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Rib-BIT!

Locks Lion | Blue Mountain Peak | 10/27/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"COLLECTIONS: You've got to wonder about the provenance of a release like COLLECTIONS. Put together by the no-profile Grapevine label out of Maryland, this compilation features some of the Lone Ranger's biggest rub-a-dub hits from the early eighties, but with a most unpleasant twist: modern overdubs! All-time classics like BARNABAS COLLINS, NATTY BURIAL and M16 are subjected to the cheapest rhythm makeovers, as if the original tracks - many played by the great Roots Radics band for top producers like Winston Riley, Clement Dodd and Henry Lawes - needed any sort of update. Perhaps this is an attempt to appeal to new generations of dancehall-ers, but if so, it's a miserably failed attempt that completely overlooks the intrinsic, timeless brilliance of the original recordings.



If you really want to hear Puppa Ranger mashing up the place, pick up Heartbeat's Studio One collection, THE OTHER SIDE OF DUB, Techniques' ROSEMARIE/DJ DADDY combination, or the Channel One re-release of the M16 album. Bim-AH!

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