The band feel that it is the right time to release this album because it calls for Black people to recognise and discover their roots. It touches on many topics and sets out to reveal a few facts with the hope that they will come to light. Listen to it with an open mind and use it to develop a new perspective of self and mindset.

Inspiration for these songs, Jah know, arises from the injustices carried out by a few onto the many. Injustice yesterday, today, or tomorrow is still injustice. Pay attention to the issues around you, and when you listen to each song from the album you can see what each one is saying to you.  They are all necessary in this time. One song doesn't hold more value than another. Each is unique and stands out. Listen to them and see which is the highlight for you, but, in truth, they are all highlights just like the stars are the universe they are all important individually, but more so as the whole. 

The album is all about origins and Black people’s origins began in Kemet. The title track ‘Roots’, emphasises this, which is why the album goes by this name. It speaks of Kemet, the original name for Egypt, a land of Black people, that was first inhabited by the Kushites, now known as Nubians, 5,000 years ago. This fact is disputed but evidence puts Africans in Kemet building pyramids and thriving culturally, politically, and economically.

Other songs focus on the turmoil that is going on around us. Look around and see how Mother Nature is crying out for peace and balance. But can it happen? It can with overstanding of oneself. This way there won't be an unbalanced world to protect. The band hopes that this album will allow people to find that balance.

Musically, rhythmically, and vocally, Black Roots still hold to its core roots and values. But the band has evolved through its lyrics. You see this once again in this new album. The injustices of yesterday still show their face today, albeit in a different set of circumstances. Each situation is unique and forever changing, so the band changes in tandem with events to represent the voice of the oppressed.

The Scotch Bonnet, depicted in the cover art, is a hot chilli pepper that is common to the Caribbean and West Africa. It is a representation of humanity. Just as people vary in all parts of the globe and in different nations, so does the Scotch Bonnet pepper, with its green, gold, and red colourings. It is a pepper in every nation, and we all feed from the same tree.

Buy @ Bandcamp

Roots

Here is another heavyweight remix EP from the mighty roots reggae band Black Roots hailing from St Paul’s Bristol.

The song ‘I Believe’, originally released on ‘On the Ground’ (Sugar Shack Records - September 2012) is lifted from this album and given a new edge and sharpness on these 4 mixes.  It is a seminal song, one of the most popular off the album so this was a strong motivation to go back into the studio to create and put some different versions out on release.  Its lyrics are strong and powerful. They draw on personal experience.

Black Roots sing that ‘life in the system is not easy because it doesn’t cater for I and I but if you believe in the higher power you can still hold your head up high’.  Isn’t that the truth! In spite of the fact that the ‘system’ has discriminated against you, that life for you is hard and difficult, that you are powerless and disenfranchised you can still find that inner strength and belief in the higher power to show you the way to transcend this pressure and believe in yourself.

Jah Garvey and Buggsy, 2 emcees based in St Paul’s Bristol, join Black Roots in the lyrical mix, to add another layer of reasoning to the underlying message of this song.  Jah Garvey too is a roots artist inspired by his exposure to the plight of people that he encounters on his daily journeys and feels that he must support their lives through his music encouraging happiness, enlightenment, personal growth and development.  He features on 3 of the mixes and Buggsy who describes himself as the fast spitting Rasta emcee from St Paul’s Bristol, boasting a flow like an automatic weapon features on 1 mix.  He describes himself as a soldier in Jah Army joining up with the ‘old skool’ to help to deliver a message full of ‘truth and right’ and shows his respect for Black Roots in the lyrics that he chats.

I Believe EP

This album was first released in 1993 on Vinyl, Cassette and CD and it is now to be reissued as part of the programme by Nubian Records to make available all of Black Roots’ back catalogue on digital platforms.  ‘With Friends’ will be out on 26th April 2019.  It is the last full album recorded by the band before activity ceased in the mid-90s for several years in their 40 years long career.  The next full album to be recorded by the band was On the Ground that released in 2012 in collaboration with Sugar Shack Records.

Black Roots had talked on occasion of inviting other artists to perform some of their classic songs and the circumstances of the band at this time lent themselves to work up such a project.  And so, Dub Judah, BB Seaton, Trevor Dixon and Mikey Forbes, all London based artists, were approached to perform on this album.  

