Cerca:the roots

Recorded in the 1982. Roots Radics backing in a dancehall style with the drums and bass of style scott and errol flabba holt on extended 12" mixes. Produced by Jah Thomas at Channel One Studio.

John Holt began his career in ska, came to prominence in the Paragons in rock steady and achieved international breakthroughs as a solo roots crooner, remaining versatile in terms of approach and subject matter. Peacemaker is an intriguing album of the mid-1990s, this time recorded between Jamaica and the UK with top-class musicians such as Sly and Robbie, Lindel Lewis and Steely of Steely and Clevie fame. With his voice entirely undiminished and a mixture of romance ballads and songs of social commentary, this is another fine collection that will delight all John Holt fans, as well as reggae heads who favour the sentimental.

Blind Prophet returns to Dub-Stuy with a 12'' featuring the mystical voice of Daweh Congo, the renowned roots reggae singer from Jamaica. Good Morning Zion is an uplifting cut blending deep dub vibes with positive roots lyrics from Daweh, a heavyweight steppers cut backed by two dub versions. All tracks were mixed live by the engineer McPullish to give this release a deep analogue resonance.

Early DJ Support:

Iration Steppas, OBF, Ras Kwame, Don Letts, and RSD

Legendary Jamaican songsmith Gregory Isaacs' 1995 album 'Private Lesson' on Radiation Roots. The set includes laidback cuts 'Preacher Boy', 'Feeling Sad Tonight', Diplomatic Fool', 'She Doesn't Want Me', 'Slave Master' and many more.

SOURCED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES: 2LP SET PRESENTS 1991 ALBUM IN 45RPM SPEED FOR FIRST TIME.

PCM Digital Master to Analog Console to Lathe.

Dire Straits never made a big to-do about its final run. In classic understated British fashion, the band simply let its music speak for itself. And how. Originally released in September 1991, On Every Street became the group’s swan song – a lasting testament to the influence, musicianship, and integrity of an ensemble whose merit has never been tainted by cash-grab reunions or farewell treks. It remains an essential part of the Dire Straits catalog and a blueprint of the distinctive U.K. roots rock the collective played for its 15-year career.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in gatefold packaging, and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set of On Every Street presents the album like it has always been meant to be experienced: in reference-grade audiophile sound. Recorded at AIR Studios in London and produced by Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler, it features all of the band’s sonic hallmarks – wide instrumental separation, visceral textures, seemingly limitless air, broad soundstages, atmospherics that you can almost reach out and feel. Each element is made more vibrant, physical, and lifelike on this collectible reissue, which marks the first time this 60-minute work has been available at 45RPM speed.

Afforded generous groove space and black backgrounds, the songs from On Every Street burst with nuanced details and vibrant colors. Dire Straits’ playing appears to float, their intricate performances organized amid hypnotic, fluid, three-dimensional arrangements. Mobile Fidelity’s definitive-sounding set also brings into transparent view Knopfler’s finely sculpted guitar lines, expressive tones, and laid-back vocals – as well as the balanced accompaniment from his band mates. Here’s a record on which you can hear the full blossom and decay of individual notes, and imagine the size and shape of the studio. It is in every regard a demonstration disc. And it happens to be filled with timeless fare.

Remarkably, On Every Street almost never came to light. Dire Straits initially dissolved in September 1988 after touring behind its blockbuster Brothers in Arms and suffering the departure of two members. At the time, Knopfler professed his desire to work on solo material; bassist John Illsley also explored side projects. But Knopfler’s decision in 1989 to form the country-leaning Notting Hillbillies reignited a spark to reconvene his primary band and craft a fresh batch of songs. Six years removed from Brothers in Arms, Knopfler, Illsley, keyboardist Alan Clark, and keyboardist Guy Fletcher teamed with A-list session pros – steel guitarist Paul Franklin, percussionist Danny Cummings, saxophonist Chris White, guitarist Phil Palmer included – to create what still stands as an unforgettable farewell.

