Back catalogue: Dancehall/Ragga

Review: Albert "Alchemist" Thompson's Promise Land comes courtesy of Freestyle Records and has great appearances on the mic from reggae and dancehall greats Frankie Paul, Joseph Cotton, Prince Malachi and Anthony John. It has never before been released and has had a long maturation period over the last 30 years. Albert Thompson was chief engineer at I&I Sound Recording Studio once it left LA and head to Jamaica and he saw work with greats like Dennis Brown, Bunny Wailer and Gregory Isaacs. He laid down these rhythms in 1991 during some downtime and then added the vocals 16 years later in London when working with talented local and touring Jamaican artists.

Review: The Flesh & Blood label kicks on here with a nice blood-red vinyl 7" featuring a hard-hitting new tune from Dixie Peach. 'Rebel Muzik' hits plenty of key dancehall hallmarks - the shiny, metallic digital chords, the stepping rhythms, the swaggering bass down low and some fine bars up top. On the flip, you can find a more heady and stripped-back version with some melon-twisting effects and dangling piano chords courtesy of the in-house Flesh & Blood Posse's own version. Plenty of damage will done with either of these providing they are played loud and at the right time.

Review: The newly formed Dreadlionsmusic label out of Austria debuts here with a fresh EP featuring the eponymous producer Dreadlionsmusic. They take charge of two tunes - the first features the mic work of Fitta Warri on 'Full Control' which has fleshy drums wobbling backwards and forwards and natty dub vocals with some fresh and futuristic synth work next to classic chords. Dreadlionsmusic then offers up a dub take, as they also do of the second tune 'Heart & Soul'. The original is another bit of well-made dub steeped in tradition but with fresh production bringing it right up to date.

Review: The proverbial 'Soundboy Killa' is an enduring trope in soundsystem culture at large, referring to the apparently inherent enmity and villainy of the turntablist. Said to have originated in the days of system clashes, the assassin in question presumably refers to the opposing MC, whose barraging verbiage may pack enough semiotic punch to K.O. the opposition through mere utterances alone. Here Natty Campbell and the Freestylers pay tribute to the theme as progeny of the 90s big beat scene; having come up in the age of Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers, the supergroup first faced off in a whirl of tricky dub and armour-plated cold cuttage, dispatching two honorary tracks in the style of each artists' respective greatest scene-hitters: Dub Pistols' 'Cyclone' and Freestylers' 'Roughneck'. Now 'Soundboy Killa' and 'Jump On It' in turn hear a remix from Allergies and Guadi & Don Letts, the latter of which is especially experimental in its use of a peaky, 2-step shuffle.

Review: Jamaican musical heritage in all its glory gets distilled into this super new collaboration between Newham General (son of the late, great soundman Farda Waz) and Bristol's Dubkasm. Dub, reggae and grime all get drawn upon and twisted up with kette drums and rapid-fire vocals to make for something urgent and direct but timeless. The hard-hitting bars from Foots bring a sense of menace to the equally dark low ends, with digital synths and stepping rhythms all present and correct. The legendary Iration Steppas also feature with one of their signature mixes.

Review: Jamwax presents the resurrection of a hard-hitting space synth masterpiece, Winston Fergus' 'In Ting Sound'. Lyrically an impassioned plea to free Nelson Mandela around the time of his incarceration, the titular A-sider is notable for its undeniable fusion of the dub reggae sound with space disco and synth element, owing to its later recognition as a track that refuses to be constrained by the passage of time. Now reissued in full force, it comes replete with the original set of tunes it was recorded alongside, including the teeth-gritting jovial dancehall of 'Mandela', the digital underwater weirdness of 'Life All Over', and the versiony goodness of said track with 'Finnegan', an alternate vocal take of the B1. A curio that all heads must surely know.

Review: Fly T is back on the Japanese label Ninjapan Music with a beguiling two-tracker on 7". 'JapaNepal' brings a world mix of sounds including dub and sun continental rhythms, exotic flutes and some unique take on ragga vocals. It's a colourful and playful cut with a hefty low end that will be a standout cut in any set. '567' (Tengaku dub mix) is a psyched-out and deep dub with an Indian twist and bottomless bass. Two brilliantly original cuts for sure.

Review: Footsie is widely thought of as one of grime's most legendary voices and a legend of the game. From his early collaborations with D Double E as part of Newham Generals to his solo work, his roots in sound system culture run deep having grown up as the son of a system operator. Footsie was heavily influenced by reggae and dub and now runs his father's renowned King Original Sound. Returning to the label is Nottingham's Adam Prescott, who provides a heavy, dubwise riddim for Footsie to showcase his distinctive flow.

Review: "Eclectic digital dub" are the words Digital Sting use to describe the latest from Feel Free Hi Fi. Given Feel Free Hi Fi also run the label, we can take the phrasing as gospel. A few minutes into 'Blood' and you'll be short of any evidence to suggest otherwise, too. Bringing together the timbres, aesthetics and tones that have defined their preceding short form and extended play output, this is a debut album which defines the idea of an amalgamation of sounds. Drawing on their own experimentations, but also a multitude of canons and sub genres, industrial meets weirdo dancehall, meets broken techno, meets spacey stepping beats, meets frog sounds, and then some more. Cinematic, au naturel, yet also born from machines as much as Mother Earth, if you're not hearing this come 10am at one free party this year we'll eat our steel-toed hemp shoes.

Review: Active since the early 1980s, Robert Ffrench is a curio in the reggae scene, with a penchant for extra drum machines and a distinctly wacky sound. Emblematic of Ffrench's approach to music-making is the album 'Wondering', which here comes reissued via 333. Entirely themed around the tumult of Ffrench's relationships while living in 1980s Jamaica, hilarities like 'I Can't Finance You' and 'Heart Breaker' reflect the artist's intense thoughts on the various women in his life. It's all helped along, best of all, by his remarkable synthwork, making this an essential listen.