Ok, you may have noticed that things have been a little quiet over at Gold Shop. We don’t have much of an excuse other than to say that the combination of the world cup with the hottest summer ever and just general laziness has resulted in no releases, and even less blog entries. Now that the summer is ending we promise to get back to our usual business of releasing records and posting various things that we find lying around on our blog. Big things in store for the remainder of 2010, so watch this space for more details.

- GOLD SHOP CREW

Gold Shop New Release

Progressive Int’l Records

Gold shop is pleased to announce two new titles from one of our favorite artists, Nitty Gritty. Produced by Derrick “Eric Bubbles” Howard, one third of the roots vocal trio The African Brothers, these are two of the earliest and hardest to find Nitty Gritty tunes. Produced around 1985, a few years before his string of hits for King Jammy and others, these two tunes showcase Nitty Gritty in a raw roots fashion. Voiced and mixed at Channel one, these are a great example of the sound of pre digital dancehall that paved the way for the sleng teng era that would follow.

PR-001  NITTY GRITTY  MORNING TRAIN

PR-002  NITTY GRITTY  GOT TO MAKE IT

Gold Shop New Release

African Love Records

When we did our last set of African Love Records, we knew it would not be long before we went back to this label to do some more of our favorite Shinehead tunes. Know How Fi Chat, Shineheads cut on the Sleng Teng rhythm has always been a bit of an elusive tune, only released on an African Love 12 Inch as the b side to Who The Cap Fits, another classic on the Tempo rhythm. So here, available for the first time on 7 inch, we bring you these two classics in all their glory, paired up with the original versions. To round out this set, we included two more Shinehead tunes, Rough & Rugged, and  Good Love Tonight, which although they have been available on reissue before, have been unavailable for awhile, and are really the type of tunes that never go out of fashion, so we are proud to add them to our catalog.

ALM-7-002    SHINEHEAD    GOOD LOVE TONIGHT

ALM-7-004    SHINEHEAD    WHO THE CAP FITS

ALM-7-007    SHINEHEAD    ROUGH & RUGGED

ALM-7-012    SHINEHEAD    KNOW HOW FI CHAT

R.I.P STEELY

As most of you know by now, Steely has passed away. In one of the articles about him, it states that Steely & Clevie contributed to over 80% of the dancehall rhythms produced in the late 80’s. I would say that this is a conservative estimate. Simply put, Steely & Clevie RAN dancehalls heyday of the mid 80’s to the early 90’s. The sound that we all identify as the golden dancehall era, is the Steely & Clevie sound. It is impossible to guess what direction reggae music would have taken without them, but it definitely would have been completely different. Steely was also a larger than life personality, and I would say that if he never played a note in his life, he still would have been the center of attention on charisma alone. He was a legend among legends, and was the ultimate producers producer. I don’t think there has been a producer that started after him that has not tried to emulate his style in some way. There will not be another Steely, and now that he is gone, Jamaica and Dancehall music will never be the same. R.I.P Steely.