By GRAHAM REID
(Herald rating: * *)
Oddly selective and largely unenlightening ramble through the scrapbook of reggae's premier riddum team which overlooks some of their most distinctive work — Grace Jones, Black Uhuru, some of the classic Jamaican artists — in favour of some lesser moments where their usually distinctive presence is barely felt (Shirley Brown's Woman to Woman, Clarence Carter's sentimental soul-folk on Patches).
Maybe it's enough to admire the breadth of their production work which ranges from Aretha and Smokey to Mobb Deep's gangsta cliches, the funk of Rare Earth and the Philly soul of the Chi-Lites. Always fun to hear Ian Dury's Reasons to be Cheerful, but while their names are up top this just feels like a wayward compilation rather than a profile or reminder of the particular gifts of the original drum'n'bass team.
Label: Azuli
<I>Sly and Robbie:</I> Late Night Tales
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