Once Again, With Feeling...

Fire, Walk With Me

The Kingstonians - "Mix It Up" (mp3)
(purchase here)

Cheers to the new year's and welcome back. While most sites talk up changes in the coming year, bigger'n better and all the blah, I walk a different line: short'n simple.

Plus, I'm lazier than the rest.

In 2006, expect (at least I do) clear ideas, concise thoughts and soulful sounds. In other words, the same from life, aight?

So, we kick it off proper at the Dawning of a New Era, a new comp from Trojan charting "the roots of skinhead reggae." For the casual listener of Jamaican music, this means rocksteady cuts from '68-'69. For the deeper head, it means big tunes that splashed across the pond. Liners write about skins as a force in the UK and in pop culture, particularly in terms of bringing reggae to the Western mainstream. The exclusion of record biz talk and the latter observation perhaps overstates the role of a niche segment of civil society, but, hey, them peanuts were in the papers at the time. Brief thoughts are also included on how the music set this historic soundscape. 42 tracks and I've picked one, a JJ Johnson production, no less. Just a nice thought from this DJ, wouldn't you agree?