Dub Judah a very respected vocalist, musician, live performer and producer working through his own Dub Jockey record label was asked to and agreed to produce the album.  He was given the key task of breathing new life into these songs and used his versatile musical skills to good effect changing the feel of the rhythm section.  The recordings play and feel different even though they are all classic Black Roots songs.  He added his vocals to two massive songs ‘What Them a Do’ and ‘Tribal War’.  The lyrical content of these blend with his personal beliefs reflecting where he was at spiritually and he sang them with heart.  You can hear it when you listen back to these two songs.

Harris Lloyd "B.B." Seaton, also known as "Bibby", a Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and record producer who was a member of The Gaylads, The Astronauts, Conscious Minds, and The Messengers, took on the task of laying vocals on ‘Release the Food’ and ‘Opportunity’ giving these new depth and insightfulness.

Trevor Dixon, a lovers rock singer best known for singing on ‘Woman of Moods’ that was first released in 1988 on Groove & a Quarter Records, sang ‘Move On’ and ‘Let It Be Me’, two ballads that suited his smooth land silky vocal style.

And Charles Bryan aka Delroy Ogilvie, one of the original front men with Black Roots, came back to do a cameo performance on ‘Chanting for Freedom’ punching out the lyrics in his own inimitable style with Mikey Forbes, another guest reggae singer doing a great version on ‘Confusion’.
The other songs featured on this album and given the treatment by Kondwani Ngozi and Errol Brown, the remaining vocalists with Black Roots at this time, are ‘Juvenile Delinquent’. ‘Survival’, ‘Africa’ and ‘The Father’.

And so was born ‘With Friends’.  The final curtain on the first part of Black Roots’ long and continuing musical career.

With Friends

Dub Factor 2 -  The Dub Judah Mixes is the second dub album that was released by Black Roots. in the early 1990s.  If you know  of Dub Factor - The Mad Professor you will, with this new reissued version, be able to compare and juxtapose the talents of these 2 dub masters who worked with the band on different full album projects.  After the vocal versions were produced they were let loose on the mixing desk  to shape, interpret and transform these Black Roots rhythms into these 2 dub versions that now make up the Dub Factor series.

Mad Professor worked with the band in the late 1980s and produced and mixed ‘All Day All Night’ and ‘Natural Reaction’ whose rhythm tracks led to the first ‘Dub Factor’  album after Black Roots gave him free reign at the mixing desk to cook up the dub  versions that made up this album.  It’s success prompted the band to follow this up with another volume of dub mixes and what better person to do this job than the eclectic, up and coming and talented  producer of the time and dub head Dub Judah himself who was doing production work for the band in 1993.
  
Dub Judah, of Dub jockey label fame, is still recognised and celebrated as one of the most respected names in UK Dub.  He  continues to work on his own projects but now spends part of his time playing bass for Norman Grant and the Twinkle Brothers .

His contribution to these recordings back in November 1993 at Coach House Studio in Bristol day was central to the success of the project.   He was brought in to programme the drums , play the keyboards and do his magic with the percussion over dubs; contribute to the vocals on 2 songs (Tribal War and What Them A Do);  produce the ’With Friends’ set and as an added  bonus was also given the freedom of the mixing desk to concoct and mould these dubs versions.  So after breathing new life into the songs that make up the ‘With Friends’ set it would have been an injustice not to release these dubs as the follow up album.  And so, Dub factor 2 was given life.  In essence this album is the dub version of ‘With Friends’.

It was first released on 3rd February 1994 on Vinyl, Cassette and CD and is now being reissued on 20th March 2020 as part of the programme by Nubian Records to make available all of Black Roots’ back catalogue on digital platforms.  ‘Dub Factor 2 - The Dub Judah Mixes’ is the second album of dub mixes released on the Nubian Records imprint as the band sought to exploit the growing popularity of dub music in the United Kingdom and outernationally back in the early 1990s.

Dub Factor 2 - The Dub Judah Mixes

This album was first released on Vinyl and Cassette in 1987.  More recently Bristol Archive Records rereleased a ‘deluxe’ version on CD featuring bonus dub tracks.  And now finally Nubian Records has made this album available on digital download.

This album was the first collaboration with Neil Fraser aka The Mad Professor.  He gave the band a fuller more mature sound without compromising the band unique roots feel that is punctuated by powerful and harmonic vocals.  This download version features 11 of the 12 original tracks, with 3 extra dub mixes and the extended mix of ‘Pin in the Ocean’.

