Dr Bird Vinilo y CD

Review: In 1973, and with the U-Roy-inspired 'deejay style' reggae craze at its height, toasters Dennis 'Alcapone' Smith and Delroy Petgrave AKA Lizzy joined forces with engineer Byron Smith to produce an album of brand-new songs based on Treasure Isle's vast archive of Duke Reid rocksteady and early roots reggae 'riddims'. Soul To Soul: DJ's Choice is undoubtedly a landmark reggae album, though this is the first time it's been available on CD. In true Doctor Bird style, this edition of the album has been expanded considerably, with the original set's 12 tracks being joined by 16 further Alcapone and Lizzy tracks from the Treasure Isle catalogue, including plenty of cuts that have never previously been released digitally and a wealth of dub style 'versions' from the flipsides of Jamaican singles.

Review: 1975 was the year that dub music originator King Tubby teamed up with the Observer All Stars, a production outfit helmed up by Winston 'Niney' Holness. Together, Tubby and Holness handled a barrage of killer remixes of formerly wildly popular units in the mode of reggae, including famous songs by Dennis Brown, Ken Booteh, Delroy Wilson and Sang Hugh. This was one of the earliest albums to attract international interest in dub music beyond the Caribbean, with many other key players in the scene never before having enjoyed a proper release at the time. Now this showcasing of dub's peak in terms of melting-pot inventiveness gets a first-time CD issue.