V/A: Studio One Roots (2LP, orange vinyl) [SOUL JAZZ RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This orange vinyl 2LP set marks 25 years of Soul Jazz working with Studio One, with full-colour inner sleeves, a download card and Lloyd Bradley's sleevenotes. Inside are 16 roots cuts from Coxsone Dodd's vaults, from Freddie McGregor's "Africa Here I Come" to Alton Ellis's "Blackish White."

This edition

• 2LP set
• Orange vinyl
• Limited edition
• Full-colour inner sleeves
• Download card included
• Sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley

About the album

Every great reggae story seems to pass through one address: 13 Brentford Road, Kingston, home of Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One. This set digs into the label's roots side, the heavy, spiritual music of the 1970s, mixing well-known cuts with rarities pulled straight from the vaults.

It opens with The Cyclones and Count Ossie's "Meditation," a nyabinghi drum session that sets the tone, before Cornell Campbell's "Natty Don't Go" and Freddie McGregor's "Africa Here I Come" with The Sound Dimension. Willie Williams brings "Addis A Baba," Alton Ellis turns in "Blackish White," The Gaylads sing "Africa," and Devon Russell's "Drum Song" rolls along beautifully. The studio's in-house players run through the whole thing, from The Sound Dimension's "Congo Rock" to the Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites and New Establishment, and Mark Ainley compiled it with care. Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari grace the cover.

Soul Jazz has been opening the Studio One archive for a quarter of a century now, and this remains one of the best ways in. Dodd's vaults appear to be bottomless, which is more than we can say for our stockroom.

Also at Kops: more Studio One on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Listen

On Soul Jazz Records, a reissue of the 2001 compilation.