Label Of The Week #2: Trojan

Last time around, Leaf was celebrating it's tenth anniversary: in a couple of years' time, Trojan will be 40. That's a not inconsiderable achievement for a specialist label like Trojan, but they seem to go from strength to strength, and a record collection without at least a couple of Trojan releases is sorely incomplete.
The Trojan name was around since the early sixties, taken from the founder, Duke Reid's sound system - fairly impressively carted around Jamaica on seven-ton trucks. I have visions of walls of speakers with this little man in the middle, and I like the idea of that. The label itself (as exists today) was launched in 1968 as a subsidiary of Island specialising solely in Jamaican music. That places it right about the time that rocksteady, itself a development of the more upbeat ska, was mutating into the more soulful reggae. Not only that, but that was about the time the ex-pat and post-Windrush generation that had colonised parts of the post-war UK were making the island sound popular in a significant way - only a year after it's formation, Trojan's first chart entry (well, number 46) came with Tony Tribe's 'Red Red Wine' - yes, it's a cover of a Neil Diamond song, but who doesn't love Neil Diamond. Of course, it's probably more famous these days sung in a whiney Brummie accent as UB40's version - I have Trojan liner notes which describe that version as 'limp', a satisfyingly judgemental dismissal of the kind which appeals particularly to the sort of person who's going to write a blog about music.

The label went on to have more commercial success via the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Desmond Dekker, and Toots & The Maytals, a veritable who's who of Jamaican music. As their website is happy to admit, in many ways it wasn't the Jamaican community that was keeping them afloat, but the younger white generation for whom bubblegum pop, psychedelia, blues-rock, all this was irrelevant. The direct, honest and potent music coming out of Jamaica was far more important, said far much more in the spheres of romance, of politics, of spirituality, than any of the middle-class, self-indulgent nonsense of the time did. Little wonder that the Clash and the Ruts (among many more) appropriated the sound in punk's first wave, and that at the early 80's height of Thatcher-inspired disaffectation, 2-Tone became maybe the most racially-mixed genre to date, with all the power to pass on a message that reggae had had ten years earlier. It's still going as well - in the 80's US punks like Operation Ivy and NoFX took the music on board, and in one form or the other it's rarely been out of the UK charts. Take a look in the humiliating cesspool of media fixation, Celebrity Big Brother, the newest idol is the singer of the Ordinary Boys, whose sound is taken wholesale from 2-Tone, and includes a cover of the Brumbeats' 'Rudi's In Love' - you know you're on a fairly substantial ska base with a song about someone called Rudi.

These days, Trojan have a series of what are possibly the best compilations out there - with such a high-quality catalogue, they've got literally the pick of the absolute finest Jamaican music out there and as such these cheap sets are just excellent.
Just to whet your whistle:
Eric Donaldson - Cherry Oh Baby
Cornel Campbell - I Will Never Let You

Label Of The Week #1: Leaf

This may be the last one of these I do, but I feel the time is right. Leaf is a label that's been good to me this week, and I am now in receipt of some records of their's which are really, really good. Note to the general public: it's now acceptable to use the prefix ke- in front of words to signify "really really", so in fact Leaf are actually a kecool label, with loads of kecool stuff and a keexcellent ethos.

Anyway. Leaf are probably best known for their electronic and experimental acts, but these are no man's bland, samey techno, these are some seriously interesting, talented artistes: if you ever find yourself calling into question the validity of electronic music - as compared to, say, the more organic strains of post-rock kinds of things, or if you consider that it's too earnest to be real pop music when you could be listening to, for instance, some greasy rock'n'roll - Leaf is where you should head. Their nice website has lots of helpful audio and video to download, however if you're the old-fashioned type that likes something to hold in your hand, try Delivery Room, a superb sampler showcasing the delights of artists such as A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Icarus, Manitoba and Clue To Kalo, by whom you'll find some music at the bottom of the post.

Although I'd have to invest more time than I have to give each artist the time they deserve, from those that I've investigated the ethic behind the label seems to be to pick out only the finest, most innovative and experimental artists, but more specifically those that can combine this far-out experimentalism with a common touch, that drags the music back from the realms of the artfully/willfully unlistenable (such as you might find on, say, Rephlex) and back into the world where the artist connects with the listener on an emotional and intellectual level.

The label started in 1994 at the hands of Tony Morley, previously a press officer with the lovely 4AD, initially just to press a thousand copies of a Boymerang 12". It blossomed with a devotion not just to music but to artwork as well, clearly something that must have impressed Morley at 4AD, well-known for it's excellent designs. The label has since worked with v23 design (I've met them, you know).
It's a forward-looking label devoted to new music, and has achieved pretty much global success due to the popularity of one Dan Snaith of Caribou (formerly Manitoba) fame, who has released three gloriously exciting albums for the label.

So, although the stickers on the front of 'The Milk Of Human Kindness' say LEAF IS TEN, I actually make that 12 years old now, and long may they continue. I have here a track named 'As Tommy Fixes Fights' by one of my favourite Leaf acts, Clue To Kalo: http://s60.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3078JCPWEM3092AZOCDJLT90TN