All Day All Night : Deluxe Edition

Allday Allnight was originally released in 1987, when the London reggae scene was thriving. Unfortunately, the excellent Black Roots band was based in Bristol, a relative musical backwater, and although they achieved significant regional success they never got the international recognition that they should have. They did, however, succeed at gaining the attention of a young producer named Neil Fraser, who was gaining increasing fame under the name Mad Professor. He produced Allday Allnight, the band's third album, and brought a more polished and modern sound to the band's well-established roots-and-culture style. On this album you can hear Black Roots starting to separate themselves from the stylistic characteristics of their fellow countrymen Aswad and Steel Pulse; tracks like "Poor Children" and "Pin in the Ocean" (presented here in both its original version and in an extended "showcase" mix, with a dub version appended) find them firmly establishing a smooth but rootsy sound all their own. This 25th anniversary reissue of the album adds six bonus tracks: the extended version of "Pin in the Ocean" plus five straight dub versions of other songs from the album. The only fly in this otherwise wonderful ointment is the vocal sound, which on some tracks is noticeably distorted around the edges -- whether this is the result of engineering mistakes by the Mad Professor (which seems doubtful) or errors in the remastering process is unclear, but it's an unfortunate flaw in what could have been a complete triumph of a reissue. ~ Rick Anderson|

Allday Allnight was originally released in 1987, when the London reggae scene was thriving. Unfortunately, the excellent Black Roots band was based in Bristol, a relative musical backwater, and although they achieved significant regional success they never got the international recognition that they should have. They did, however, succeed at gaining the attention of a young producer named Neil Fraser, who was gaining increasing fame under the name Mad Professor. He produced Allday Allnight, the band's third album, and brought a more polished and modern sound to the band's well-established roots-and-culture style. On this album you can hear Black Roots starting to separate themselves from the stylistic characteristics of their fellow countrymen Aswad and Steel Pulse; tracks like "Poor Children" and "Pin in the Ocean" (presented here in both its original version and in an extended "showcase" mix, with a dub version appended) find them firmly establishing a smooth but rootsy sound all their own. This 25th anniversary reissue of the album adds six bonus tracks: the extended version of "Pin in the Ocean" plus five straight dub versions of other songs from the album. The only fly in this otherwise wonderful ointment is the vocal sound, which on some tracks is noticeably distorted around the edges -- whether this is the result of engineering mistakes by the Mad Professor (which seems doubtful) or errors in the remastering process is unclear, but it's an unfortunate flaw in what could have been a complete triumph of a reissue. ~ Rick Anderson