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Gavin B. · 09-21-2009, 12:37 PM

A Remastered Version of Classic Dancehall Song

Junjo strikes a pose with his massive sound system.

Jump No Fence- Frankie Paul I obtained this dancehall classic on a 1984 trip to Jamaica and it was on the album you see displayed in the YouTube video window below. The album was called Barrington Levy Meets Frankie Paul and side one contained six Barrington Levy songs while side two featured six Frankie Paul songs.

The album was never released in the United States and a rare UK edition of the album has gone out of issue. It was fairly typical of the two artist showcase albums that were popular in Jamaica at the time. However, Barrington Levy Meets Frankie Paul was unusual because all twelve songs were produced by Henry Junjo Lawes at Channel One and each song came from the Roots Radics session with Lawes that was ground zero in the rise of dancehall music in Jamaica.

The Roots Radics and Lawes laid down the riddim tracks for the earliest dance hall hits at the Channel One sessions which introduced General Echo, Michigan and Smiley, Eek-A-Mouse, Scientist, Yellowman, Cocoa Tea, Hugh Mundell, Toyan, Clint Eastwood plus Barrington Levy and Frankie Paul as the second generation of artists performing reggae music.

Henry Lawes singlehandedly created dancehall music sub-genre and did so without even having his own studio to record in. Lawes used Channel One to lay down the riddim tracks and the shuttled the tapes over to Harry J's studio lay down the vocal tracks and do the final mix.

Lawes was also something of a star-crossed figure: he spent the latter half of the '80s in jail, halting his career just as the new, electronic ragga sound was changing the face of dancehall. Although Lawes returned to work in the '90s, he was no longer on the cutting edge, and tragedy struck in 1999 when he was gunned down and murdereed in London.

I was surprised that YouTube didn't have a single posting of Jump No Fence which I rank among the best five songs produced during the dancehall era. I remedied that situation by posting my own digitally remastered version of Jump No Fence to make this song available to one and all. I'm not one to blow my own horn, but I got lucky in my remastering effort and the fidelity of the song almost sounds like the virgin vinyl Channel One edition of the song I first heard in Jamaican dancehalls in 1984.

09-21-2009, 12:37 PM	#68 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	A Remastered Version of Classic Dancehall Song Junjo strikes a pose with his massive sound system. Jump No Fence- Frankie Paul I obtained this dancehall classic on a 1984 trip to Jamaica and it was on the album you see displayed in the YouTube video window below. The album was called Barrington Levy Meets Frankie Paul and side one contained six Barrington Levy songs while side two featured six Frankie Paul songs. The album was never released in the United States and a rare UK edition of the album has gone out of issue. It was fairly typical of the two artist showcase albums that were popular in Jamaica at the time. However, Barrington Levy Meets Frankie Paul was unusual because all twelve songs were produced by Henry Junjo Lawes at Channel One and each song came from the Roots Radics session with Lawes that was ground zero in the rise of dancehall music in Jamaica. The Roots Radics and Lawes laid down the riddim tracks for the earliest dance hall hits at the Channel One sessions which introduced General Echo, Michigan and Smiley, Eek-A-Mouse, Scientist, Yellowman, Cocoa Tea, Hugh Mundell, Toyan, Clint Eastwood plus Barrington Levy and Frankie Paul as the second generation of artists performing reggae music. Henry Lawes singlehandedly created dancehall music sub-genre and did so without even having his own studio to record in. Lawes used Channel One to lay down the riddim tracks and the shuttled the tapes over to Harry J's studio lay down the vocal tracks and do the final mix. Lawes was also something of a star-crossed figure: he spent the latter half of the '80s in jail, halting his career just as the new, electronic ragga sound was changing the face of dancehall. Although Lawes returned to work in the '90s, he was no longer on the cutting edge, and tragedy struck in 1999 when he was gunned down and murdereed in London. I was surprised that YouTube didn't have a single posting of Jump No Fence which I rank among the best five songs produced during the dancehall era. I remedied that situation by posting my own digitally remastered version of Jump No Fence to make this song available to one and all. I'm not one to blow my own horn, but I got lucky in my remastering effort and the fidelity of the song almost sounds like the virgin vinyl Channel One edition of the song I first heard in Jamaican dancehalls in 1984. Last edited by Gavin B.; 03-20-2010 at 12:50 AM.