Label: Acid Jazz UK
Release date: 20.06.2025
Presented on Roots Records by Acid Jazz, a first-time reissue of classic dancehall recorded for Jah Thomas’s Midnight Rock label, previously only issued as a promotional white label. Midnight Rock was home to many of the great voices of dancehall, with producer Jah Thomas at the helm, adding vocals to the high-quality rhythms recorded at Channel One studios with the legendary, de facto resident band Roots Radics. Thomas made some of the earliest recordings for both Early B and future superstar Super Cat and, as Super Cat became the hottest name on the scene, Thomas lined up a showcase album featuring a side from each artist. A small number of white labels were pressed up, but the release never got further than that. Side A gathered up four of Early B’s most well-loved cuts, including ‘Visit Of King Selasie’, ‘Sunday Dish’, ‘Pedestrian’ and ‘Can A Fe Bath’. It also included a track called ‘Set Yourself Right’, which was never released elsewhere, but Thomas himself remembers it playing from the various sound systems he gave test cuts to. Side B featured the five cuts that Thomas had made with Super Cat, showing him fully formed even at this formative stage in his career. ‘Dance Inna New York’ has since had a second life since being sampled by Nas on ‘Nas The Don’, but every track from ‘Way Dem A Fight Fa’ through ‘Ever Ready’, to ‘Walk A Ton’ and on to ‘Me Glad She Gone’ are a great collabaration between producer and vocalist. Presented on a striking and effective sleeve layout, evoking the record’s status as a lost white label classic, with stamped Midnight Rock logos across the sleeve and labels. Finally, the chance to own this elusive piece of reggae / dancehall history.
Visit Of King Selassie
Sunday Dish
Pedestrian
Set Yourself Right
Can A Fe Bath
Way Dem A Fight Fa
Ever Ready
Walk A Ton
Dance Inna New York
Me Glad She Gone