Heart Of The Congos Green With Yellow Haze Vinyl

Along with Bunny Wailer's Blackheart Man and Culture's Two Sevens Clash, The Heart of the Congos represents one of the monumental summits of reggae music.This is 70s reggae at its most complex, haunting and deeply heavy best. Ethereal falsetto harmonies, chanting background vocals from a chorus including Gregory Isaacs, guitar by Ernest Ranglin all amount to the perfect primer to both the glory days of Jamaican roots music and the peculiar genius of producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. Perry drew up the blueprint for dub reggae in the cauldron of his legendary Black Ark studio. This album is considered to be the masterpiece of Perry's Black Ark years.As good as this is, it must be said that the one-CD version currently sold by VP records is highly inferior to the remastered two-cd, now out of print, Blood and Fire version. Seek out the Blood and Fire version due to the expanded number of tracks it contains, including gems such as "Solid Foundation" and "At the Feast" as well as the vastly better sound quality. I am far from an audiophile, but the VP version sounds muddy whereas the Blood and Fire version sounds crisp and clean -- the instruments distinct.If it becomes impossible to find the Blood and Fire version used, the VP version may suffice, but it would be a shame to see such a shining work not presented in its full luster.

A must-have if you are into reggae. This is a classic album and features all of the trademark studio trickery from Lee Perry's Black Ark era.The audio quality is good--despite the typical jamaican pressing flaws of 'dimples' on the record. I don't know what causes them but a lot of my Jamaican albums have them. But, as I said, it seems to play just fine.

In my opinion the best reggae album I have ever heard. From the first listen of the original vinyl I was hooked. I played it over and over again for days. It was all I wanted to hear. The vibe of this album is just fantastic! Totally up. My personal favs are "Fisherman", "Children Crying", "La La Bam-Bam", "Ark Of The Covenant" and of course the otherworldy, transcendant power of "Open Up The Gate". Now, initially I was a bit put off by the sub-par sound quality of the original release vinyl. The opening track, "Fisherman" has very noticable drop-outs and the album as a whole has various problems with eq and tape hiss. I attempted remastering the album myself a few times but I was never quite happy with the results. The dropouts in "Fisherman" especially bothered me. Luckily, the album was professionaly remastered and re-released on cd as the "Blood & Fire" edition. Included in this edition is a thick booklet which has a detailed explaination of the limitations of the original master tapes (which were quarter inch, recorded on a Teac 4-track!). Apparently the tapes were not very well preserved. Although the mastering engineers used all the latest technology to try to eliminate tape hiss and drop-outs, in the end they still couldn't make it perfect. Most of the tape hiss was generated by Lee "Scratch" Perry's practice of bouncing tracks (mixing multiple instruments together on one track to free up the other tracks; a necessity if you are recording on a 4-track machine) and they opted to allow some tape hiss in order to preserve the original fidelity of the recording. They also claim that they couldn't do anything about the dropouts in "Fisherman" but from my estimation they cleaned them up rather well. The dropouts of hardly noticable at all on the remastered cd. The frequency spectrum has a much better balance as well. I highly recommend the remastered Blood & Fire edition! The versions of most of the songs are longer and it includes some songs not featured on the original release, plus a bonus disc of 12" remixes and b-sides. Although the sound quality isn't perfect, (compared to other Jamaican reggae recordings from this era, or earlier; like Bob Marley's original tracks for "Catch A Fire" or Mighty Diamonds "Right Time") the inventiveness of the Lee "Scratch" Perry's production style and the songwriting and performances are all incredible. Also knowing that the remastered version is as good as it can get makes it easier to accept the slight flaws in production and/or engineering. All in all it's hard to say exactly what it is that makes this album so enjoyable. It's as if everything just came together; the songs, the music, the vocals, the effects, the vibe...a perfect moment in time. In my opinion, you would be very hard pressed to find a better reggae album than this. It is sheer bliss!

If you collected the best cuts from all of Bob Marley's records, this one would still top it. Why? First of all, the production by Lee 'Scratch' Perry, is sheer genius even though it was recorded on a Teac 4-track machine as late as 1976! You feel like you're getting pulled into a cave by the mixture of spacy ambience and monstrously deep bass and drums. Second, the vocals by Cedric Myton and Roydel Johnson are beyond genius, they're magical, like a combination of Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye floating in outer space. Third, there's a defenite all encompassing good humor or 'postive vibration' underlying things even when the lyrics are quite serious. It doesn't try to drive its point home with a hammer but rather convinces all the more effectively with the unrelenting beauty of the music. I repeat, you cannot do better than this record if you like Reggae and Soul music.

