Firenze dub frenzy

I was lucky enough to have a brief holiday in the Italian city of Florence recently. What an amazing place. I studied renaissance Florentine history whilst a grubby student and have always wanted to go, and thank the lord it lived up to expectations. Fantastic. And of course, forgetting all of that history and culture guff, one of the other joys of travel is surely the chance to ferret around in the record shop of some foreign corner. And so it was in Tuscany, and big up to Super Records in Santa Croce, a second hand crate-digger's paradise.

Vinyl delights, CD wonders and books, posters and assorted memorabilia to really get the taste buds going. You know the Italian deal anyway though right? Why have one course piled high on your plate when you can have four delicious ones and take your time to savour the flavour. And so whilst my better half satiated her (I must say brilliant) artistic thirst at the Uffizi Gallery (what a place by the way!!), I popped into Super to have a leisurely rummage. And one of the morsels I discovered is itself a sheer delight, the Trojan Motor City Reggae box set . I have spoken before about the recent run of Studio One compilations providing ready made classic choices with which to enhance your reggae collection.

But another set always worth picking up is the series of classically designed and wonderfully curated box sets from the mighty, mighty Trojan Records, from right there in good old Blighty. Specialising in ska, rocksteady, dub, and straight up reggae the label was founded in 1968 by none other than Chris Blackwell collaborator Lee Gopthal, and started as a sister development label for Island. Trojan emerged briefly in the early 1970s as a powerhouse in its own right. Despite a decline in the mid 1970s, following the withdrawal of Island in 1972, Trojan can still claim to be the home of some brilliant and classic recordings. Indeed the label was revitalised, first by Colin Newman in the late 1980s and 1990s, and then following acquisition by niche specialists Sanctuary in 2001.

And it is Sanctuary who is responsible for the sensitive, and sensible, tapping of the rich back catalogue in the Trojan vaults. I had known of some of their box sets, such as Trojan Singles and Trojan Rarities, but had not realised quite how far their range had stretched. And it is a veritable feast of music, and far too detailed a menu to enter into here. And the Motor City Reggae set, picked up for a bargain 5 euros if you please, is a brilliant and slightly exotic main course, providing as you might imagine, covers of Motown classics, from artists as diverse as Jackie Edwards, the consistently brilliant Heptones, Alton Ellis, John Holt and two brilliant cuts from the previously unknown to me Darker Shade of Black.

Their cover of The Temptation’s “Ball of Confusion” is simply awesome and hypnotic in its mesmeric groove, while a cut of Edwin Starr’s “War” is equally strong. But at over 50 tracks long, it is the range and value for money that the sets offer which really make them stand out, as well as the consistency of quality. Reggae covers of familiar and forgotten Motown tunes will always be likely to slip into pastiche on occasion, but the standard on this collection manages to keep such slips to a minimum. And as I say, the range of collections available just keeps growing, but never ceasing to intrigue. One thing is for sure, next time it is unlikely to need a trip to Florence to satisfy this particular hunger.