In my everlasting quest for the deepest roots and riddims, I recently came across some Canadian reggae, on a most exceptional 'Half Moon Records' comp, and I've noticed Light in the attic records have another killer comp of 'Summer Records Label' stuff..any of you Canadians familiar with any other stuff, or reggae outside of Bad Brains aint yer bag?
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Canadian Reggae anyone?
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I recently saw Stranger Cole live and in an interview he mentioned how he lived in Canada for 20 years and there were a fair few Windies dude, some were legends from the Studio One pssoe based in Canada in the 70s and 80s...while Canadian were going gaga over shit like Loverboy you had all these legends making some killer riddims probably while tripping out to movies like 'Things'..!!!
Heh.
Aussie reggae is shit. We're too redneck.
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About as bad as Seattle funk? I should get that Wheedle's Grooves disc, too. Light in the Attic's pretty interesting.
I got & liked both the Jamaica to Toronto & the Summer anthology, but I don't know anything much about reggae, really. It's just kind of everywhere here, but I know shit.
Good call, though, Aaron -- anybody who thinks they'd like it, probably will find something sweet there, even if reggae isn't the thing. Jamaica to Toronto's subtitled soul, funk & reggae, so how can you miss? I'd only ever heard a couple of songs on the first one (and almost nothing on the second), so some of the coolness was just what a revelation it was. American influence is really strong (Canadian, eh?), maybe almost as strong as the West Indian stuff; it's cool to hear the Motown/Stax stirred in: Canadian soul food is rotis, jerk chicken, rice & peas with oxtail stew for gravy. And banana splits.
I need to dig out the Summer Records antho, guess I never ripped it. So many comps. What was the Half Moon compilation?
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Right, Right Time: The Summer Records Story
CBC radio doc.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/programs/20...s-story-1.html
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You see I'm not talkin' shit! It's on PK Records through HonestJon's
http://www.honestjons.com/shop.php?p...&LabelID=14978
But with this Canadian Reggae, there's probably only 2 or 3 records or singles comps of the stuff and that's it. As much as there's a google of the stuff, you have to differentiate from the shit and clay, though it's a genre where the standards a very high and very creative, which is what I love about it.
Usually you have 'gateway' record that re-arranges your opinion on this stuff, then you dig all over the place, it's like garage rock, rarely bad, although it gets weird when they mix other style into the reggae, doesn't always work, their own styles and genre's are enough. Toots and the Maytals are probably as close as I'd get to funky-reggae, soul reggae is an oxymoron, as Reggae is soulful as fuck and the playing is incredible on all the records when you break them down.
I initially never got why all the punks (well not just punks, Keith Richard, Willie Nelson etc..etcc) were so into reggae. I always thought it was this lame softcock music for stoner jocks, but it's not, you listen to Niney the Observer Microphone Attack CD, fuckn killer shit, those punk guys were listening to the rare, raw shit, not necessarily Bob Marley, though he's pretty good.Last edited by Goldberg; 03-28-2011, 10:18 PM.
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Ordered, and ordered, thanks.
Warning: those LITA records may set off your oxymoronic detectors, Aaron. If the Cougars doing I Wish It Would Rain doesn't do it, I bet Bob & Wisdom covering Mac Davis' I Believe in Music will. (That was actually a Cancon staple, I think, at least I remember hearing it on the radio. Jimmy Wisdom's got a barber shop in my neighbourhood, I discovered today.) If you want something less cultural mosaicy, more Studio One, you might hit up the McGhie/Mittoo disc WAYNE MCGHIE & THE SOUNDS OF JOY. I've been meaning to pick it up.
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I know nothing about Canadian reggae and am more or less content in my ignorance, though I find this thread interesting even if it's obvious I have nothing of use to contribute. However I wanted to chime in and agree that LITA are awesome.
I own a few of their releaes and am happy with all of them. They really put a lot of care and attention to detail into their line and I appreciate it.
I'm tempted to buy a Canadian reggae album just to support them, and because I think it would be funny to own one. I used to live around a lot of Jamaicans when I lived near Bloor/Bathhurst in Toronto, but that's about as close to reggae as I ever got outside of owning a Bob Marley album in my teens because it was cool at the time. I ate a lot of Jamaican beef patties when I lived there. Good times.Rock! Shock! Pop!
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Remember when the government tried to outlaw beef patties because they weren't beef patties?
http://torontoist.com/2011/02/histor...patty_wars.php
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Originally posted by Barry M View PostOrdered, and ordered, thanks.
Warning: those LITA records may set off your oxymoronic detectors, Aaron. If the Cougars doing I Wish It Would Rain doesn't do it, I bet Bob & Wisdom covering Mac Davis' I Believe in Music will. (That was actually a Cancon staple, I think, at least I remember hearing it on the radio. Jimmy Wisdom's got a barber shop in my neighbourhood, I discovered today.) If you want something less cultural mosaicy, more Studio One, you might hit up the McGhie/Mittoo disc WAYNE MCGHIE & THE SOUNDS OF JOY. I've been meaning to pick it up.
If you 'just can't get enough' of that stuff, this blog is just total killer:
http://p-a-todareggae.blogspot.com/
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