Scientist Hempress Sativa
Scientist Meets Hempress Sativa In Dub

Another Boogie-Funk records repress for the 1st time. Recorded in Lagos, Nigeria in 1982. Features the great Nkono Teles on clavinet and electric piano and Jojo Kuo, drummer who played with Manu Dibango and Fela Kuti among others.

The Train To Skaville single was very much “the little train that could”. The disc managed to post a top 40 placing in the UK under some of the most unpromising of circumstances. Cut in 1967 with backing from Lynn Taitt And The Jets, it was originally issued in Britain on the tiny Rio label owned by one William Rickard, really just an off-shoot of his record shop which catered for Jamaican recordings. With little radio support, the key to its success was the popularity it gained on the dance club scene. This momentum pushed it onwards and into the charts.The taste that the Mods had got for Jamaican music through the Ska boom had remained as that fashion receded and this enduring interest led to the talented duo of Leonard Dillon and Stephen Taylor’s sole hit. Though another British chart placing eluded them, Train To Skaville set them up for a long run of success back in Jamaica with many well respected recordings. A knock on effect of the single’s triumph was they were one of the few artists afforded the opportunity of cutting a long playing record so early on in their careers, the Engine 54 LP that we have here.

Jamaican Fruit of African Roots is the lost vocal cut to one of King Tubby's most dramatic and devastating dubs from the 1970s. It was never released in Jamaica, but housed on an obscure compilation released only in Toronto in tiny quantities during the mid 70s. Heavyweight tune & powerful vocal from the little known Jamaican songstress, Sheila Rickards. Stirring rise up business!! 12" repress version. ** Now comes with a glorious gold fingered flute dub from modern master, Diggory Kenrik. BIG BIG Record!This release is the culmination of a 10 year obsession to try and find out more about the song's enigmatic singer Sheila Rickards. It all started in a musty Canadian thrift store with the discovery of an incredible 10 cent record credited to one "Shella Record". The singer's voice was unlike anything I had ever heard in Reggae before and sparked an international quest to find the lost siren. Beginning in Toronto where the record was pressed by local label Monica's in the mid 70s, I quizzed producers, collectors and Reggae artists, all of whom were as mystified as I was. I travelled to Jamaica and tracked down legendary producer Bunny Striker Lee who recorded the song in 1975 with a full line up of Aggrovators, some of the most prolific and talented musicians who ever worked on the island. - Bunny revealed that Shella Record was in fact Sheila Rickards, a Greenwich Farm Jazz singer from the Mento era who began performing as a child with artists like Lennie Hibbert and Carlos Malcolm. He had not seen her since she vanished in 1975 after they worked on this song at Harry Js and later voiced the track at King Tubby's infamous Drumillie Ave studio. - Despite tracking down many of the musicians who played on the song, Jamaican Jazz artists from the era and even Sheila's family, Sheila's whereabouts remained a mystery. Hearing rumours of her relocation to Los Angeles or New York, I travelled the States desperate to find out what happened to this remarkable diva. Every clue led to a red herring which led to a dead end. Now working with a private detective with a sideline in ghost hunting I hope to have more answers soon. The search has been filmed from the outset and will culminate in the documentary film Shella Record, A Reggae Mystery. "

Delroy Wilson was one of Jamaica's most soulful vocalists, and over a 40-year career the singer unleashed a flood of hits and a multitude of masterpieces. Born on October 5, 1948, in the Kingston neighborhood of Trenchtown, Wilson's phenomenal talent would be his ticket out of the ghetto, and his discovery by producer Coxsone Dodd in 1962 would change the path of Jamaican music. Released on Big Shot in 1973 and produced by Bunny Lee, Captivity is one of the true classics from Delroy's discography, back on vinyl for the first time since its original release.