Dennis Brown & Al Campbell: The Exit & Hold Your Corner, CD

• Two King Jammy LPs making their CD debut.

• 19 tracks new to CD.

• Includes Al Campbell’s previously unissued LP

Widely acclaimed as one of Jamaica’s most gifted producers and the island’s most influential music maker of the 1980s, Lloyd James AKA King Jammy, is today rightly revered as a titan of reggae music.

After initially making his mark on the local music scene in the 70s, mixing tracks in the studio under the supervision of his mentor, the legendary King Tubby, Jammy demonstrated his talents as a record producer with the release of a series of immensely popular recordings that saw issue towards the decade’s close.

The hits and acclaim continued into the early 80s, but it was the arrival of the digital era, kick-started by his production of Wayne Smith’s smash hit, ‘Under Me Sleng Teng’ in 1985, that resulted in him dominating the Jamaican music scene.

A year after the release of Smith’s hugely popular 7” single, Jammy signed a deal with Trojan Records to whom he delivered a number of superior albums, including the two collections that provide the primary focus of this CD collection.

Opening the set is the best-selling ‘The Exit’ (AKA ‘History’) by Jamaica’s Crown Prince of Reggae, Dennis Brown, which incredibly makes its CD debut, almost 40 years since it first saw issue. Equally as fine is ‘Hold You Corner’ by another of reggae music’s vocal greats, Al Campbell, although for reasons long since lost in the mists of time, the LP (and most of its tracks) has remained unreleased until now.

Rounding off the collection are four high quality recordings by the ever-popular Leroy Smart and the similarly talented, if less celebrated Mighty Rudo, with the quartet of tracks, like the sets from Dennis Brown and Al Campbell, recorded in 1986.

TRACK LISTING

DENNIS BROWN – THE EXIT
1 Too Late– Dennis Brown *
2 We Should Make Love – Dennis Brown *
3 History – Dennis Brown *
4 Up Full One – Dennis Brown *
5 Tracks Of Life – Dennis Brown
6 Material Girl – Dennis Brown
7 The Exit – Dennis Brown
8 Dance All Night – Dennis Brown *
9 I’ll Be Waiting There – Dennis Brown *
AL CAMPBELL – HOLD YOU CORNER
10 Buss Them Shut – Al Campbell *
11 Stop You Fussing And Fighting – Al Campbell *
12 Equalise It – Al Campbell *
13 Hot Love – Al Campbell *
14 Big Wheel – Al Campbell *
15 Can’t Test We Again – Al Campbell *
16 Kiss Me, Kill Me – Al Campbell *
17 Power Struggle – Al Campbell *
18 Hold You Corner – Al Campbell *
19 Carbon Copy – Al Campbell *
BONUS TRACKS:
20 She Done With It – The Mighty Rudo *
21 Crucial Lover – Leroy Smart
22 I Love You – The Mighty Rudo *
23 She Only Want Something – Leroy Smart *

* Previously unavailable on CD