Originally appeared in The Coldest Issue # 1

Dennis Bovell, The Dubmaster (The Essential Anthology), Trojan (2022)

Anthology of tracks from the producer, songwriter, group leader and singer. Roots reggae, lover’s rock and dub from the 1970s and 1980s fill this 2 hour + collection. Highly recommended. Trojan Records has also recently digitally  released 4 1970s dub albums of Bovell’s. All solid.

Earl Van Dyke and the Soul Brothers “That Motown Sound”, Motown (1965)

Earl Van Dyke and the Soul Brothers, better known as the Funk Brothers, were Motown Records’ in-house band. If you’re aware of a Motown hit between the late 1950s and early 1970s, chances are that they played the instruments. That Motown Sound consists of instrumental versions of some of these hit songs up to that point. While not lo-fi by any means, it sounds less polished than the more known recordings which is probably because of the bit of improvisation present as well as the lack of strings.

King Jammy, “King Jammy Destroys the Virus with Dub”, Greensleeves/VP (2022)

Legendary dub producer returns with a 12 track, 46 minute album themed around COVID-19. The cover artwork alone is worth a purchase of a physical copy. The music is somewhat routine, workman-like dub that are redos of tracks from Jammy’s extensive back catalog.

Magic Slim “Born On A Bad Sign”, MCM Blues (1977)

A good sounding, yet still raw, live Chicago blues recording from 1976, this release confirms my belief that Chicago blues is meant to be heard live and that studio recordings rarely do it justice. This performance occurred at Ma Bea’s on the West Side of Chicago. The club is long gone, but the building remains and I hope to write a short history of it and the area around the place for the next issue.

Roc Marciano & The Alchemist “The Elephant Man’s Bones, ALC/Marci Enterprises (2022)

Roc Marciano inspired a whole scene of 1990s NY hip-hop revivalists with his 2010 debut album Marcberg. Since then, a conglomeration of various rappers and producers have followed in his footsteps with a mountain of releases. Westside Gunn, CRIMEAPPLE, Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, Flee Lord, Mach-Hommy and Tha God Fahim are just a few who can credit their modest following to the space Roc opened for them. Marciano showed that self-releasing gritty, minimalist hip-hop influenced more by Only Built 4 Cuban Linx then anything popular in the last 20 years can result in an audience.

In combination with The Alchemist, who produces this album, he also often eschewed the ‘boom-bap’ of the 1990s in favor of subdued or entirely absent drums. And while he isn’t saying anything new, with subject matter familiar to anyone who listens to genre, the way he says it does seem new and really does feel like someone pushing something to its boundaries.

This 14 track, 38 minute is relatively short, like most of this subgenres releases, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. As usual the production here from The Alchemist leaves you wondering about some samples you may not recognize while creating surprise hearing what he does with ones you do. One of the finest and outstanding hip-hop releases of the year.