DJ Spooky "Presents in Fine Style: 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records!!!" (Sanctuary)
By Ben Taylor
Monday. Jul 31, 12:57 PM
Never mind the liner notes, here’s a great classic reggae mix.

I had a very detailed introduction written out and ready to go, but it was ultimately unnecessary. DJ Spooky’s name is the marquee attraction here and hopefully that will garner some attention, but this really isn’t his show. The people at Sanctuary, whose job it is to repackage the back catalogue of a label they recently acquired, got a current name to sift through the classics and pick out some stone cold gold. But then being DJ Spooky, he had to write an unreadable essay pontificating on the meaning of it all, in the context of modern technology and communication and society, dropping some $2 words and making good use of his fancy pants Bowdoin College education.

So throw out the liner notes and just enjoy the music. Spooky picked it out and maybe sequenced it, but there’s no remixing or crossfading or any other monkeying about with the music. And what great music it is. For those not in the know, Trojan was an independent label responsible for bringing a lot of amazing early reggae music to England, before Chris Blackwell spiffed up the spliffed-up Wailers and sold them to the rock audiences.

There are a few names non-reggae fans might recognize, like Peter Tosh, Lee Perry, and Sly & Robbie, but this is a great compilation of Trojan sides centering on late ‘60s rocksteady and DJ records. A few years ago, Trojan began releasing budget priced three-disc box sets covering themes like dub, ska, DJ, soul, hits, instrumentals, etc. These were great ways to dig into the music, but they were a lot of music to wade through, ran the risk of convincing even the most open-minded listeners to start agreeing with the naysayers who say that all reggae sounds alike.

So now DJ Spooky has provided us with a great two-disc set of favorites and obscurities, all in their chugging lo-fi groovy glory. It’s the era of stuff that’s slower than ska but faster than reggae, with a variety of singers and instrumentalists doing their thing over the top. You get toasting DJs like U Roy and Winston Williams, some hot covers of standards like “Fever” and “Summertime,” even The Beatles’ “Come Together.” There’ some earthy dub from King Tubby and Roots Radics, some lovers crooning, even an old school original version of the ska song everybody knows, “A Message to You Rudy,” the first song from The Specials’ eponymous debut.

This isn’t fancy music, and there’s not much else that needs to be said. It’s reggae, but not the droning “leaving Babylon” roots stuff of the ‘70s or the smutty dancehall of the ‘80s. You can chill the well-selected tunes, whether you’re a connoisseur or a newcomer, maybe you’ll recognize some of the grooves, or it’s a new version you’ve never heard before. If you feel the need for some non-Marley reggae, there’s a lot worse ways to spend your money. You might even try to crack DJ Spooky’s liner notes to get a hint of where this music came from and where it went. But I wouldn’t recommend it, no need to think too much and spoil such sublimely easygoing music.
www.djspooky.com
www.sanctuaryrecords.com

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Ben Taylor

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