Forward the Bass - Dub from Randy's 1972-1975 : The Impact All-Stars

If you love a good straight forward dub album, then you should love this disc. It's in my top ten dub albums of all time. Blood & Fire is no slob when it comes to sound quality and production value. You get 15 tracks of clean, killer, instrumental dub from such legends as: Bingy Bunny, Familyman, Sly, Tommy McCook, the Wailers, the Impact All-Stars, and Augustus Pablo. My favorite tracks on this one are: #5 (Wire Dub), #9 (Last of the Jestering), and #12 (S-Corner Dub). S-Corner Dub has the melodica pushed to the background with an ambient echoing affect that gives this track a foggy-night/spy work type of feal to it. Another great addition to this roots dub catalog is the harmonica work they sneak in on about every third track. The harmonica work is credited to the mysterious "Chicago Steve", who's great at adding the perfect touch of soul to the dub out. Like most Blood & Fire CD's this disc comes with a great booklet that tells the story of Randy's and it's various reggae engineers.

Rockers from Channel One : Linval Thompson

If you like multiple version sets with dj and dub tracks, then you should eat this up big time. A true master of roots reggae; Linval Thompson is showcased on this CD along with Ranking Dread , Big Joe, and the Revolutionaries. This disc is a 2001 release from Trojan with a large 22 tracks. Some of the Linval vocal tracks are considered classics and can be found on other discs ( Ride On Dreadlocks : Linval Thompson ) and compilations ....... but the alternate versions really make this a great disc for your collection. My favorites on this one are: #2 (Natty on the Rock - dreader than dread version by Ranking Dread), #17 (Love Can Conquer - love is the question version by Big Joe), and #18 (Poor Man - love is the question version by Ranking Dread). This isn't a cheap production of extra tracks slapped together. It's a very well thought out set of lyrical versions that would really take a little work to dig up elsewhere - BIG Thanks to Trojan for this one.

Climb the Ladder : Bob Marley & the Wailers

Climb the Ladder is a decent release, the bulk of the material is old school vocal trio Wailers featuring Bunny and Peter in the lead as well as Bob. This disc has 17 tracks total, but my favorites on this one are: #2 ( I'm Gonna Put It On), #3 (Lonesome Track), and #10 (Sinner Man). You might have some of these tracks on other Bob Marley or Wailers compilations. I actually prefer the JAD released series of discs called "The Complete Bob Marley & the Wailers". The sound quality is better on the JAD discs and multiple versions are offered on many of the tracks. Climb the Ladder was released by Heartbeat in 2000. It's a more rocksteady and ska set from the mid-sixties when there was still a large R&B and Soul music influence on the Jamaican scene. This is a strange CD because it's billed as Bob Marley mainly. I just don't feel like this enough time was put in to this CD - it's make-up of commonly used Wailers tunes just makes this disc another lack-luster compilation and you might have the material covered in your collection already. It's worth a listen, just so you know what's out there.