Back To The Island (Reggae Music From Martha's Vineyard) - Various Artists

Advantages: The excellent U.K Top 20 hit, Private Life
Disadvantages: The dated, album track, Bulls***

...In the late 1970's Grace Jones became something of a Disco Diva as she burst onto New Yorks club scenes with Disco hits such as I Need A Man and Do Or Die. However in 1980 following a new record deal with Island Records, home to various Reggae acts, Jones achieved further mainstream recognition with the superb Warm Leatherette album. Grace Jones shifted musical direction for the Warm Leatherette (1980) project, divulging into a diverse blend of sounds and styles ranging from Reggae, Rock, New Wave, Funk and Soul. The finished results were some of Jones most compelling recording work. This album was not least aided by the excellent production skills of Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin as well as the startling muscians behind her with Sly Dunbar on drums, Robbie Shakespeare on bass guirtars, Barry Reynolds and Michael Chung alternating... Read review

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Advantages: The funky Pull Up To The Bumper
Disadvantages: None that really springs to mind

...Following the excellent Warm Leatherette (1980) album, her debut on the Island Records label which saw her rewarded with more commercial acceptance, the outrageous and off-the-wall diva, Grace Jones returned to the recording studios in early 1981 for the unforgetable Nightclubbing project. Grace Jones second album on Island Records is possibly the greatest of her considerably short recording career and captured Jones at her artistic peak. It features a series of remarkable recordings, encapsulating a multitude of styles such as New Wave, Reggae, Funk, Jazz and Soul. She was again aided by the fabulous production skills of those reggae kings, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. Nightclubbing (1981)begins with the curiously compelling, Walking In The Rain, which sets a dark, atmospheric tone for the duration of the project. The hypnotic... Read review

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Advantages: Timeless classics; 50 tracks for £7
Disadvantages: Recording quality of older tracks

...---WHAT'S THIS THEN?--- It's a 3CD, 50-track box-set collating early reggae tracks from a record label called Trojan. Set up in Britain in the mid-1960's, as a subsiduary of the Island label, it was intended as a menas of bringing the hot new sounds of Jamaica over to the ex-pats living in the UK. With a growing Caribbean community in the UK, the label couldn't fail. It continued to function through to the mid-1980's and enjoyed a boom in the early 1970's when first the burgeoning skinhead movement and then, later, the punks, grasped the similarities between their ideals and reggae's. The Clash were probably the most high-profile punk band to use reggae''s influence in their music, most notably with the dubby Bank Robber. In the mid-70's Trojan fell behind the times and subsequently went into administration. They were brought out... Read review

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