Issue 1 jan/feb 2010
Reggae music tells stories that are not told in the newspapers, or on the television. There is a history that we read in books, and there’s the history we can hear in reggae music, in the lyrics and in the tunes. For reggae carries a message from the past and from the future, a prophetic message that can’t be drowned out by the system, that can’t be turned into a spectacle for the amusement of the people, and that can’t be wrapped up and sold to the public as a consumer good. Reggae is too heavy for that! So it is ignored by the mainstream media. It is left to the singers, musicians, producers and soundsystems to bring the message to the world, and it has always been this way.
What's inside
The original Rockers: Calman Scott
Kingston, 1976. Jamaica is caught in an international power struggle. Michael Manley’s socialist government, in power since 1972, has made enemies in the USA by nationalised the bauxite industry, and by supporting the Cuban government. It is an election year,…
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Emperor Haile Selassie visits US President John F. Kennedy, October 1963
Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is War.”
These lyrics, from the Bob Marley song ‘War’, were originally found in an English translation of the
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King Earthquake Soundsystem: Setting the record straight
Veteran UK soundman Errol Arawak talks about King Earthquake Soundsystem and keeping his own style
Reggaetown Berlin
In one of the last cities where techno is still considered cutting edge style, Irie Up traces the ragged history of reggae and dub
Gone but not forgotten
Jacques Golub remembers the high times in the reggae stores of Paris
Photostory
Photostories from the Nizetch team – University of Dub (London), Dub Station (France)
Irie Up
News from Poland, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Brazil, New Zealand, Russia,Holland, Ireland and the UK
Soundman Stories
Nothing but a soundsystem in the house for Christmas: Johnny Red on the judge and the jury