dadawah: peace & love

ltd repress. Dark, hypnotic, tripping nyabinghi from 1974. Led by Jamaican Rastafarian singing hand-drummer Ras Michael over four extended excursions, the music is organic, sublime and expansive, grounation drums and bass-heavy (with no rhythm guitar; rather, Willie Lindo brilliantly improvising a kind of dazed blues). Lloyd Charmers and Federal Studios engineer George Raymond stayed up all night after the session to mix the recording, opening out the enraptured mood into echoing space, adding sparse, startling effects to the keyboards. At no cost to its deep spirituality, this is the closest reggae comes to psychedelia. Previously squandered in an incongruous 2-for-1 reissue, now lovingly returned to its original, singular glory at Abbey Road. Pressed on super-fly vinyl and housed in new standard-printed sleeves.