Jamaican Music

Pat Kelly - Lonely Man (1978) {Secret Records BSRCD973 rel 2017}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 182 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 68 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 49 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2017 Secret Records / Burning Sounds | BSRCD973
Reggae / Rocksteady / Lovers Rock / Roots Reggae

1978 Roots Reggae album reissued on CD for the first time. Born 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica Pat Kelly is rightly revered as one of the island’s best ever singers although he is less well known for his considerable contribution to reggae music as a highly accomplished recording engineer. Always a keen hard working student, while studying Electrical Engineering at Kingston Technical High School, Pat worked part time at Chin’s Radio Services on Church Street in downtown Kingston where the proprietor, Ivan Chin, operated one of Jamaica’s first recording studios. Pat was awarded a scholarship to continue his education in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA where, after three years, he graduated with a degree in Advanced Electronics.

Some call him a genius, others claim he's certifiably insane, a madman. Truth is, he's both, but more importantly, Lee Perry is a towering figure in reggae a producer, mixer, and songwriter who, along with King Tubby, helped shape the sound of dub and made reggae music such a powerful part of the pop music world. Along with producing some of the most influential acts (Bob Marley & the Wailers and the Congos to name but two) in reggae history, Perry's approach to production and dub mixing was breathtakingly innovative and audacious no one else sounds like him and while many claim that King Tubby invented dub, there are just as many who would argue that no one experimented with it or took it further than did Lee Perry.

While they never achieved the commercial success or cultural impact of the Wailers, Toots & the Maytals were nearly as important in the history of Jamaican music; like the Wailers, the Maytals thrived as ska gave way to rocksteady and then evolved into reggae, they boasted one of the island's finest singers and most charismatic frontmen in the great Toots Hibbert, and they worked with many of the most important producers and sidemen on the island. the Maytals were also the band that most clearly demonstrated the links between Jamaican sounds and American R&B (Hibbert's rich, emotive vocal style was informed by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and other soul icons), and the group's catalog contains a number of crucial, frequently covered tracks, most notably the classic "Pressure Drop."

This whopping 30-CD box set gathers together the best of Trojan's three-disc box set series. Included are the Ska, DJ, Dub, Instrumentals, Jamaican Superstars, Lovers, Producer Series, Rocksteady, Roots, and Tribute to Bob Marley volumes, each of which can be found under Trojan Box Set for their individual reviews. What's lacking here is a booklet with additional notes and information; the bulk seems to demand some extra coverage and care, yet all that's here are the original notes of each volume – only as much text as can fit on the back of the CD sleeves. From a music standpoint, however, this box is excellent; a truly diverse and comprehensive collection. Of the 500 songs, less than ten reappear on another volume, so you get a more-than-satisfying amount of music spanning the history of the Trojan label.