All Day All Night

Pin In The Ocean (Extended Mix)

Mighty Lion

In July 1984, Black Roots released their second album, The Front Line, on vinyl and cassette.

The title track of this album, ‘Frontline’, was the theme song for the BBC Television sitcom that ran for one series by the same name.  It is a story of 2 brothers who are constantly fighting like ‘cat and dog’ and the reason is that one is a police man and the other a dreadlocks man, both living together in the same house.  Their life styles are such opposites that they can never agree about anything.  And this clash of lifestyles is what informs the comedy that unfolds.

Unfortunately it is not deemed a success and it does not make it past that the first series of 6 episodes for a longer run.  However, it is a positive experience for Black Roots as it introduces the band to a wider audience and affords the opportunity to release and promote another album release.

Now on 15th July 2014, almost 30 years to the day since it was first released, Nubian Records, is releasing this set as part its program of uploading and making its back catalogue available for download.

In addition to the original classic tracks that originally made up this album, like ‘War’, ‘Struggling’ and ‘Blackheart Man’, Nubian have added 2 bonus tracks, ‘Chanting For Freedom’ and’ Confusion’.  Although these 2 tracks were originally released on 12” vinyl in 1981, as the follow up to the ‘Bristol Rock EP’ they never featured on any of the early albums.

The Front Line

Far Over

Confusion

Blackheart Man

Chanting For Freedom

Delete

In The Waiting

Plot

Rise Up

So Many Things

Berlin Conference

Exploited

Fi Once

First One

Only Son

Tell Me Why

Too Holy

Windrush

This is the title track off Natural Reaction the last studio album of original songs that the band recorded last century. It was also the last collaboration with Neil Fraser aka The Mad Professor but the first that was recorded and mixed at Ariwa Studios in London.

Charles Bryan, one of the singers, Trevor Seivwright, the drummer, and Derrick King, the bass player had left the band by the time the band started recording this album. And this provided the opportunity to try something a little bit different. The band teamed up with talented multi-instrumentalist Black Steel who was doing a lot of work for Ariwa at the time and he laid the bass, drums and keyboards for the tracks. It was the first time that Black Roots had used a digital sound to build their tracks but it gave it a new edge.

Originally released in October 1990, on Vinyl, CD and Cassette, Nubian Records is now making Natural Reaction available on Digital Down on 17th February 2015.

Natural Reaction

Black Roots worked with Neil Fraser aka The Mad Professor on a number of projects during the mid to late 1980’s that included 2 studio albums ‘All Day All Night’ and ‘Natural Reaction’.  So it would have been a shock if The Mad Professor had not been let loose on the mixing desk to create a series of dub mixes for the band. On the 8th May 1991 Nubian Records released the first of what became 3 volumes of dub mixes ‘Dub Factor – The Mad Professor Mixes.  It had moved into this sector of the market as a means of maximising and exploiting its growing catalogue of recordings and as a response to the increasing demand for dub music.

Now as part of its back catalogue reissue plans Nubian Records is releasing this album, once again. It now available, on digital download only.  This is an opportunity once more to enjoy the magic of The Mad Professor as he strips down the Black Roots sound to deliver a set of truly remarkable dub mixes in a style that only he can produce.


Dub Factor 1 The Mad Professor Mixes

Dub Reaction

Black Roots have produced, written, composed and recorded some highly acclaimed songs during their long career. One of these is ‘Move On’.

The song is about a relationship that has broken down, in which the man realises that his partner has fallen in love with someone else and that he feels that he has no choice but to ‘Move On’. How many of us have faced this dilemma in life’s journey?

First released on their debut vinyl outing simply called ‘4 Track Demo 12”’ back in 1981 it was picked up by the legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel and played on national radio. This helped to propel the band to prominence. Then it appeared on their debut album ‘Black Roots’ that came out in 1983. Since it has featured on some re-releases notably on French label Makasound’s ‘On the Frontline’ and ‘In Session’, and Sugar Shack’s ‘Reggae Singles Anthology’. It is one of the band’s anthems. This is a song that is recognised world-wide and is undoubtedly one of their top 10 best songs of all time.

So it seemed a reasonable proposition for the band to bring it back into the studio some 35 years on to rework it, redefine it, modernise the sound and then release it. And here it is as a digital download only offering, 5 mixes of this wonderful song recorded back in July 2013, once again at J&amp;J Studio, produced by Jeff Spencer and the band, and mixed by Louis Beckett. One of the cuts features Jah Garvey, an upcoming artist, also based in Bristol, who lends his lyrical skills to give added meaning and poignancy to this song. 