The platinum record brings the band full circle in that it returns Dire Straits to a quartet formation; finds the group refreshingly out of step with the era’s prevailing trends; and sees Knopfler and Co. knocking out song after song with the deceptive ease of a punter tossing back a pint at a pub. That subtle cool, clever poise, and innate control – signature traits that no other band ever matched – dominate On Every Street. Knopfler’s clean, virtuosic six-string escapades unfurl with dizzying melodicism and economical efficiency. Led by his winding fills and focused solos, Dire Straits traverse a hybrid landscape of rock, jazz, country, boogie, blues, and pop strains with near-faultless prowess.

More than any other entry in the group’s oeuvre, On Every Street welcomes quick detours down back alleys and into the depths of human souls. What makes it more brilliant is its staunch refusal to cater to commercial expectations or take advantage of prior successes; every passage feels true, every measure echoed in the service of song. It’s evident in the humorous satire of “Heavy Fuel,” closeted desperation of the witty “Calling Elvis,” and shake-and-bake bounce of “The Bug.” It pours from the album’s darker corners, as on the high-and-lonesome melancholy of the title track and bruised emotionalism of “When It Comes to You.”

Hinting at the open-minded approaches and boundless curiosity he’d embrace as a solo artist, Knopfler doesn’t limit himself when it comes to style or subject matter. Look no further than “You and Your Friend,” a shuffle whose all-inclusive lyrics encourage an array of interpretative meanings. Another of the album’s deep cuts, “Iron Hand,” comes on as one of the band’s most memorable moments – the narrative addressing the abuses of power at the 1984 Battle of Orgreave during the U.K. miners’ strike. Given cinematic heft by the expert production, the true-fiction account puts into perspective the richness, poetry, and depth of On Every Street.

“Every victory has a taste that’s bittersweet,” sings Knopfler on the title track. At least that bittersweetness seldom sounded so damn good on record.

I see lucid blue flames moving before my eyes.
I hear voices melting. Voices somewhere from within.
Speaking words I do not know but feel connected to, almost as if I have known the meaning once..
Noises that obscures the multiple pictures hidden in these digital compositions.
Iku Sakan have created a set of five tracks that takes the listener on a
trip deep into the human psyché. Emotional flickering movements that twists and turns. The albums have a darker, much more intense feel than some of Ikus earlier magical and often hypnotic music. A myriad of different voices creates pulsing patterns and constantly morphing pictures for my inner eye. It's an album that might work as a hack to our lingual structures, pushing limits, pushing possibilities of meaning.

A pool of over-saturated information boils and out of the vapor new contours take form.
The magical and hypnotic is not gone, I still recognise the softer aspects of Ikus highly detailed hybrid sound design. But I no longer see where it takes me. It excites me. It feels like the world is expanding again, breathing. The sounds on the album asks us questions and points in several directions at once. In the shadows, weeds of lucid dreams grow deeper roots, reaching for my inner ear.

The faint sounds on the track Nature Morte reminds me of expeditions to the local witch house ruins as a child. Something almost not there, something felt. History, Memories and the connection between the two seems to have played a part in these compositions. Emotional reactions that plant reactions in other people, all around creating soft movements on the face of our planet.

Whether our collective psyché is an open field or an impenetrable dark forest, is of less concern with a key like Omnitopoeia, that works like an enhanced mirror, reflecting the dreams of the words we speak everyday, reflecting the emotional charges of significant places. Unrecognisable but still remembered.

A bona fide legend from the ghettos of western Kingston, Gregory Isaacs was a true reggae original whose voice is one of the greatest of the idiom. His ballads made him a favourite with the ladies, but Gregory addressed social issues with equal conviction, and tales of rude boy life were sung firsthand. Maximum Respect is a digital killer from the early 1990s, cut for the pioneering sound system owner Count Shelley, the durable rhythms provided by Steelie and Clevie and the Firehouse Crew. With love ballads, reality tunes and songs praising the dancehall, Gregory covers all the bases and more. This is a must for all true Gregory fans!

Ornette Coleman's hugely influential 'The Shape Of Jazz To Come'
pressed on limited edition 180g premium orange vinyl.

