DIGITALDOLLAR$

Presenting Digital Dollars, 43 tracks of rare late 80's digital cuts selected and mixed from original vinyl by Dj Wicz and Dj Distort right here in Brooklyn. This is a 160 kps rip to enjoy on your computer speakers. If you want a personal CD copy, please email me and I'll quote you a fee to cover shipping and handling. Or order some vinyl from the site and I will send you a CD free with your order. I just updated the vinyl sales section with some new records, check it.

Little Kirk has quite the cult following among digi heads, and deservedly so, his output as a young singer was strikingly good. His classic first LP is finally available as a limited edition repress here - Livity Records.

Philip Myers' output was limited to a handful of small-press 45's, of which this is his best. Released out of the tough neighborhood of Seaview Gardens in the Kingston 11 district of Jamaica, the tune sounds very much of its time and place. It's sparse, bass-and-keyboard heavy production and youthman singer's voice epitomize what is best about early digital productions.

Give thanks to Mush 1 at WNYU for putting me on the air recently to play some digital tunes. I got to play nineteen songs total and had fun. The show is archived here, WNYU.ORG, complete with playlist.

Here are a couple of 45's I brought to the show (only the Prophet got played) . . .

Two big early digital 45's crossed off the wantlist. Both found cheap too, compared to online prices. I guess if you spend dozens of hours in Japanese record shops you're bound to come across a bargain or two (though most of my haul was more in line with going rates). These are personal favorites of mine, take a listen.

Here are a couple of nice rub a dub tunes from my recent trip to Japan. Nuff reggae shops all over the place there, I'll be posting some more clips and pictures soon . . .

One good thing about delving into digital tunes is discovering some of the great unheralded singers of reggae. Carl Meeks may be appreciated by soundsystem selectors and hardcore fans, but his talent deserves a bigger audience. Like all good Jamaican singers, he had a really original style to fit with his times. He takes the flattened Waterhouse-type vocal made famous by the likes of Don Carlos and Tenor Saw, and seems to stretch it out. He gives a chilling performance on perhaps his biggest tune, "We Dem Fah". On this "World And Its Problem", he is in a more conscious mode, but still sounds well bleak about the issues facing mankind. Even the scriptural reference is dark - "We're living in a world of Soddom and Gomorr - ow."

Which brings us to the powerful Wayne Smith tune, E20. The alpha-numeric title of the tune seems to go right along with the bleeps and blips depicted on the cover of the lp and lacing the album. Wayne Smith of course is most famous for coming up with the first computer riddim with his friend Tiger. Though best known for that achievement, his full-length lp featuring Sleng-Teng has several other wicked tracks to recommend it, including this one. Wayne busily quotes chapters from the good book while fending off heathens and badmen with the help of a frantic and catchy riddim. Here's proof that Wayne Smith deserves to be remembered for more than the one tune, Sleng-Teng, which helped launch the computerized era.