Old Time D.J. Come Back. . . Again! (RAS, 1994)

Just glancing at the cover of this album, I knew that I had to pick it up.  I didn't even care what genre it was -- Portuguese goat-milking music or whatever.   Fortunately, it is indeed reggae -- a collection of legendary original DJs who made their marks mostly in the '70s.  Many of them have changed from their original toasting style to a more modern (and more aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion) chatting style.  The material here is more consistent with mid-'80s dancehall releases, which, for those of you like me who don't really care for the '70s toasting/talking thing, is refreshing.  The heavy rhythms here are old school '80s and early '90s, as are the lyrical styles, as the old-timers show the youngsters a thing or two.  A good number of the songs are unspectacular, but there are several nice tracks, the most enjoyable being Tappa Zukie's invigorating "Judge I Oh Lord" and Big Youth singing a remake of the '80s R&B ballad "Baby Come to Me," here called "Back in Time."  Also nice are Trinity's self-evident "Trinity Is My Name," Massive Dread's "Armagiddeon Time"-influenced "Action" and the slow, atmospheric dub poem "How Long," by Jah Stitch.

Track Listing
1. Raggamuffin -- Brigadier Jerry
2. Cocaine -- Dillinger
3. Bits of Paper -- U Brown
4. Action -- Massive Dread
5. Judge I Oh Lord -- Tappa Zukie
6. Trinity Is My Name -- Trinity
7. Back in Time -- Big Youth
8. A fi Talk -- I Roy
9. Satisfy My Soul -- U Roy & J.C.Lodge
10. Teacher Teacher -- Dennis Alcapone
11. Information -- Scotty
12. Kings Time -- Rankin Joe
13. How Long -- Jah Stitch
14. It's of the Pass- - Jah Micky
15. So the West Was Won -- Prince Jazzbo