Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Power House Megamix Part 1

Okay my friends, here's how we're gonna do this... I keep adding to the list of songs I want to include in this tribute to George Phang's Power House so I'm splitting it into two parts, perhaps three depending on the response.  I sometimes forget how much I love the Power House productions from this era and the sound that Sly & Robbie had, just verging on the digital, in the early 80s, just makes them absolutely classic!

I have wanted to do this mix for years but the problem was in the pressings so to speak... you see I have a ton of Power House vinyl and unfortunately most are plagued with poor, weak, scratchy or unusable sound and mixing them together and riding the levels would have been an absolute nightmare.  But five years ago VP Records stepped in and released 4, 2 CD sets that conveniently lumped the songs together by riddim but... more importantly they did something I had been hoping that someone would do for years - they restored the fidelity and quality of these classic dancehall tunes!  So a major belated hats-off to VP for their preservation efforts!

So let's get to the music... here's what you're going to hear!

1.  Freddie McGregor - Don't Hurt My Feelings
2.  Frankie Paul - FP Love
3.  Peter Metro - Hackle The Mike
4.  Johnny Osbourne - Mission
5.  Sugar Minott - Buy Out The Bar
6.  Leroy Smart - She Loves Me
7.  Little John - What A Bubbling
8.  Frankie Jones - Haul & Galong
9.  Leroy Smart - Bank Account
10.  Yellowman - Reggae Get The Grammy
11.  Josey Wales - Josey Ready
12.  Little John - Hey Lady
13.  Sugar Minott - Can't Get We Out
14.  Yellowman - Beat It
15.  Tenor Saw - If You Only Know
16.  Charlie Chaplin - Now A Days
17.  Michael Prophet - Appetizing
18.  Toyan - Cumina
19.  Toyan - DJ Crowd
20.  Barrington Levy - Money Move
21.  Frankie Paul - Tidal Wave


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice! Can't wait for part two!

Are you including stuff from the Power House Selector's Choice discs, or staying away from those?

John AKA Reggaexx said...

Thanks for your feedback! Believe me, if you heard the differences in quality from the original vinyl, many of which I have resting on bookshelves and inside storage bins throughout my house, this project would be unthinkable and assuredly unlistenable! Power House really fell victim to shoddy, defective and noisy pressings... it almost seemed like someone at Sonic Sounds deemed George Phang's productions as "disposable" and didn't afford them the proper respect they deserved. Thirty years later, these tracks are some of the greatest dancehall tunes ever recorded, in my opinion, and featured a veritable who's who of early 80s rub-a-dub! Years ago I ripped a big stack of my Power House 7"s with the intention to just put them together, without riding riddims, as a compilation and even that was horrible! So to answer your question, yes, the Selector's Choice discs will be in heavy rotation! I know of a few songs on particular riddims that didn't make it on VP's discs and I'll attempt to clean them up well enough to flow seamlessly with the others! :)

Unknown said...

john glad u are back at the controls... appreciate your efforts always..