The band has made a video to promote this release produced by 8th Sense Media, a film production company based in St Paul's Bristol that the band have worked closely with on several projects including 'Ghetto Feel' and 'Son of Man' .

Move On EP

Move On

I Believe featuring Jah Garvey

Life In The System Dub

Life in the System Dub

I Believe featuring Jah Garvey (extended mix)

I Believe featuring Jah Garvey (Extended Mix)

I Believe featuring Jah Garvey and Bugsy

I Believe featuring Jah Garvey and Buggsy

Juvenile Delinquent

What Them a Do

What Them a Do featuring Dub Judah

This album was first released in 1993 on Vinyl, Cassette and CD and it is now to be reissued as part of the programme by Nubian Records to make available all of Black Roots’ back catalogue on digital platforms.  ‘With Friends’ will be out on 26th April 2019.  It is the last full album recorded by the band before activity ceased in the mid-90s for several years in their 40 years long career.  
The next full album to be recorded by the band was On the Ground that released in 2012 in collaboration with Sugar Shack Records.

Black Roots had talked on occasion of inviting other artists to perform some of their classic songs and the circumstances of the band at this time lent themselves to work up such a project.  And so, Dub Judah, BB Seaton, Trevor Dixon and Mikey Forbes, all London based artists, were approached to perform on this album.  

Dub Judah a very respected vocalist, musician, live performer and producer working through his own Dub Jockey record label was asked to and agreed to produce the album.  He was given the key task of breathing new life into these songs and used his versatile musical skills to good effect changing the feel of the rhythm section.  The recordings play and feel different even though they are all classic Black Roots songs.  He added his vocals to two massive songs ‘What Them a Do’ and ‘Tribal War’.  The lyrical content of these blend with his personal beliefs reflecting where he was at spiritually and he sang them with heart.  You can hear it when you listen back to these two songs.

Harris Lloyd "B.B." Seaton, also known as "Bibby", a Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and record producer who was a member of The Gaylads, The Astronauts, Conscious Minds, and The Messengers, took on the task of laying vocals on ‘Release the Food’ and ‘Opportunity’ giving these new depth and insightfulness.

Trevor Dixon, a lovers rock singer best known for singing on ‘Woman of Moods’ that was first released in 1988 on Groove & a Quarter Records, sang ‘Move On’ and ‘Let It Be Me’, two ballads that suited his smooth land silky vocal style.

And Charles Bryan aka Delroy Ogilvie, one of the original front men with Black Roots, came back to do a cameo performance on ‘Chanting for Freedom’ punching out the lyrics in his own inimitable style with Mikey Forbes, another guest reggae singer doing a great version on ‘Confusion’.

The other songs featured on this album and given the treatment by Kondwani Ngozi and Errol Brown, the remaining vocalists with Black Roots at this time, are ‘Juvenile Delinquent’. ‘Survival’, ‘Africa’ and ‘The Father’.

And so was born ‘With Friends’.  The final curtain on the first part of Black Roots’ long and continuing musical career.

Confusion featuring Mikey Forbes

Following the 2011 release of “Black Roots – The Reggae Singles Anthology” and the 2012 rerelease of “All Day All Night” deluxe version by reissue label Bristol Archive Records, Black Roots and their label Nubian Records have now teamed up with Bristol Archive's parent label Sugar Shack Records to release their brand new album “On The Ground”.

It may be more than twenty years since the original line up were together in the studio, but for their new record they've picked up where they left off and are right back in that classic Black Roots groove that will keep their existing fans happy and appeal to a whole new generation of reggae lovers, many of whom weren't born when Black Roots released their string of classic records.

The music is entertaining and upbeat, but it is still roots music. These songs have a social message that is just as relevant in the troubled world we inhabit in 2012 as the band's songs were during the ups and downs of the 1980s. 

Opening track “I Believe” makes it clear that for all the progress we've made, for many people life today is just as hard as it's ever been. Surviving the system isn't easy. Second track “Pompous Way” is also concerned with society, but this time with fixing it and reaching out to the next generation rather than labelling them as the problem. The music itself harks back to Black Roots of old and other than the mention of the digital age could easily have been recorded thirty years ago.

