Twinkle Brothers - Dont Turn Your Back On Us Jah (extended)

Marching lion

IndicaDubs ft. DanMan - When Shaka Come - Dubplate RARE

Libyan Reggae at its peak grooves courtesy of Benghazi-born Ahmed Ben Ali. After working with Ahmed on the 12” hit “Subhana” (Habibi012), Habibi Funk is back with a full-length release focusing on Ahmed’s releases from the mid 2000’s. The tracks on the LP represent a blisteringly deep collection of heavy reggae rhythms and synthesized grooves from a singular creative force, inspired as much from Jamaican sonics as from Libyan folkloric styles, as Ahmed says, “it’s the Libyan style, not some bullshit.” 

Our first and major contact with Libyan music began five-or-so years ago, when we were invited to visit an abandoned tape factory in Tunisia. We have talked about this influential visit more at length for the Free Music release (Habibi021), if you’re interested. Anyhow, the place was astonishing. It had a room full of unused - but already printed - inlay cards for tapes and three large rooms spreading over two floors of unsold stock. A rough guess would be more than 100,000 copies already dubbed with music, many of which were produced for the Libyan market. On top of this the owner, Hechmi, also told us of another 200,000 blank tapes held in a separate unit. Much of the music we found there was clearly influenced by Jamaican music, and we soon realized how popular Reggae music had been in Libya since the 1970’s. 

Reggae in Libya has dominated the charts since its arrival in the 1970’s and flourished with some of the pioneers of Libyan reggae such as Ibrahim Hesnawi, Najib Alhoush and The White Birds Band. Composers like Ahmed Fakroun and Nasser Mizdawi also played around with the genre, although they did not dedicate their sound to it. When we started researching into more contemporary recordings, we quickly came upon Ahmed Ben Ali. Ben Ali is a Libyan singer and producer, whose YouTube channel at the time contained four songs (we later learned they had been uploaded more than ten years prior). Despite the fact that these songs seem to be pretty popular, the channel became inactive a few months after its launch. In the comment section you could read appreciative feedback, not only from Libyans but also people from all over the world who seem to share a common passion for Ben Ali’s sound. 

Generally speaking, there is not really a blueprint on how to find the musicians with whom we would like to re-release music. In this case, we did consider visiting Libya, but in the end, it turned out not to be possible for a number of reasons. We focused our efforts on online research, and eventually we were able to connect with Ahmed by phone. 

Contextualizing his own style, Ben Ali points out that, “The Libyan folkloric rhythm is very similar to the reggae rhythm. So, if Libyan people listen to reggae, it’s easy for them to relate because it sounds familiar. This is the main reason why reggae became so popular here. [...] We played the reggae Libyan style, it’s not the same as in Jamaica. We added our oriental notes to it and if you mix both it becomes something great.” With a bit of laughter, he adds that “...to me it’s still original reggae, it’s the Libyan style, not some bullshit.” 

The album was licensed from Ahmed Ben Ali. We pay 50% of the profits of this release. Only project related costs are deductible from the gross income, research and travel costs come out of our own share. Publishing rights were not included in our agreement.

Habibi Funk 022: Ahmed Ben Ali - Subhana

Here comes a project, as so often, very dear to my heart. It’s the outcome of the hunt, find and follow up journey of an obscure dubplate. A heartical salute to the late 80s / early 90s era in the UK - Brixton to be precise. When Brixton Promotion and Passion Enterprises, under the wings of Howard Hill, were responsible for a number of scorchers with the likes of Michael Prophet, Ricky Tuff and others. The ominous Vanguard had managed to craft his own hard hitting sound with his drum machines, minimalistic and raw, but still full of feeling, that would carry the singers perfectly. One particularly tuff tune from that time has remained a hard to find dubplate though, and it has been haunting me for years.
From first hearing it in Nick Manasseh’s selection - as it is in his precious collection since the 90s - to re- and relistening session and radio recording snippets to find and enjoy it again. From countless conversations and emails I had with Nick and others about the tune, to running thru Brixton record shops, asking around and trying to locate Howard Hill. From Nick one summer at a festival suddenly suggesting to redo the riddim, as the original master recordings of the original dubplate might most likely not exist anymore, to now presenting two beautiful new recordings on a very very special recut out of his studio… it has been a wonderful ride !

Nick is around in the reggae and sound system scene in London since the 80s, plus the most humble person, as well as a top producer, musician, engineer, selector, sound man, radio presenter and just in general super talented in everything he does. Also he was the one who made me discover the dubplate in the first place. When he suggested to take the project down to his The Yard Studio, and record some fresh vocals, I could not believe my luck. A many months and a steady exchange followed and lead to a number of versions.
It’s with great to joy to now present to you a heartfelt ’Need More Love’ by Ziggy Anderson and a great deejay piece entitled ‘People’s Choice’ by Afrikan Simba on a beautifully recrafted riddim plus deep dubs à la Manasseh, all transferred to tape and mastered with care by Star Delta Mastering.

Just grateful how much strength this piece of music has been giving me whenever I press play. Hopeful that it will do the same to others.

This is the time, so let Jah Light shine bright… in special dedication to Michael Prophet and all the fallen angels !

Ziggy Anderson / Afrikan Simba - Need More Love / People’s Choice [LIONSCHOICE013]

A1 - Ziggy Anderson - Need More Love
A2 - Manasseh - Need More Dub

B1 - Afrikan Simba - People’s Choice
B2 - Manasseh - People’s Dub

LION’S DEN
music, mix & instruments by Nick Raphael aka Manasseh
vox & lyrics by Ziggy Anderson (A) / Afrikan Simba (B)
all recorded at The Yard, Ladbroke Grove, London
artwork by Juli Jupter
mastered by Star Delta Mastering
All rights reserved. © + ℗ 2025 Lion’s Den

Afrikan Simba x Manasseh - People’s Choice + People’s Dub

Kingston Dub Club - Jah Shaka x Rockers Soundstation PT 2  Live 3.26.2017

Kingston Dub Club - Jah Shaka x Rockers Soundstation Week 2  Live 3.26.2017

King Jammys: 38 St Lucia Road, Vol. 3

Jah Jah is Calling

old school tribe project
Vinyl out 16/11 
enjoy!

Keflat23- Tribal stories (Out on BSP 11)

Published in december 2007 this tape mixes rare and classic rockers tunes from 1980s Jamaica. This is the sound of early dancehall before it went digital. Download and listen to nuff tunes with singjays such as Triston Palma, Mikey Melody, Robert Ffrench and many other more or less obscure singers.

Marching lion

Jah Steppah