This year has not been great for music coming out of Jamaica in my opinion.

It’s just my personal taste, but I haven’t been feeling the dancehall side of things – lots of autotune and soca-ish dance craze stuff. The Heatwave crew are on top of all that if you’re curious.

Similarly the one drop tunes coming out of yard this year have seemed pretty lightweight – more inspired by the “drop leaf” riddim than booming Studio One basslines.

I have no doubt that things will change again at some point – innovation in Jamaica is given. But in 2008 my attention has been focused on old JA tunes and productions hailing from elsewhere…

The list below is just what I can remember off the top of my head on a hungover afternoon – a lot of it will be familiar to people who have heard me play out this year or checked my mixes (or read the reviews I did in Woofah).

Tunes, in no particular order:

V/A – Roots Garden Showcase vol 1 12″ (Roots Garden, UK) Produced by Manneseh.

Lion Vibes – The Cake Must Slice 10″ (Greensleeves, UK) Produced by Matt “Lion Vibes” Downs.

Peter Hunnigale – Free Soul LP (Peckings/Coxsone UK) Produced by Peckings, riddims by Studio One and Treasure Isle.

V/A – Fade Away riddim 7″s (Heartical, France) Produced by Heartical, riddim by Basque Dub Foundation.

BDF – Ministerio Del Dub riddim 7″s (Heartical, France) Produced by Heartical, riddim by Basque Dub Foundation.

V/A  – Police In Helicopter/ Shank I Shek riddims 7″s (Necessary Mayhem, UK) Produced by Curtis “Necessary Mayhem” Lynch.

V/A – Back to Mt Zion riddim 7″s and CD (Charlie’s Records, USA) Produced by McPullish.

V/A – Funk Milk Riddim  CD (Muzamba, Brazil) Produced by Digitaldubs.

Macka B – Warrior Style 7″ (Ariwa, UK) Produced by Mad Professor and Joe Ariwa.

Brother Culture – Warning 7″ (All City, Republic of Ireland) Produced by T-Woc, dub by Russ Disciples.

V/A – Vocal Anthology vol 1 CD (M Records, Netherlands) Produced by Twilight Circus.

V/A – Binghi riddim CD (M Records, Netherlands) Produced by Twilight Circus.

Bashes:

I did pretty well this year…

Jah Shaka, Siverspoon, Wembley

Saxon Studio International, Southbank

Unity / Fatman / Coxsone Outernational / Bunny Lee / more, Visions, Dalston

David Rodigan, Shoreditch

the last ever Tighten Up, Islington