'The Shape of Jazz to Come' was a watershed event in the genesis of avant-guard jazz. The record shattered traditional concepts of jazz harmony, disposing of both the piano player and the whole idea of concretely outlined chord changes. The album includes Coleman's classic tune 'Lonely Woman.'

"The element that pours out of this disc is creativity in strong, concentrated waves. Four of the half dozen Coleman originals in this collection grow out of bop roots, but Coleman hears other things, too. This is not easy music for the listener, but even at its most difficult it remains compelling." - John S. Wilson, DownBeat

Ornette Coleman's hugely influential 'The Shape Of Jazz To Come'
pressed on limited edition 180g premium orange vinyl.

'The Shape of Jazz to Come' was a watershed event in the genesis of avant-guard jazz. The record shattered traditional concepts of jazz harmony, disposing of both the piano player and the whole idea of concretely outlined chord changes. The album includes Coleman's classic tune 'Lonely Woman.'

"The element that pours out of this disc is creativity in strong, concentrated waves. Four of the half dozen Coleman originals in this collection grow out of bop roots, but Coleman hears other things, too. This is not easy music for the listener, but even at its most difficult it remains compelling." - John S. Wilson, DownBeat

Ornette Coleman's hugely influential 'The Shape Of Jazz To Come'
pressed on limited edition 180g premium orange vinyl.

'The Shape of Jazz to Come' was a watershed event in the genesis of avant-guard jazz. The record shattered traditional concepts of jazz harmony, disposing of both the piano player and the whole idea of concretely outlined chord changes. The album includes Coleman's classic tune 'Lonely Woman.'

"The element that pours out of this disc is creativity in strong, concentrated waves. Four of the half dozen Coleman originals in this collection grow out of bop roots, but Coleman hears other things, too. This is not easy music for the listener, but even at its most difficult it remains compelling." - John S. Wilson, DownBeat

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At one time participating in ground-breaking medical scientific research, in another a relentless road-trip, hoovering up rare records and tapes, in the nooks and crannies of France, Algeria, or any country that he happens to land in. And then there’s his long standing show for Rinse France.

Following his slamming mix for the Japan Blues show on NTS last year, he kindly offered up a selection for Japan Blues’ first tape release. Algeria is the focus of this tape, taking a brief dip into Sameer’s broad collection, coinciding with his research for his documentary film about the social history of Rai music, "Rai is not Dead" for Arte.

Words from the Hadj: “The medehates are traditional vocal formations of women from western Algeria. Their main role is to give some compliments to the future wife during a wedding, and pray to all the saints through long songs which could last for hours, until reaching a sort of transcendental state amplified by looped percussions, traditional flute, and violon notes. Exclusively for women, no men (including young boys) admitted. This ceremonial tradition gave an intimate space for women to speak out about taboo topics like men-women relationships, love, sins like alcohol consumption etc. Since then, some of them started freely to mention all of that in this small circle and some of them have been recorded live for release on 7″. I picked up a few from my collection in order to make this mix. They represent one of the most powerful and wildest roots of the raw traditional form of rai which appeared in the 50/60s in Algeri

For fans of Dead and Company, Digital Tape Machine, and Jazz Improvisation! Chicago native and Guitar prodigy, Marcus Rezak has connected with GRAMMY-award-winner Paul Nelson (Johnny Winter) to produce his next body of work entitled Guitar Head, a blues-oriented album that melds his prestige in the jam, improvisation, and songwriting world with his roots that hail from the “Home of the Blues.” Rezak is joined by fellow stalwarts on today's scene Ray Paczkowski (Trey Anastasio Band), Adrian Tramontano (Twiddle & Kung Fu), and Chris DeAngelis (Kung Fu & The Machine) throughout the album, and Little Feat's saxophonist, Erik Lawrence joins the ensemble for four tracks. Guitar Head comes highly anticipated as Marcus’ best work to date. With a outstanding team in place and properly coordinated merchandise, performances, and promotion. This album will bring Marcus to the top, once again, as one of the nations most prominent guitarists and composers.

