Roots Archives Forum

Pretty much *anything* on the Blood & Fire label...
Chantells & Friends - Children Of Jah
Junior Byles & Friends - 129 Beat Street
Yabby You - Jesus Dread

I'm with Kalcidis on this one. One of the first reggae albums I owned as well. When I first started buying reggae music, if the credits said produced by Junjo, backed by the Roots Radics and mixed by Scientist I bought it no questions asked. I was never disappointed.

And just to note, the album that really got me into reggae (besides Bob Marley of course) was already mentioned by DWick....Israel Vibration- Same Song. Was in a record store and some random guy picked up that cd and told me and my friend "Buy this album, it will change your life"....and it did.

BEST THING TO DO. go to pandora.com or spotify and just do the reggae genre stations. you will start pickin out stuff u like.

then hit up the roots archives and listen to anything made or engineered by scientist or prince jammy.

some good 1979-1981 music

eek a mouse - wa do them
the congos - congo ashanti
hugh mundell- africa must be freee by 1983
RANKING DREAD - ALL

Agree the Maytones are all worth picking up (although their ealier stuff is more early reggae/rocksteady than roots) madness by them is a great album

harvest uptown famine doentown is great though more upbeat disco infuenced than strictly roots.

The wailing souls are great, although if your looking for roots I think they are more 80,s Dancehall than 70's roots

that beat street junior Byles album someone mentioned is brilliant

Hi,

Nice you are trying new music. Apart from al the albums and artists mentioned before, which are excellent choices you have to determine your taste. As with many other music genres you have got within reggae many choices.

Maybe you like old ska, the rocksteady, the ealy roots, the early dj's roots and roots dj's, britsh ska, Britisch reggae, American reggae. Early dub late 70ties dub or beginning of 80 dub. May be you like the 80- dancehall or some new roots artist or dub. May be you like it all (all have there highlights).

Try them all, get a pefference and the people here can recommend you further. Success with your journey must of us are half way.

www.reggae-wise.eu

What, no Dennis Brown!?

Visions
Wolf and Leopards....

or Sugar Minott.....

Live Loving
Showcase........

shake wrote:What, no Dennis Brown!?

Visions
Wolf and Leopards....

or Sugar Minott.....

Live Loving
Showcase........

Those two Sugar Minott albums are outstanding

I started with Maytals Sweet And Dandy, I recommend you this!
Than try Black Uhuru's Black Sounds Of Freedom, in my opinion best ever reggae record!
If you want dub, go with Culture In Dub.
For DJ's check Eek-A-Mouse Wa-Do-Dem.
I also recommend Gladiators and Culture's first albums!

the albums that got me into roots reggae are:

The Gladiators - Dreadlocks the Time is Now
The Congos - Heart of the Congos
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey

Moreso than any other genre, aside from perhaps jazz, you'll come to find that the more you listen and learn about reggae the more you'll love it. It's very exciting to learn about all the artists, producers, studios, house bands, and players, then track down the other albums they were involved with. When you eventually start getting into dub and dancehall you'll never look back.