Another big Shaka tune from the late 1980s - Bionic Singer's anti-apartheid shot 'Botha Warning' - coming out of the same Jamaazima vaults as Hugh Maddo's Pop Style LP that we reissued late last year under the kind courtesy of the imprint's Nami Harmon. The late Bionic Singer a.k.a Osbert Maddo, or more commonly Madoo, was brought up in East Kingston and as a child attended the legendary Alpha Boys School. He began singing together with his brother UU Madoo (aka Hugh Maddo) and soon became a regular on the Stereophonic soundsystem during the late 1970s. Recording mainly with Joe Gibbs & Errol Thompson and for Winston Riley's famed Techniques stable through the early '80s, he then moved to the US in 1983. Ceasing to record for a period, he returned towards the end of the decade under the Bionic Singer alias on the Bronx-based Jamaazima label, recording this searing indictment of South Africa's apartheid government under P.W. Botha following his stroke in 1989.credits

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Death Is Not The End's 333 series continues with this killer slice of digi roots out of late 90s NY, also a big Jah Shaka selection at the time.

Take It Easy was produced by Ricky "Mad Man" Myrie - a reggae/dancehall producer active since the early 90s, and who was also providing writing and production on breakthrough albums for VP from Sean Paul, Capleton & others at this time. Featuring a sharp and poignant vocal from Gumbae Culture, it was recorded at the legendary Philip Smart's Long Island-based HC&F Studio, under the engineering guidance of Smart's brother-in-law and long time studio partner, Michel McDonald. The record's haunting xylophone licks, razor sharp snares and menacing subs perfectly combine throughout the vocal cut, and really come to the fore on the version for a raw and stripped back masterclass in digital dubwise.

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Foundation reggae artist Dennis Walks' much in demand Waste Time in Babylon becomes the latest 1980s digital masterpiece to be reissued on 45 from Death Is Not The End's 333 series. Produced by Prince Jazzbo for his Ujama label in 1987, the singer who first came through voicing tracks for producers Harry Mudie and Joe Gibbs in the early 1970s lends his vocals to the "Racecourse Rock" rhythm played here by the legendary keyboardist Winston Wright.

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The outstanding original cut of the late Hortense Ellis' Hell & Sorrow, originally produced and released by Jimmy Radway for his Fe Me Time label in the mid 1970s and backed with the legendary Big Youth's DJ counteraction Tribulation - now reissued via Death Is Not The End's 333 series.

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Death Is Not The End's 333 series is back with another dig into the catalogue of the NYC-based Flames label on this reissue of a highly coveted Revolutionaries LP, Meditation in Dub. One of reggae music's most famed session bands, The Revolutionaries were an often r/evolving cast of some of the finest session musicians on the island during the roots and early dancehall periods of the mid/late 1970s and early 1980s. These would include Earl 'Wire' Lindo, Radcliffe 'Dougie' Bryan, Ansell Collins, Bobby Kalphat, Lloyd Parks, Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson, Bongo Herman, Stanley Bryan, Bo Peep, Eric 'Bingy Bunny' Lamont, Errol 'Tarzan' Nelson, Skully Simms, Robbie Lyn, Mikey 'Mao' Chung amongst many others. The enduring core of the group, however, was undoubtedly in the coming together of the legendary rhythm section of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare - with the formation of The Revolutionaries marking the first time that this often unparalleled duo worked together. The group laid down these rhythm tracks at their base at the storied Channel One recording studio, Maxfield Avenue, Kingston sometime in the mid 1970s - under the arrangement of one of reggae music's great undersung figures, Ossie Hibbert. Early in 1975 Ossie was to move to Maxfield Avenue just as Jo Jo & Ernest Hookim's studio was starting up. A well-respected session musician himself through the late 1960s and early 70s (he played keys for Bunny 'Striker' Lee and Keith Hudson and would also form part of another foundational session band, The Soul Syndicate) he was initially summoned by Jo Jo to be a band member for The Revolutationaries but quickly assumed the role of producer, engineer and talent scout for the studio, responsible for selecting the artists to bring into the studio.These tracks were recorded by Hibbert around this time for Winston Jones, the original singer and composer of Stop That Train (later made world-famous by Keith & Tex's version) with his Spanishtonians for Prince Buster's label in the early 1960s. Jones had moved from JA to NYC in the early 1970s where he established and ran the Flames label. The imprint would go on to form a core part of Brooklyn's reggae scene from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s, though Jones often employed the use of Channel One, Hibbert and The Revolutionaries back home in the recording of rhythm tracks for his productions. Thus the Meditation in Dub LP is essentially formed of stellar dub versions to many of the early Flames labels 45s, produced and released by Jones throughout the mid to late 1970s, including crucial takes on a great many popular rhythms of that period. One of any self-respecting dub LP collectors' holy grails, with originals going for up to £400, it is issued here under license from the now Texas-based Jones with the kind assistance of RB at DKR in sourcing the audio for this new cut.

