Soul To Soul - DJ's Choice
By the early ‘70s, the developing style DJ music made popularised by toasting legend U Roy was firmly established as one of the most influential forms of reggae music. Of the scores of youthful talent who found fame on the back of its popularity, none initially proved more successful than Dennis ‘Alcapone’ Smith, whose singles for many of Jamaica’s premier producers led to him becoming the island’s leading recording star. Among his numerous rivals on the DJ scene throughout this time was his good friend, Delroy Petgrave, who as Lizzy had also enjoyed significant success as a recording artist and around the close of 1972, the two performers recorded together at a session at Duke Reid’s famed Treasure Isle studio on Bond Street, Kingston. There, under the auspices of the studio’s sound engineer, Byron Smith, the pair toasted over some of the Duke’s finest rock steady and early reggae rhythms, cutting enough material for what ultimately saw issue on the best-selling long-player, ‘Soul To Soul – DJ’s Choice’. Despite the immense popularity of the album the collection has remained unavailable since the 1990s, but now at last receives its long overdue reissue, with its original dozen tracks bolstered the remainder of the duo’s Treasure Isle work – as well as the instrumental version sides that featured on the alternate sides of the pair’s 7” singles for the label.