Back in 1976 Virgin Records reggae subsidiary label Front Line released DJ I Roy's excellent LP 'Musical Shark Attack' which was recorded & produced by Joseph Hoo-Kim at his legendary Channel One studio in the heart of the Kingston ghetto.
Sadly & strangely Virgin issued this album in what's known as "split-stereo", where the vocal track comes out of one speaker & everything else through the other speaker making listening to it pretty off-putting.
So the story goes ,Channel One passed the master tapes onto Virgin who were then meant to remix it into true stereo format- which of course they didn't do!
This begs the question, did Virgin actually even bother listening to the tracks before putting it into production?
In 2001 Virgin reissued Musical Shark Attack on compact disc format for the first time, but incredulously they still didn't bother to mix it in true stereo, so us, the poor music buying public still had to put up with the inferior lopsided mix (even worse when listening through headphones!)
BUT finally in 2011/12 our heroes DKR Records have gone someway into addressing this sound problem with the release of three of the tracks from Musical Shark Attack (Tribute To Marcus Garvey, Semi Classical Dread, & Skyjuice & Festival Dumpling) on pristine vinyl 45's with corresponding dub versions on the 'B' sides! Yay!! i hear you cry.
Even better, DKR has also treated us to the original vocal cut to I Roy's 'Tribute to Marcus Garvey' on 7", Leroy Smart's 'Oh Marcus' . All four singles are issued on DKR's - Channel One label & available at all good reggae mail order sites.
Riddim Guide:
Leroy Smart - Oh Marcus = I Roy - Tribute To Marcus Garvey
Enforcer - Ride On Marcus = I Roy - Semi Classical Dread
Enforcer - Pay Them = I Roy - Skyjuice & Festival Dumpling
Two more I Roy 7"s released in September
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