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The late foundation deejay U-Roy recorded The Seven Gold at Michael Carroll's Creative Sounds Studio in Kingston (with assistance from engineer, and singer & producer in his own right, Paul Davidson) for Prince Jazzbo's Ujama imprint - with the LP then seeing the light of day on the label in 1987, and now a reissue on Death Is Not The End sub-label 333.

It features the late, great Ewart Beckford appearing on a range of killer Jazzbo-produced late-80s digitap rhythms - from the inspired Replay version on 'Holo Gow', to the updated digital take on the Heavenless rhythm on 'Jah Jah Call You' and his take on Horace Ferguson's Sensi Addict in 'Musikal Addick'. The bulk of these rhythm tracks were performed by revered multi-instrumentalist Tyrone Downie (a long-time member of Bob Marley & The Wailers since the mid 70s) alongside Tony "Asher" Brissett - another massively undersung session musician perhaps most notable for laying down the initial Sleng Teng rhythm track for Jammys in 1984.

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Rare as hen's teeth digital dancehall from out of late 80s/early 90s NYC, via Cooly aka Koolindian aka Super Cat's cousin Andrew Maragh, originally released on his own Mad Indian Records - reissued here for Death Is Not The End sub-label 333.

Maragh sang in church choirs and on soundsystems in Jamaica before moving to New York in the 1980s where he quickly became involved on the underground music circuit, taking inspiration from his cousin the legendary Super Cat. "Freedom" was penned while he was incarcerated, and details the unfairness of the judicial system at that time, alongside the heartfelt need to "hustle everyday to make ends meet, whether that's picking up scrap metal or cutting lawns or voicing dubplates, whatever you do to make a dollar", says Maragh.

Having bought an Ampex tape in Manhattan, Maragh headed over to the legendary Philip Smart's HC&F studio on Long Island with the intention of laying down his lyrics on the version to Dennis Brown's "Children of Israel". After hearing the song however, Smart went ahead and built this one-away "Freedom" rhythm on the spot. The track was then carried to Count Shelly's Super Power Records where it was then pressed & distributed as the first and only release on the Mad Indian label around the turn of 1989/1990.

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333 reissues a massive sought-after and obscure Jazzbo-produced 45 from Stanford Shirley. The System was recorded at Harry J's studio and released in 1987 on the late Linval Carter's Ujama label. Though one of the lesser known cuts from Jazzbo's late 80s production stable, it is surely up there with one of the best. Killer archetypal digi business.

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Rare late 80s reggae/dancehall heat coming yet again on DINTE sub-label 333. This time it's the turn of Hugh Maddo's Pop Style LP. Recorded in Jamaica at Byron Lee's Dynamics & Herman Chin-Loy's Aquarius studios for the Bronx-based Jamaazima label in 1987, it is issued here under license from co-producer and label owner, Nami Harmon. The record features a host of celebrated and renowned musicians incl. Winston Wright, Bobby Ellis, Carlton "Santa" Davis, Dwight Pinkney, Willie Lindo and Mikey "Boo" Richards amongst many others - alongside the sublime vocals of Killamanjaro's Hugh Maddo aka UU Madoo. A must.

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Death Is Not The End's 333 sub-label digs out a synth-heavy early 80s disco/punk-inflected reggae 45 from short-lived Birmingham group Dessus - produced by British-Cypriot Kim Nicoloau and originally pressed in extremely limited numbers in 1981. Originally formed around 1976 under the initial name Odessus, Dessus spent the late 70s performing a selection of reggae covers and original compositions in venues across the UK, though mostly in the West Midlands area, with a stint supporting local group Steel Pulse on tour. Meeting the band in a chip shop on Soho Road, Birmingham, British Cypriot record producer Kim Nicoloau asked to sit in on a rehearsal and subsequently booked them in for a session at engineer Gary Lucas' Spaceward Studios in Cambridge. 4 tracks in total were laid down over a 2 day period in early December 1980, with Ghetto Children and b-side Dessus Jammin' eventually seeing release shortly after on an extremely limited pressing on Ellie Jay Records (a short lived outfit that provided cheap P&D deals for jobbing bands and producers). The single became a BBC radio "Hit Pick" and recevied a fair amount of airplay, yet no further material from the group ever saw the light of day.

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Death Is Not The End sub-label 333 drops a huge late-70s UK roots grail in the form of Jasaro People's Suffering 45. Originally pressed up in super limited quantities and self-distributed out of North West London in 1976, this record was rare even when it was new. Now given fresh new life thanks to a license courtesy of Jasaro's Everand Thompson.

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Death Is Not The End's 333 sub-label drops a much needed reissue of Rupie Dan's My Black Race 12" from 1982. A huge Shaka selection featuring one of the heaviest dubs available from this era of UK roots production. Originally written and produced by Rupie for his Flag Records label, with engineering from Tony Addis (later of Addis Posse and the Warriors Dance label).

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