is not that surprising.

The cartoon cover protrays Elephant Man as the dancehall superhero who is here to start the party and lead the crowd in dancing. Look closely and you’ll see what looks like Usain Bolt in the background, and even Harry Potter clutching his broom for the Dance and Sweep. There’s a possible Barak Obama in the background as well?

TRACK LISTING

1. The Genesis (The Energy God’s Introduction)
2. How We Do It ft. Bounty Killer
3. Party Up In Here
4. In Jamaica
5. Nuh Linga
6. Dance And Sweep
7. Clear ft. Kardinal Offishall
8. Sweep
9. Wine And Dip
10. Dip Again
11. Swing
12. Step Ova
13. Shake It
14. Let Me Be The Man
15. Life Of The Party Ft. Bounty Killer (Digital Exclusive)

Dancehall fans will be already familiar with some of the tracklisting as recent singles like ‘How We Do It” and “Nuh Linga” are included.

Listen to ‘How We Do It” with Bounty Killer (Mad Collab riddim):

Listen to “Wine & Dip”:

Watch the official video for “Nuh Linga”:

• Buy it from Amazon.com
• Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

Prince Jazzbo, as well as being one of the more under-rated DJs – at least outside of the more passionate and knowledgeable reggae circles, also has a large footprint of both wonderful and poor album covers.

This is one of the wonderful ones.

‘Natty Passing Thru’ was first released in 1976 on Black Wax records, and was later re-released under the name ‘Ital Corner’ on Clocktower Records.

The first release on Black Wax records can be seen in the image at the top and featured a bold cover design featuring a dreadlocked face.

The release that came later on Clocktower records featured a New York style street populated by various dreads hanging around on ‘Ital Corner’. The Clocktower logo is prominent in the upper left corner of the record sleeve and the artwork was credited to Brad Osborne and Jamal.

It is quite rare for a re-release to feature artwork that is as good and as arresting as the original – I personally love the urban 70′s feeling that seeps out of the artwork on the Clocktower release and the fact that the streetlight on the album cover gives off the impression that it is only illuminating a fraction of what is going on in the busy scene – it’s like discovering some hidden part of a city, and only getting a glimpse.

The 1981 re-release also featured a red, gold, and green border (as seen in the image above).

Both releases are effectively the same album, but the track-listing is in a different order on each. The music is incredible and Prince Jazzbo DJs over a selection of Lee Perry produced Black Ark tracks. This is one of the few DJ albums to be released that was based entirely around Lee Perry’s Black Ark productions (Jah Lion’s Colombia Colly springs to mind as another).

Track Listing – ‘Natty Passing Thru’ [Black Wax release]

• Dreadlocks Corner
• Story Come To Bump
• Natty Passin Thru’ Rome
• Hold My Hand
• Prophet Live
• Ital Corner
• Bloody Dunza
• Weepin’ And Wailin’
• Live Good Today
• Life Is Gonna Easy

Track Listing for ‘Ital Corner’ [Clocktower release]:

• Ital Corner
• Natty Past Through Rome
• Prophet Live
• Prophet Dub – Satta
• Live Good Today
• Dreadlock Corner
• Coming On Strong
• Blood Dunza…
• Weeping And Wailing
• Story Come To Bump

Listen to ‘Story Come To Bump’ by Prince Jazzbo:

Listen to ‘Ital Corner’ by Prince Jazzbo:

The good news is that this album is still pretty easy to pick up on CD, or as an MP3 download (for some great pricing).

• Get it from Amazon.com
• Get it from Amazon.co.uk
• Get it from iTunes [US]
• Get it from iTunes [UK]

Released in 1985 on Powerhouse Records, this is the Undercover Lover album by Josey Wales (spelt Jose Wales on the cover).

It features very distinctive artwork by the legendary Wilfred Limonious – the cover features Josey Wales kissing a topless woman (the woman also has ‘Handle with love’ stamped on the rear of her jeans – Limonious would often write text across his album art).

As usual for an 80s Limonious album cover, it features bright colours, hand-drawn cartoons, and comic style speech bubbles – the rear of this particular cover articulates a stark warning to Josey ‘The Colonel’ Wales with a cartoon woman stating: “Jose Wales, if you ever leave me for another girl, I’ll cut off your you know what!”