Another song that sounds like it could have come from the band's first incarnation is “Militancy” definitely sounding like Black Roots of old and also touching on the theme of slavery, a theme that receives further exploration in the aptly titled “Slavery” recalling the memory of the great evil that befell millions of Africans and their descendants.

There are more upbeat songs recalling a life in rural Jamaica with “Long Long Ago” or celebrating  Africa with “Oh Mama Africa.” In fact whatever the message the band are delivering they still do it with great and enjoyable music, the new members of the band more than earning their place alongside the founding fathers.

More than three decades after they formed, Black Roots are back with a brand new 17 track CD album that defies the passage of time and will appeal to all reggae fans, was released on September 10th on CD, limited edition vinyl and digital download, available from all good retailers.

On The Ground

I Believe

Pompous Way

Militancy

Dub Factor 2 -  The Dub Judah Mixes is the second dub album that was released by Black Roots in the early 1990s.  If you know  of Dub Factor - The Mad Professor you will, with this new reissued version, be able to compare and juxtapose the talents of these 2 dub masters who worked with the band on different full album projects.  After the vocal versions were produced they were let loose on the mixing desk  to shape, interpret and transform these Black Roots rhythms into these 2 dub versions that now make up the Dub Factor series.

Mad Professor worked with the band in the late 1980s and produced and mixed ‘All Day All Night’ and ‘Natural Reaction’ whose rhythm tracks led to the first ‘Dub Factor’  album after Black Roots gave him free reign at the mixing desk to cook up the dub  versions that made up this album.  It’s success prompted the band to follow this up with another volume of dub mixes and what better person to do this job than the eclectic, up and coming and talented  producer of the time and dub head Dub Judah himself who was doing production work for the band in 1993.
  
Dub Judah, of Dub jockey label fame, is still recognised and celebrated as one of the most respected names in UK Dub.  He  continues to work on his own projects but now spends part of his time playing bass for Norman Grant and the Twinkle Brothers .

His contribution to these recordings back in November 1993 at Coach House Studio in Bristol day was central to the success of the project.   He was brought in to programme the drums , play the keyboards and do his magic with the percussion over dubs; contribute to the vocals on 2 songs (Tribal War and What Them A Do);  produce the ’With Friends’ set and as an added  bonus was also given the freedom of the mixing desk to concoct and mould these dubs versions.  So after breathing new life into the songs that make up the ‘With Friends’ set it would have been an injustice not to release these dubs as the follow up album.  And so, Dub factor 2 was given life.  In essence this album is the dub version of ‘With Friends’.

It was first released on 3rd February 1994 on Vinyl, Cassette and CD and is now being reissued on 20th March 2020 as part of the programme by Nubian Records to make available all of Black Roots’ back catalogue on digital platforms.  ‘Dub Factor 2 - The Dub Judah Mixes’ is the second album of dub mixes released on the Nubian Records imprint as the band sought to exploit the growing popularity of dub music in the United Kingdom and outernationally back in the early 1990s.

Take Heed

Warning From Jah

Not Into War

“Black Roots”, the eponymously named debut album, was originally released in 1983 on Kick Records, by which time the band was established as one of the UK's leading live acts with a strong repertoire of socially aware songs reflecting the issues of the day. When it came to their first album, they chose eight of their strongest tracks and assembled what was to become one of the classic British reggae albums of the decade.

Featuring 8 songs “The Father”, “Survival”, “Juvenile Delinquent”, “What Them 'A Do”, “Opportunity”, “Tribal War”, “Africa” and “Move On”, the album covers themes of social alienation, deprivation, repatriation, RastafarI, violence within the black community and ends, with the tale of a failing relationship. Three decades later, many of the songs are just as relevant and provide the perfect complement to their latest recordings.

It was re-issued Bristol Archive Records on vinyl in 22nd April 2013 to coincide with Record Store Day.  The release on vinyl was strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide. 400 copies were made be available for Record Store Day, 22nd April 2013, at participating retailers and feature a facsimile of the original sleeve, whilst 100 copies will be available directly from Bristol Archive Records and very select retailers and feature a unique handmade screen printed sleeve as well as being individually numbered, a very special edition.

This was the first time that this album was available on vinyl for twenty-five years and demand outstripped supply.

This release was made available by Nubian Records on digital platforms. Here is an opportunity to stream or download either this song or the full album that is still in great demand from old and new fans alike.

Black Roots

Pinned to spotlight

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