Dynamic dancehall singer Anthony Johnson began his career in the mid-1970s, cutting a few sides for Channel One before he joined the group Mystic I who cut some great work for Lee Perry and Linval Thompson before disbanding, leading to the hit material Johnson cut for Jah Thomas as a solo singer. Togetherness dates from 1993, when Johnson was long based in London, but his singing kills remained on par as in his heyday, the album a mix of ballads, pop adaptations and songs of dancehall appeal, the soave production values and one-off vocal style making it popular in Brazil and other territories. A lost gem, ripe for rediscovery!

For fans of Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad, and Dr. Hook! Kelakos is a seventies rock band with roots in Boston and Upstate New York, known for fusing powerful rock rhythms and guitar leads with strong vocals, catchy songwriting, and rich, varied production. Now forty-four years after their first album, Gone Are the Days, Kelakos returns stronger than ever with a new 12-song album release, Hurtling Towards Extinction. The band consists of its namesake George Kelakos Haberstroh on vocals/guitar, Mark Sisson on rhythm guitar, Linc Bloomfield holding down the bass, who after Kelakos wound up in a high lever career in Washington, and rounded out by Carl Canedy who went to play with The Rods and produce albums by Anthrax, Overkill, Blue Cheer, Exciter, etc… Hurtling Towards Extinction consists of 12 new songs with highlights such as “Livin on the Planet Love” and“Smoke and Mirrors”, while making sure there is something for everyone on this release.

This is a superior Jah Thomas record with all the great midnight rock Rub A Rub riddims. A big album that represents Jah Thomas, packed full of early dancehall numbers that let you fully enjoy the wonderful atmosphere of the time, including the big hit title track!!

Muireann Bradley is a young blues, ragtime, roots and folk guitarist and singer based in Ballybofey in County Donegal Ireland. “This is my first album. Most of these tunes were originally recorded by the great blues men and women who were making records from the 1920s and 1930s right up in some cases to the early 1970s. I have also found inspiration for the renditions recorded here in the playing of some of the musicians who began recording this music in the 1960s and later, and who in some cases learned at the feet of the greats. Many of these guitarists played pivotal roles in the 1960s blues revival and subsequent “rediscovery” of many of the greats of country blues. I grew up steeped in these old blues in the hills overlooking the valley of the River Finn just outside the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. My father would play this music constantly at home and wherever we went in the car and talk about it endlessly whether anyone was listening or not, telling stories about the lives of these musicians as if they were legend, mythology or the evening news. My father could of course play all this stuff on guitar, I remember watching him when I was very young and thinking “I want to be able to do that”. When I was nine he agreed to teach me and bought me my first little travel guitar. I worked hard to learn how to play but as time wore on I seemed to have less and less time to practice as I became more and more invested in the combat sports I was regularly training and competing in. Then in March 2020 the first Covid lockdowns happened and all contact sports were shut down. I was lost for a while but soon found my way back to the guitar. I was now listening, playing and practicing with a new intensity and focus. In a very serious moment, I wrote out a list of tunes I was going to learn. The first tune on that list was Blind Blake’s “Police Dog Blues”. I’m not sure now how long it took to get that arrangement together but when it was ready we videoed me performing it and posted it on YouTube. It ended up getting a lot of attention, I remember my parents being quite shocked and soon after that Josh Rosenthal got in touch… and here we are! Each individual track on this album was recorded live in the studio and represents one entire take with me singing and backing myself up on guitar simultaneously. Most are either first or second takes. Nothing has been added or taken away, no overdubs or modern recording tricks of any kind have been used at all so at least in some respects this album has been recorded in the same way as those classics of the 1920s and 1930s

This is a very special one-off new special edition of one of the most popular of all the Soul Jazz Records" collections that has been out of print for many years! Featuring great new sleeve design as well as a special coloured vinyl pressing, Studio One Kings is a "who"s who" of the world"s greatest reggae artists. Studio One"s list of singers launched at the famous label reads like a roll call of Jamaican music. Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne and more. This album features classic and rare tracks that span the breadth of the legendary Studio One catalogue: Ska, Roots, Rocksteady, Lovers and more from the 1960s and 70s. The album also comes with sleeve-notes by the great writer Chris Salewicz, author of books on Reggae Explosion, Rude Boy as well as books on Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page, Joe Strummer and more.