Josey Wales was one of Jamaica’s biggest DJs in the 1980s and his gruff, but melodic flow, coupled with snappy and witty lyrics created many classic hits – “Undercover Lover” was a huge hit single.

This is classic 1980s dancehall through and through – from the album cover to the music and the riddims. Greensleeves have just re-issued this album so make sure you check it out.

Track List:

• Undercover Lover
• Throw Me Corn
• Pon Street Again
• Jose Ready
• Nuffy Nuffy
• Love I Can Feel
• Don’t Come Distress Me
• Freeze Who Goes There
• Come Watch The Sound
• Rocking Time

Listen to ‘Undercover Lover’ by Josey Wales:
Try not singing along to this – it’s basically impossible….

Listen to ‘Throw Me Corn’ by Josey Wales::

The Undercover Lover album has just been re-released, so you’ve got no excuse really….

• Get it from Amazon.com
• Get it from Amazon.co.uk
• Get it from iTunes [US]
• Get it from iTunes [UK]

This is going straight into the Iconic & Classic Album Covers category.

Produced by Lee Perry and classed by many as one of the greatest vocal roots albums ever made, The Heart Of The Congos also has a wonderful album cover to match the music.

The cover shows Cedric Myton and Roy Johnson, the main vocalists, playing congo drums in, what is said to be, a local fishing shed – which totally suits the ‘local’ and ‘rural’ feel that the music conveys.

The album itself has also been known as ‘Heart of the Congo Man’ and was first released on Lee Perry’s ‘Black Art’ label in 1977.

If you have never heard this album, then you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy – it is a dense and complex roots production with soaring vocals and melodies. The uninitiated may find it hard going at first, but perseverance will eventually reward you as you’ll discover more and more layers to the album with every listen. Steve Barrow (founder of Blood & Fire records and reggae historian) stated the “Heart Of The Congos is the most perfectly realized album to come from Lee Perry’s Black Ark.”

Track List:

• Fisherman
• Congoman
• Open Up The Gate
• Children Crying
• La La Bam Bam
• Can’t Come In
• Sodom And Gomorrow
• The Wrong Thing
• Ark Of The Covenant
• Solid Foundation

The album has been reissued a number of times on a number of different labels, and more recently the now (sadly) demised Blood & Fire label produced an extended version that captured extra tracks and recordings.

The album cover produced for the re-issue was reverential to the themes contained in the original songs, and even tried to maintain the ‘home-made feel’ to the artwork – it featured the original cover mounted in the center of a sculpture, and surrounded it with symbols relating to the spirit and themes contained within the album.

Album cover for the Blood and Fire re-issue of ‘Heart of the Congos’:

Track Listing for the Blood and Fire re-issue of ‘Heart of the Congos’:

• Fisherman
• Congoman
• Open Up The Gate
• Children Crying
• La La Bam Bam
• Can’t Come In
• Sodom And Gomorrow
• The Wrong Thing
• Ark Of The Covenant
• Solid Foundation
• At The Feast
• NicodemusCongoman
• Congoman Chant
• Bring The Meakabeak
• Noah Sugar Pan
• Solid Foundation

The re-issue is a nice tribute to the original album, but at the end of the day we prefer the original photo and hand-made design of the original release for defining the spirit of this wonderful album.

Listen to ‘Children Crying’ by The Congos:

Listen to ‘Fisherman’ by The Congos:

Still widely available on CD or download:

• Get it from Amazon.com
• Get it from Amazon.co.uk
• Get it from iTunes [US]
• Get it from iTunes [UK]

Sounds (and looks) like a pheromone spray product – add a gruff voiceover and some sleazy jazz-funk in the background and you’ve got yourself a pheromone advert.

Released on Cha Cha Records in 1979, this is an instrumental album from Dean Frazer and The Horns Men. Dean Frazer was actually born ‘Dean Fraser’ but his surname appears spelt with a ‘z’ on many releases.

We have a soft spot for this album cover (not just because of the boobs) as it contains some real reggae legends and some heavy cuts – which makes the juxtaposition of the teenage innuendo of the album cover and the serious musicianship inside even more puzzling and fun.

