Tighten Up Volume 2

Very smart clean vinyl with a nice cover showing minor shelf wear.

In 1969, Trojan's Tighten Up series turned a generation of UK listeners onto the songs of Jamaica. Now both newcomers and those with fond memories of this upbeat and innocent sounding music can discover it again.

The UK was then the second biggest market for reggae (unlike today where it lags behind continental Europe). The most zealous converts were the early skinheads, before their ideology took a turn for the worse.

This reggae was not meditative, abstract or garrulous (like the roots, dub and dancehall that would follow). It was danceable and exuberant, an egalitarian tessellation of grimy organs, crunchy percussive guitars and sweet harmonies that slid in and out of earshot as the drum and bass rhythm decreed.