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Impact! Vincent produced 5 numbers while the remaining 10 are produced by Clive. The opening bars of the album introduce the hard-edged tribute to pride in one's roots Woman Of The Ghetto by Hortense Ellis, a huge hit in its day. There are also some great vocals from relative unknowns such as the superb harmonies on Psalms' Rolling Stone, the soulful Lloyd Parks or Donovan Carless and the lazy skank over which a babble of patois and audible exhalations of what I presume to be an illegal substance can be clearly heard on Charley Ace's Country Boy. There's also a back to the roots version of Carlos Santana's Black Magic Woman by Winston King Cole. The remaining tracks however are all instrumentals…organ led soul/reggae pieces from Randy's All-Stars or Jacki Mittoo, 2 entries from Tommy McCook whose KT88 is a rare ska/reggae number featuring flute as well as the harmonica-led reggae/blues of Skin, Flesh and Bones' Do It Till You're Satisfied. Augustus Pablo was an old school friend of Clive's who was the first to record him. All fans of his Far-East melodica sound will love his two songs here…especially the superb Too Late which is spare and simple yet elegant and richly melodic. If you wanted to capture some of the great sounds of late 60s and 70s Jamaican music you could start collecting these Universal Sound compilations. With an emphasis on quality, nice balance between the familiar and obscure, superior sound quality for the era and extensive liner notes you can avoid wasting a lot of time searching and spend it listening. Impact also comes with a 24 page booklet that contains a very interesting interview with Clive Chin and lots of other noteworthy information. As a footnote here are some interesting facts about Vincent 'Randy' Chin and Lord Invader. Following the ska years Vincent opened Randy's Studio 17 which became the main recording studio for reggae music and the place where Bob Marley made his epochal recordings with Lee Perry as well as being the birthplace of Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey, the first truly classic reggae LP ever recorded. In the late 70s, due to the political violence
that racked Jamaica, the pioneering promoter relocated to the
USA where he founded VP records, the world's largest distributor
of reggae music. Meanwhile former stable-mate Lord Creator
had fallen on hard times and returned to Trinidad. In the 90's
the incredible success of his 'Kingston Town' by British
pop group UB40 saw a revival in his fortunes as interest
in his earlier music grew. He was able to return to Jamaica and
build himself a home in Salt Pen, Montego Bay.
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