Produced by Ossie Hibbert, his album is packed to the brim with musical talent, just check the names, it’s a who’s who of roots reggae:

• Drums : Sly Dunbar
• Bass : Robbie Shakespeare
• Rhythm Guitar : Bo Peep
• Lead Guitar : Chinna & Michael Chung
• Organ : Ossie Hibbert & Ansel Collins & Winston Wright
• Piano : Gladstone Anderson & Ossie Hibbert
• Tenor Saxophone : Dean Fraser
• Trombone : Vin Gordon
• Trumpet : Headley Benett & Bobby Ellis
• Percussions : Sticky & Barnabas & Scully Simms

Track List:

• Story Book Children
• Lovers Samba
• If I Was A Carpenter
• Black Mamba
• Sweet Africa
• Brandy
• Love Jah
• River To The Bank
• Ethiopian Love Song
• Get Ready

Outside of record fairs, Pure Horn isn’t really available anymore, but you can still pick up other classic Dean Frazer music online:

• Check out Dean Frazer at Amazon.com
• Check out Dean Frazer at Amazon.co.uk

This other vintage shows a young Prince (King) Jammy dubbing at the mixing desk in the studio, with Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee dancing around in the background among clouds of smoke.
Prince Jammy in the Studio:

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A modern dancehall album that doesn’t look like a modern dancehall album! Understated, well designed, nice fonts.

Gappy Ranks has just released his debut album and the album cover is really nice.

The album itself couldn’t strictly be classed as hardcore dancehall by any means (although Gappy has released pure dancehall tracks in the past), it is more of a well written tribute to reggae music over the years – so in that sense the album art really works well. It has a real Studio One, or blues feel to it – even down to the detail; if you look closely you can see it has been designed to look like one of the old paper album sleeves that contains a big slab of vinyl that has worn through, and has become imprinted on the outer cover.

Interview with Gappy Ranks on the making of his new album:

Put The Stereo On – Gappy Ranks: Track Listing:
1. Mountain Top
2. Heaven In Her Eyes
3. Put The Stereo On
4. Pumpkin Belly
5. Happiest Day Of My Life
6. Musical Girl
7. Little Understanding
8. They Shall Love
9. So Lost
10. Soul Rebel

Worth picking up or checking out further:

Listen to Put The Stereo On by Gappy Ranks:

Buy or Download Put The Stereo On by Gappy Ranks:

• Buy or download from Amazon.co.uk
• Buy or download from Amazon.com
• Download from iTunes [US]
• Download from iTunes [UK]

“Welcome To Jamaica” indeed – trapped liked a rabbit in the headlights of Buster’s ‘Pum Pum’ aiming sights; was this posed for or was it a gonzo ‘street photo’ where one of the ‘All Stars’ jumped out and snapped her?

Either way, she looks genuinely worried and the photo gives off a tangible sense of fear; don’t wreck it Buster, you may want to use it again at some point in the future.

This was first released in 1968 on FAB Records, and depending on your viewpoint it you’ll find it either a cheeky and bawdy collection of fantastic rocksteady dance tunes, or a collection of slightly misogynistic but fantastic rocksteady dance tunes.

Our opinion: A wonderful collection of 1960s slackness fun.

Prince Buster could teach the 2Live Crew a thing or two when he is in his ‘slackness’ mode, as he is here.

Track Listing:

• A1 Wreck A Pum Pum
• A2 Wreck A Buddy
• A3 Rough Rider
• A4 Pum Pum A Go Will You
• A5 Whine And Grine
• A6 Ten Commandments
• B1 Beg You Little More
• B2 Pussy Cat Bite Me
• B3 Pharaoh House Crash
• B4 The Abeng
• B5 Train To Girls’ Town
• B6 Stir The Pot

Listen to ‘Wreck A Pum Pum’ by Prince Buster. Gotta love those horns…

Listen to ‘Rough Rider’ by Prince Buster:

Pretty tough to find now, but CD’s often pop up online, so it’s worth checking these links:

• Buy it from Amazon.com
• Buy it from Amazon.co.uk