Roots Rasta Party (Silver Kamel, 2003)

Released alongside Jah Thomas's Roots Dancehall Party, Roots Rasta Party is understandably (given the title) a little less dancehall oriented, but with artists like Linval Thompson, Phillip Fraser, and Barry Brown, how far can it really stray from the hard-hitting early dancehall sound?  The answer is "not very far"; it actually strikes quite a nice balance between roots (with tracks from Cornell Campbell, The Mighty Threes, and Paul Blackman) and dancehall (with Thompson, Fraser, Brown, and a host of DJs toasting over the rhythms).  Fans of both styles should eat this album up like a ripe mango.  Like Roots Dancehall Party, each track here is really two songs, with a singer followed by a DJ or a dub version, so you really get your money's worth.  Unlike Roots Dancehall Party, there are several producers accounted for here -- including legends Niney the Observer, Augustus Pablo, Phillip Fraser, and Jah Thomas, thus lending to the more varied sound.  Since I'm a roots fan, airy tracks like "Sit Down and Reason," "Earth, Wind, and Fire," and "In the Sun" naturally speak to me more loudly, even though Paul Blackman and The Mighty Threes aren't particularly familiar artists (the latter group has ties to Culture, incidentally).  Still, dancehall tracks like Phillip Fraser's funky-ass "Bad Boys" and Barry Brown's "Peace and Love" manage to rock, and DJs like Ranking Toyan, Peter Ranking, and General Lucky certainly represent their sound admirably.  Roots Rasta Party is the type of album that hardcore reggae fans wait years for: one that unearths long lost tracks that have value beyond the mere fact that they are relics.  While yes, the fact that these tunes haven't seen the light of day in some time is important, the fact that they're actually great songs is far more relevant to us the listeners (unearthed crap may as well be left underground, eh?).