Newer roots reggae

CCRGMac

I got into this discussion on another board and thought you guys might help.

I am a huge reggae fan but I have very little in my collection form the last 10 years. I guess I'm kinda conservative in my love for Roots reggae, what I listen to most are Black Uhuru, Culture, Gladiators, Dennis Bovell, Misty in Roots and Mikey Dread. Recent good stuff is out there, but it's rare - Roots Tonic (Matisyahu's backing band), Giant Panda GDS, Rhythm & Sound, Israel Vibration and even Tim Armstrong. I don't want Reggaeton, reggae loaded with electronics or rap/reggae and I don't want mysogynistic/homophobic lyrics.

Who's making good reggae these days?

qwynwyn

OK, I have a recommendation for you: Claudius Linton (http://www.myspace.com/claudiuslinton). You can listen to a few of his songs on his myspace page. Caveat: One of my friends turned me onto him, but I'm not paid to promote his music :o). I recently bought his two discs - one is a comp of his cuts from the 1970s and another a more recent release: http://www.sunkingrecords.com/.

dubdance

You may like, guessing from the acts listed in your post, Israel DUB Foundation who have free stuff on music.download.com , it's worth looking for other stuff on that site too. Other acts that I'd suggest who are on emu are Dub Trio, Radikal Dub Kollectiv, Dubmatix, Eyesight Project, Zion Train/ Tassilli Players and others on Universal Egg, dubbier type stuff done by Sanskara Dub, Pitch Black and Sensistar, or music that's not pure reggae, but definitely with roots in it and certainly not reggaeton by Sanskara Dub, Beat Pharmacy and Transdubmassive. If you don't mind the ads, wait 28 days to get ad free, free tracks, try we7.com . There's tons of older reggae and well known names on there, plus quite a bit of interesting newer stuff by people like Brain Damage, Alpha & Omega, Manasseh, Kanka, Dub Theory, Dubphonic and various compilation albums like Chapter Ii - Tribute To Remixes and the Combat Dub albums. If the ads annoy you, it's not much trouble to edit them out using audacity or a similar program, especially worthwhile if you're going to listen to the track a lot, and they are free, so it's a small price to pay, all tracks on we7 are 192 Kbit.

dubdance

Not sure how I left them out of the earlier post, but G.Corp's album from last year,G. Corp Meets The Mighty Tree - Dub Plates From The Elephants House Vol3 is on emu. The former Groove Corporation finally get to their 3rd in the series, it's got some really good stuff on it, much with a basis in roots reggae. There's more info at http://gcorp.ithinkmusic.com/my-store/detail.php?page=LR&r=3582 more info on G.Corp and associates on that site plus 1 min samples. Their earlier Vos 1 & 2 are well worth checking out too, but not all roots reggae, crossover into house and other forms, but then their roots are in Electribe 101. They have connections with Overproof Soundsystem and Rockers Hi-Fi, they're all from the Brummie reggae and dub scene. Guests/remixes include, Yabby You, Luciano, the late great Bim Sherman, various Steel Pulse members, Dillinger and Marley.

It's a shame that Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound and Pressure Sounds are not on emu in any major way, much of the label's stuff is experimental, heavy heavy dub mixed up with industrial, blues and other genres, but there's also a lot of stuff with a lighter side, more rootsy reggae sounds, which is the reason for being of the second label. On-U, home to the great Dub Syndicate and Style Scott for a long time, but in my view, none of Dub S's more recent stuff holds up to the earlier releases, not that it's bad, more that their early stuff was so damn good.