A collaboration between two prestigious Italian bands, the wizards of dub and the masters of big-band ska-jazz, in perfect symbiosis. An album full of dub atmospheres mixed with orchestral patterns; compelling rhythms of the ska and reggae traditions together with dilated and hypnotic electronic sounds. A recording fruit of a challenge and a celebration of music, something that is undoubtedly reflected in the spectacular outcome. 22 musicians locked in a large studio to rediscover the beauty of sharing after months away from the stage due to the pandemic, without even being able to rehearse.

The decision to record a live album was instantaneous, it was just about enjoying the energy of the moment. All tracks were recorded strictly live in the studio, without overdubs, with the aim of apprehending something unrepeatable.

The electronics, the melodies of the wind section and the vocal power come together in this work, recorded live at Deep Studio in Treviso (Italy) and mastered by Ibon Larruzea (Bilbao), full of dub atmospheres mixed with orchestral patterns.

All this merges into a unique and explosive sound in which the strength of the big band meets the deep and hypnotic beats of dub music. The instrumental "Cascade Dub" opens the album with a rootsy, majestic brass-led track.

From there on, Michela Grena, Rosa Mussin and Freddy Frenzy jump into their vocal games, inducing a trance-like state from which you can't (don’t want to) get out. A succession of untamed riddims and expansive sounds in which, in many cases, the wind section remains crouched in the background leaving the creative element in the hands of the dubmaster unit. As small depth charges "You Can Fly", "Lion", "Moon", "Beating Heart", generate submission to the beat and texture. "Mama", the successful first collaboration between the two bands, celebrates the bright sounds and colours of mother earth, a glorious song to our home. In the face of inequality, the senselessness of war, injustice, it becomes necessary to "Shine a Light" that offers hope and, at the same time, to "Give Thanks" for what we are fortunate enough to enjoy. The power of the big band merges with the heavy and deep step of the dub.


A progression of organic, pressing cadences, as in the solidest of the ska and reggae traditions and, at the same time, electronic resonances, dilated and deep. "Sinking Sand" closes the album in a sort of sonorous fencing of styles that makes us guess (as well as the title of the album itself) that WDD and NESJO still have a lot to debate. WDD began their journey as a quartet in 2014 and prior to Studio Session #1 they had already released two albums and several singles. NESJO formed in 2012 and have previously released two albums (both available on Brixton Records) and are working on what will be the recording of their next full-length.

Northeast Italy is a border area and it's easy to connect with each other in those territories made of enchanted landscapes. That energy, that desire to experiment and get involved, have made possible this ambitious project in which a ska-jazz orchestra and a dub band, each with its own language, are assembled in an amazing sonority

Continuing their jazz inspired roots reggae releases here comes another heavily horns driven instrumental riddim from Tribe 84 Records camp. Coming from France - Benyah, together with Artz and Drop – here under the name of Palapa Brass Band premiering their material on Tribe 84 Records with great deep, skanking riddim with warm bubbling keys and sharp horn section. All played with live instruments and as always delivered in beautifully designed label.

KID FRANCESCOLI, leader of the French Riviera Touch is back with the stellar album SUNSET BLUE out Sept 22nd 2023.

After a first sold-out world tour (over 200 concerts in Europe, USA, Asia...), and successful hits such as Nopalitos, Blow Up or Moon (now certified diamond, with more than 200 millions streams), the Marseille-based producer, crooner and multi-instrumentalist, Mathieu Hocine, is eager to share his most accomplished LP ever. This fine collection of soulful songs honor his Mediterranean roots, with elegant and pop melodies. His most recent success and the creation of his first original soundtrack with AZURO, installed him as one of the best French songwriters of his generation, with a unique signature sound.

