Unconquered People : Israel Vibration

This disc provides a great look at one of Reggae's sweetest vocal trios in their prime.  Original recorded material from about 1978-1980 and released on LP by Talent Music in 1978 and Greensleeves in 1980, then on CD in 1990 also by Greensleeves and again in 1996 on RAS.  Israel Vibration is a killer vocal trio with it's three legendary members: Skelly, Apple, and Wiss. Their albums from the seventies to early eighties are the heaviest, from the last great roots movement coming out of the '70's.  The backing musicians on this one include Augustus Pablo and the Barrett's (Aston "Familyman" and Carlton).  10 tracks total on this one.  Recorded at Tuff Gong - Kinsgton with mixing engineer Errol Brown.  These three tracks are a good example of what this album offers: #2 (Friday Evening), #5 (Top Contol), #10 (Practice What Jah Teach) this last track has a killer guitar riff and a great conscious message.  There's a little horns, piano/keyboard in almost all the tracks.  It's a well engineered and produced set.

Harder than the Best - Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost : Burning Spear

These are two great albums that represent a great cross-section of Burning Spear Material.  With Garvey and Garvey's Ghost, you get the heart of the message of Burning Spears music.  Harder Than the Best was a short order compilation of sorts representing material from '75-'77 with eleven tracks total.  Originally released on LP in 1979 by Island and then again in 2000 on CD.  These two discs share quite a few cross-over tracks including : The Invasion, Marcus Garvey, and Slavery Days.  This disc has one of my favorite Burning Spear tracks "Man in the Hills".
Burning Spear 100th Anniversary is really the way to go, it includes both the Marcus Garvey & Garvey's Ghost (dub) albums.  This was also an Island release CD.  The Garvey's Ghost dub set is a nice instrumental dub with out too much effects.  This material was originally recorded in '76 and fits in with the other mid seventies tracks from Harder Than the Best.  You get a good twenty tracks total on the 100th Anniversary, including the killer dub "Farther East of Jack".  The music found on these two discs is a decent portion of the great seventies catalog that Burning Spear has presented to us and this time frame is were his most famous work is from. 

Shaolin Temple : Barrington Levy

Barrington Levy's Shaolin Temple is a great roots album from the Auralux label (CD) released in 2006 and the original LP release from Jah Guidance in 1979.  The CD release has 14 tracks with four extended tracks and a super-bonus of Jah Thomas / Lawes Rockers Version of Shaolin Temple.  It's a killer dub instrumental of the humbling title track.  This is probably the second best Barrington Levy (Non-Compilation) album only bowing to English Man.  Barrington displays the same vocal prowess executed in English Man and the Producer Junjo puts together the driven crew of experts that pushed this album out, including: Mixing Engineer Scientist and Backing Band  Roots Radics.  You'll hear many familiar Junjo rhythms, used by others such as Daweh Congo.  Track twelve shares the beat with Daweh's killer track Human Rights & Justice.  The best tracks on this fully outstanding album are track #3 (Bounty Hunter w/ an outstanding intro), and numbers #13 & #14 which are both extended version of the title track Shaolin Temple.  Another good source to find other versions of many of these tracks is the Roots Radics Dub Fi Junjo disc, a dub tribute to the late Junjo Lawes.