Bob Marley – Catch A Fire – Analogue Productions SACD

Catch A Fire did for reggae what Please Please Me, the first Beatles album, had done for pop and rock exactly a decade earlier. An album of revolutionary genius, which combined perfect timing with lasting cultural significance, Catch A Fire laid a foundation stone for the career of the world’s first and indeed only reggae superstar and established a bridgehead between the deep roots music of Jamaica and the commercial pop mainstream of the First World. Its release marked the moment that reggae truly did begin to “catch fire” on the international stage.

The result was an album with a groove that was languid, soulful, and sun-drenched, yet lean and taut as a coiled spring. The bass and drum parts — supplied by Aston “Family Man” Barrett and his younger brother Carlton Barrett, respectively — were welded together by the distinctive staccato scratch-strokes of Marley’s rhythm guitar. The irresistible rhythmic tug which this produced was a revelation to the great majority of listeners discovering the band for the first time.

Catch A Fire — now a landmark production on Analogue Productions Hybrid Stereo SACD!