Miles Davis - Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974: 8 (A-)

Remixes by Bill Laswell. There is also the related Panthalassa: The Remixes, which I have not heard, which are apparently re-remixes of Laswell's remixes, and with which this sometimes seems to get confused.

Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night: 7 (B+)

#indiepop

Culture - World Peace [honorable mention]

:-) 

Talib Kweli & Madlib - Liberation [honorable mention]

:-)

Culture - Trod On [honorable mention]

:-) [A/k/a Black Rose. Might be a notch higher at 7 (B+), but copies are selling for too much to bother making that distinction here. Also could do without the 2 grounation tracks tacked on at the end, which take this long past the 46-minute mark, which is already in excess of the ideal. In other words, as a collection of tracks, while some of them are very good, the collection is overall critically flawed.]

Eek-A-Mouse - U-Neek: 7.5 (high B+)

 Docked a notch for bloat.

Buck 65 - Punk Rock B-Boy: 8 (A-)

 Nice cover

Various - Human Music: 8.5 (high A-)

Very good "lost" compilation of late 1980s indie. Future big names involved, both artists and techs: Yo La Tengo, The Chills, Great Plains, Half Japanese, Tall Dwarfs, The Clean, The Embarrassment, on one hand, Georgia Hubley (as visual artist), Gerard Cosloy, Craig Marks, on the other. I know it's a cliche, but this is a keeper and I'm very glad to know it, even though it took me until 2023 to become aware of it.

Tyvek - Overground: 7.5 (high B+)

Vinyl-only pretentiousness [4 listens]

Danny Brown - Quaranta: 7.5 (high B+)

#import/artisanal

Culture - At Joe Gibbs: notation

This has Two Sevens Clash, Baldhead Bridge, and More Culture. See separate reviews for each of those. If I had been aware at the time, I would have perhaps bought this just to have More Culture and the fourth disc of "extras" just to hear them, it was selling for so cheap. But now of course it costs too much to spring for that. I did listen twice to the fourth disc, entitled As Hard as the Rest.

Culture - The Nighthawk Recordings [placeholder]

Contains the three Culture tracks that were included on Calling Rastafari, which I have. And then there are two new songs -- "Can They Run" and "Mister Music." Each of those is presented with its "version," for a total of 7 tracks, at 31 minutes. Selling on Amazon for $12 shipped. I'll probably end up buying it, because the two new tracks are actually pretty good. And the two versions ain't that bad either. Plus I'm a suckah. But for now I'm resisting, because it's just strange.

Various - Calling Rastafari: 8 (A-)

Culture - Too Long in Slavery [placeholder]

Contains tracks from Harder Than the Rest, Cumbolo, and International Herb, all of which I have.

Bunny Wailer - Rock-n-Groove: 8 (A-)

Tracks on here are also on Rootsman Skanking, released in 1986. Not sure if they were re-recorded for Rootsman Skanking, but they were definitely shortened to make room for 3 new songs. On this one, each song stretches out with a mini-dub version at the end, which is what they cut out for the later release, obviously.

Bunny Wailer - Sings the Wailers: 8 (A-)

Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man: 8.5 (high A-)

The Abyssinians - Satta Massagana: 7 (B+)

I'm almost certain I once owned the original Heartbeat release of this, with a different cover, but now have the "deluxe edition" issued by Heartbeat in 2006, with the original cover photo, pictured above, of them standing on a rock, presumably somewhere in Jamaica.

UB40 - 1980-83: 8.5 (high A-)

Africa Unite - In Dub: notation

Italian reggae band, with many dubs by Mad Professor. Graded A- by Tom Hull, but it appears to be a German-only release in limited edition, so impossible to find. I would listen if I ever see it. Cover looks like this:

Dan Ex Machina - Ex's Sexts: 7 (B+)

Digital-only

UB40 - The Best of UB40, Vol. 1: notation

Contains only the following songs not on albums I already own:

     "My Way of Thinking" from The Singles Album

     "I Got You Babe" from Baggariddim

     "Don't Break My Heart" from Baggariddim

     "Maybe Tomorrow" previously unreleased

All decent songs, but not worth the album.

The International Submarine Band - Safe at Home: 7 (B+)

#countryrock

UB40 - Geffery Morgan: 8 (A-)

UB40 - Labour of Love: 9 (A)