For American punters who have no idea what a "suedehead" is, there is no reason for worry. A suedehead was a brief -- and for the most part embarrassing -- trend between the skinheads and the smoothies: short hair, ugly clothes, and a particularly fickle taste in music that went from reggae to glam in a few short months. Only in Britain. That said, while the title of this box is merely a marketing ploy to justify issuing more stuff from their catalog, what they did issue is actually terrific. The years between 1972 and 1974 were a fertile period for reggae. On the one hand, there was the dread beat and blood sentiments of
Bob Marley and
Burning Spear and the ranting DJs like
U-Roy and
I-Roy. On the other were sounds that were bubbling up influenced by soul records and the old skinhead reggae charts from 1970 that were trying to maintain a place in the British youth market even after the advent of
Bowie and Bolan's glam revolution. These three CDs compile tracks that came from the underground at the time, such as
the Upsetters' "Jungle Lion," Pat Satchmo's cover of
Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," and
Alton Ellis' amazing "Play It Cool." The 17 cuts on disc one run the gamut from smooth, silky, pre-lovers rock reggae to steamy, muddy underground rasta sides. Disc two, which focuses on the clubs, offers the slicker, more R&B-threaded reggae sound of
Dennis Alcapone on "Musical Liquidator," while
Big Youth's toaster "Forman vs. Frasier" and his killer "Dock of the Bay" read as well as
Lennox Brown's sweet groover "High School Serenade." Disc three focuses on the charts but many of the records on this disc missed by a country mile, though there are some fine covers --
Toots & the Maytals' "Louie Louie,"
Pat Rhoden's "Living for the City," and Sidney, George & Jackie's beautiful version of the Goffin & King classic "At the Club." In all, it's one of those loose amalgamations kicked out by Trojan with stunning regularity that makes reggae lovers flip, especially for the price -- three discs for less than the price of one. ~ Thom Jurek