Toyan Inna Dancehall Style

Here's a couple tracks from one of early dancehall's best and unjustly overlooked DJ's! Toyan, or sometimes called Ranking Toyan, started off in the mid 70's DJing for some of the biggest soundsystems in Jamaica. He scored a hit in 1978 with the track "Disco Pants" on the Roots Tradition label. In the 1980's he hooked up with Junjo Lawes and really hit his stride releasing the fantastic album "How the West Was Won" and a stack of impressive singles! When the digital era took hold Toyan's output slowed considerably and unfortunately he was murdered in 1991.

I'm sharing an absolutely scorching Volcano release on the Mad Mad Riddim called "Stylee," circa late '82/early '83. I was also going to share "Disco Pants" but it's not on the hard drive and being that time is limited... I've decided to share a track from the 1982 Joe Gibbs produced LP called "Superstar - Yellowman Has Arrived With Toyan" - the song is called "Talk of the Town." Give 'em a listen - good stuff!

As an added bonus I decided to include "She's Gone Away" by Cocoa Tea which is the A-Side of the Volcano 12" and also on the same rhythm. You might already know this track as "Lost My Sonia" but as is the case with most of Junjo produced 12 inch singles it also includes the wicked Roots Radics instrumental versions!







I'm gonna do something a little more rootsy for the next post and then by the end of the week I'll post a couple tracks from the Club Paradise soundtrack by Jimmy Cliff, Well Pleased and Satisfied, the Blue Riddim Band and an extra single by Yellowman that was in the movie but never made it to the soundtrack!