CD and case/pamphlet are both excellent condition and play is trouble free. Happy Camper!

Interesting reggae that was not released at time of recording

The music documented on this LP has seen better transcriptions (see the available, re-mastered CD from Blood & Fire). Good transcriptions present the music and the harmonies in a wonderful fashion. If you enjoy Ska with a Rasta flavor then this is one of the best sessions/mixes ever.However, this version of those sessions does not do the music justice. The product includes 2 LPs. I recieved what appeared to be a VP factory sealed product that included one LP (the title LP) which was scuffed, marred, with suface scratches and ripped labels on both sides. The second LP was in better shape, but hardly what one considers today to be grade B. The sound on each (when not interrupted by multiple scratches and surface noise) was thin and distant. Too bad. The second LP included various tracks from subsequent work by the principals mirroring some of the content on the Blood & Fire CD. Go with the Blood & Fire, it is worth the extra money.

Not a fan of this album. Sorry. Nothing special or unique about it. Buy a Marley or Tosh album. You'll get your money's worth.

this album is truly outstanding, but please note that at least 2 of the reviewers are commenting on the Blood and Fire reissue which is vastly superior soundwise and a work of art in itself in terms of the booklet and packaging, and with (for a change) equally good extra tracks. If its Blood & Fire its 5 stars. Bring the mackaback.

Still the best Congos album. A classic!!!

Great to hear this on Vinyl

Great album brilliant production buy it.

il cd è arrivato ancora nella pellicola ma aprendolo mi è sembrato non originale. Mi spiego meglio, quello che dovrebbe essere il book o libretto (che normalmente è a doppia faccia copertina più qualche scritta all'interno) qui ha solo stampata la copertina (la cui qualità mi sembra scadente) e l'interno è bianco (foglio unico), l'etichetta è la VPcd records. Forse altre edizioni di altre etichette sono fatte meglio. Il cd comunque fa il suo dovere e il prezzo è ottimo.

Firstly - fantastic album that deserves five stars without any difficulty. It's a supremely uplifting album with beautiful melodies all baked to perfection by Lee Perry in the Black Ark.However, this version on Vp is disappointing in terms of the mix, which others have mentioned, with muffled and indistinct sound. My suggestion is seek out the blood & fire double cd (or double vinyl) which is so much clearer (and you get bonus tracks)

When I put the record for the first time, I thought something is wrong with my turntable. Highs are clipped and the bass is messed up. It seems like someone tried to remaster and did a terrible job.

This is Lee Perry's Black Ark production at its most sizzling, with Ernest Ranglin on guitar, and appearances by Skully, Sly Dunbar, Boris Gardiner, and Winston Wright and background vocals that include the Meditations, Gregory Isaacs, and Barry Llewellyn. Ashanti Roy's vocals mix so well with Cedric Myton's on this album, the harmonies are superb. This is roots reggae, haunting and powerful, a testament to the golden age of seventies reggae.My God man, what are you waiting for? This albums needs to be purchased right now.

I have now compared this to my old burnt copy of the Blood and Fire disc I had lying around for years but thought I lost. I was at first shocked to notice that some of the songs have an average of about 30 seconds to a minute chopped of the running time. They have sped up this edition quite a bit more. It is at least a semi-tone higher in pitch than on the Blood and Fire edition. Unfortunately this seems to be the only accessible copy of this album as the other version is retailing on here for upwards of $100. This is a shame as the other edition was brilliant. I feel dead inside because I sold mine ages ago and now I come crawling back and have to buy this less than stellar copy. Anyway at least it is available in one form or another. Also the other bonus with the other version was the 37 minutes worth of bonus tracks. An album in itself almost. I am not sure whether these other reviews are truly for this edition (the original album cover with the congos playing congos)or for the other since amazon likes to mix all the reviews up if it has the same title.Heart Of The Heart Of The

Excellent unknown reggae. A serious candidate for instant replay

Un classico reggae/dub da avere! Sempre attuale e storico : è un Album sicuramente consigliato! Per gli amanti del genere e per chi vuole scoprirlo.

discreto prodotto, sia per confezione che per qualità della musica. La consegna e l'imballo, come altri cd che ho comperato sono di buona qualità

el disco presenta un salto en la canción 3 del lado A y parece ser que es debido al prensaje ya que es un producto nuevo.

Bonne qualitéUn reggae peu connu à découvrir

For Heart Of The Congos there are 2 versions available - the original CD or the cleaned up and remastered version. Because of cost, i elected to go for the original, thinking it can't be that bad. I've got quite a reasonable system and there is background noise throughout this CD and it certainly is not clean. If you want Congos then don't be a cheapskate like me and invest in the real thing!