A. Errol Dunkley – Love In The House
B. Errol Dunkley – Wicked Man
Londisc Records – LD 004
Errol Dunkley kicks things off with a heavy double-A side produced by the legendary Jah Thomas. On Love In The House, Errol effortlessly rides that classic Heptones Mama Let Me Go riddim. Flip the wax and you get Wicked Man over the essential Mad Mad backdrop.
Errol Dunkley, born in Kingston, Jamaica on February 6, 1951, started recording at just fourteen years old, and from that first moment he had something special in his voice. His early days tell the story of a young man moving fast through Jamaica’s music scene. Gypsy, a duet with Roy Shirley for Linden Pottinger’s Gaydisc label, came first, followed by My Queen with Junior English for Prince Buster and Love Me Forever on Rio. By 1967 he was cutting sides for Joe Gibbs’ Amalgamated label, working alongside Lynn Taitt and the Jets on You Gonna Need Me, and later with Tommy McCook on Please Stop Your Lying.
The early seventies kept him busy. Pama Records put out material featuring collabs with U-Roy and Glen Brown. He and Gregory Isaacs co-founded the African Museum label, though Isaacs eventually took the wheel on that one. Dunkley then set up his own Silver Ring label, showing he was never just an artist, but a man with a plan. In 1972, working with producer Jimmy Radway, he dropped Keep the Pressure Down and Black Cinderella, two tunes that hit hard back home. That same year, Presenting Errol Dunkley arrived, produced by Sonia Pottinger, and it carried what would become his signature tune, A Little Way Different. Pure riddim and soul, that track.
His UK story is something else. Running through the Lloyd Coxsone and Jah Shaka sound system circuits in the late seventies, he built a real following on that side of the Atlantic. Disco Showcase on Black Joy brought the vocal and dub combo that British reggae heads were hungry for. Then in 1978, Dennis Bovell helped him cut a roots version of A Little Way Different for the Arawak label, and it landed perfectly. But 1979 was the year everything clicked commercially. OK Fred, a John Holt tune that Dunkley made completely his own, climbed to number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for eleven weeks. Respect due. Sit Down And Cry followed in 1980 with a minor chart placing, and he also released Profile of Errol Dunkley with the Roots Radics and Militant Man on Lord Koos’ label around that time.
In 2003, he teamed up with the legendary Coxsone Dodd for the Love Is Amazing album. It’s a masterclass in how to ride those foundation Studio One riddims. A year later, he was back in the lab with Bunny Lee and Tapper Zukie for a project focused on covers. Even his older hits like A Little Way Different found a fresh audience in the mid-2000s. Errol Dunkley started his career at just 12 years old, and he’s still touring and recording today. Pure longevity from a true veteran.
A. Moja/Rappa Robert – Mek-We-Rock/Roadblock
B. Penumbra – Version
Ethnic – ETH 2233
On the second disc we meet the mysterious Moja in combination with deeja Rappa Robert.
Reliable information about Moja is limited. Moja is a reggae and dancehall vocalist whose recordings appear across several UK-based independent labels during the late 1970s and 1980s. His earliest confirmed release is Underneath The Palm Tree (Rum Song), a 7″ single on the Moja label from 1974. Back in 1983, Moja teamed up with Rappa Robert to drop the 12″ featured here, released on the Ethnic label. The lead track, Mek-We-Rock, flows straight into the deejay version Roadblock by Rappa Robert without missing a beat. A follow-up 12″ on Ethnic, Uptown Rock (Ghetto Man Sounds), was also credited to the duo.
Robert Wilson, better known as Rappa Robert, came into this world in 1965 in St. Ann, Jamaica. After cutting some solo singles, and the album Come In A Dis! in 1982, Rappa Robert linked up with Tippa Lee, born Anthony Campbell in Kingston in 1967, and that’s where things got interesting. The two made a natural team. Tippa Lee’s sharp, high-pitched toasting sat perfectly against Rappa Robert’s deeper, more melodic flow. In 1988 they dropped Nuh Trouble We, produced by Hugh “Redman” James for the Redman International label, and dancehall took notice. The duo kept building momentum through the late eighties, releasing albums and singles that earned them a solid following at home and abroad.
But as the nineties moved on, so did the partnership. Tippa Lee headed to the United States, and Rappa Robert went through something deeper than a change of direction. He embraced Rastafarian faith and came out the other side as Musical Sniper, a conscious roots artist with a different kind of fire. By 2004 he had made his way to Toronto, Canada, where he carved out a new chapter in a city with a real reggae heartbeat.
Very scarce info about Penumbra. It’s a production alias attached to a few of early 1980s UK reggae releases, tied firmly to the Ethnic label, the London imprint run by Jamaican-born producer Clifton “Larry” Lawrence. Ethnic was one of those small but serious UK reggae operations that punched above its weight in the early 80s, and Penumbra appears to have been part of that inner circle, at least for a spell.
[These tracks were digitized directly from vinyl using a Technics SL-1210MK2 turntable equipped with an Ortofon cartridge. The recordings were captured in 24-bit/96kHz WAV format via SoundForge]