"I live in Marseille, I spent my childhood in Corsica, I have Algerian origins, my first vacations with friends were in Barcelona, vacations with my first girlfriend in Roma,... Then, I had the chance to perform in Morocco, Greece, Turkey and Egypt: each time I spent time in the Mediterranean region, the people I met there made me feel like I was part of the same country. This shared multiculturalism is really comforting, it has its own poetry and strength, bringing uniqueness and empathy to the people. It is essential for me. I love my city: it’s the perfect place to feel good with sun, sea, family, friendships, love... It gets me emotional, bringing tears with a smile".

With his new musical gem, Mathieu Hocine unveils 11 elegant tunes of his finest craft: sunbathed French Touch (Run Run, 1986), romantic chillwave (Corsica), uplifting synthpop (You Are Everywhere, Like Magic), electronic-soul (Casino Soul), cinematic disco (Solaris), cosmic R&B (Sweet and Sour, Take Time), … Everything is in this record.

For the first time ever, Kid Francescoli paid tribute to his mixed origins with his collaboration with world-renowned lute and mandolin player Hakim Hamadouche (Rachid Taha, Patti Smith, Brian Eno, Tricky...), whom added Algerian patterns to the introspectives songs Drift in Blue and The Morning After.

"My ambition is to create pictures in people's heads with music, to transport them instantly into a movie"

SUNSET BLUE is an instant-crush album: crystal-clear, strong, personal but universal at the same time.

It's an ecstatic soundtrack for this moment when time is suspended, the golden hour when everything seems possible. It feels like Love is in the air, you're living your best life and you're at the right place at the right time. This album embodies this magic moment where we would like to last forever… Like an epiphany, Kid Francescoli's new album is a moment of pure pleasure, a soothing way to escape reality.

"I see myself as a melodist.I would like my music to feel like velvet. There's something cinematic, classy about it, and yet comforting. It's very simple, popular and synonym of love and passion"

His friend French 79 co-produced the album, while the american rapper Bamby H2O brought his NYC swag (on Sweet & Sour), Stan Neff (Polo & Pan, Kungs, Christine and the Queens...) took care of the mix and Alex Gopher (Daft Punk, The Blaze, Bon Entendeur...) added a final touch of magic when mastering. Nicolas Despis (known for his work with Etienne Daho, Hoshi, Juliette Armanet... and many famous French rappers) later joined this dream-team to craft custom-made artworks. SUNSET BLUE is a deeply personal quest, a human adventure for Mathieu Hocine (whom explores his maghrebian origins, his feminine side, his subconscious space, ...). It's a male's work, but don't get it wrong, this LP would be nothing without women’s touch : Julietta (on Run Run and Take Time), Sarah Gaugler from Turbo Goth (on You Are Everywhere and Like Magic), and iOni (on Drift in Blue).

“Music has this magical power to broaden your vision of the world. It's fascinating because, like dreams, it's the kind of irrational things science can't explain and that makes life exciting."

Planets aligned perfectly on this project and thanks to this five-star cast of collaborators, Kid Francescoli achieved his personal holy grail : he orchestrated a great 21st century pop-music album.SUNSET BLUE is a new turning point between organic and electronic, both a mediterranean travel and a Californian dream, a bridge between Ennio Morriconne and modern electronic music.

Also, while it might be called SUNSET BLUE in honor of the sea and the Portuguese / Brazilian concept called “saudade”, but it is a really optimistic album, whose true colors would rather be "yellow-orange-red" in nod to the sun.

Created in the midst of the world tour, SUNSET BLUE is a direct result of the lives’ energy and fans’ joyful vibes: going back in the studio after smiling, singing and dancing with people all around the world inevitably gave Kid Francescoli the desire to retranscribe this ecstatic feeling in music. This album is a sensitive experience, from sunrise to sunset, from first track to last one. It’s an exploration of an everlasting summer, reaching its climax in the very final seconds of the track Corsica, making us want to press play and dive into this jewel all over again.

A beautiful cosmic trip, whether you like to stay in bed cocooning, to travel far, far away or to dance ‘till dawn, to catch the first rays of light.

Make sure to catch Kid Francescoli on his next world tour to have a good time.