At long last, our unofficial companion piece to "Rocks & Mountains" sees the light of day. Another mystical dubplate tune by an unknown artist, "Warrior" developed a reputation among the most dedicated students of dubplates. The mysterious artist credit comes from a master tape box labeled with several Sly & Robbie dubplate tunes, in fact the very same tape which yielded our "Rocks & Mountains" master! However, part of the tape had been erased and re-used, so only a few seconds of the tune remained! It was heartbreaking, but enough to keep us hunting for the tune. It's now a few years after that near miss, and we finally secured a crisp master to bring this tune out. Hard, minimal, dubplate style roots from Sly & Robbie at Channel 1. Ciddy Bop, who are you?

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: As promised, the Digikiller reissue campaign continues in fine fettle, with this stone cold, rootsy system slayah from Ciddy Bop. Tough, with a militant riddim, and those eerie piano stabs taking right to the yard. Unmissable, really.

TRACK LISTING

A. Warrior
B. Version

Previously unreleased; four track 12" with two different vocal takes, each w/ dub. Comes in Bond Export company sleeve.

Another cold case solved! One of DKR's early victories was finding a tape of the drum & bass cut of the legendary dubplate 'Rocks & Mountains.' Rumor had said the artist was the Mighty Travellers, but this didn't really add up chronologically or audibly. More astute listeners mostly agreed the artist was likely the Majesterians, a little recorded group who had made a couple other records for Taxi circa 1980. When we first issued the song on a 10" back in 2011, even Sly himself couldn't recall for sure who sang the tune. Like with other 'mystery' projects which we eventually came to realize, we never gave up digging on this one. There were two mysteries at work here - one, confirming the identity of the group, and two - finding the other cut of the tune, which features fuller instrumentation and a different vocal take. Both cuts were around on dubplate circa '80/'81, and the latter cut can be heard ever so briefly in the infamous UK "Sound Business" documentary film from '81. In the course of a mere 13 years, both questions came to be solved - we obtained a pretty clean plate cut of the fuller mix, and we confirmed the identity of the group. The Majesterians were a vocal trio consisting of Everton Dacres, Roderick Perkins and Paul Mitchell. While the latter two gentlemen don't seem to have done much otherwise, we are sure the roots heads and hopefully all DKR followers know Everton Dacres, who made some fine roots music in the 1970s prior to fronting the Majesterians. We spoke to Everton and he confirmed 'Rocks & Mountains' was their tune, cut in Channel 1 at a Taxi session featuring a host of other artists. Indeed, these were the heady days of 1980 with Channel 1 booked round the clock for locked-in sessions, with the Taxi Gang and the Roots Radics laying down future classic after future classic. All that said, we're happy to re-present this tune now with not only proper accreditation, but also both known mixes and the drum & bass mix in improved fidelity over its previous issue.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hard to pick a favourite out the bombardment of quality reggae reissued by Digikiller at the moment but for the sheer obscurity factor, this one gets the medal this week. A truly mythical cut, rescued from a deeply excavated tape haul - proper rocking horse shit.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Rocks And Mountains Cut 1 Vocal
A2. Rocks And Mountains Cut 1 Dub
B1. Rocks And Mountains Cut 2 Vocal
B2. Rocks And Mountains Cut 2 Dub

Part 2 of our 1980 Taxi showcase, and it's heavier than the first. Here is one of Sly & Robbie's most loved productions, in its initial raw dubplate form. In August 1980, this raw cut of the haunting lovelorn classic first started to make its way out there on dubplate, in this spare, cavernous heavy mix without the synthesizer and syndrum sounds that would eventually adorn the final released mix. As tapes of these type of early mixes made for sound systems more often than not were not saved or archived, we're overjoyed to have located this one and brought it out. Like our previous Viceroys Taxi releases, this is some of the heaviest music of its day, in its pure initial form like you would have heard Shaka or other serious sounds playing thru the end of 1980.

TRACK LISTING

A. Heart Made Of Stone - Raw Cut
B. Heart Made Of Stone Raw Dub