Description
Roots Radics Band – Scientist & Jammy Strike Back! – Blue Deluxe Remastered Vinyl Record
Scientist & Jammy Strike Back! places the Roots Radics at the center of an early-1980s dub confrontation imagined through science-fiction titles, cavernous studio space, and heavy Jamaican rhythm. The album was originally issued in 1982 during a period when the Radics supplied some of reggae's most influential backing tracks. Producer Linval Thompson brought the performances into a dub setting shaped by Scientist and Prince Jammy, two engineers whose mixes could turn a rhythm section into an environment of echoes, sudden absences, and returning impact.
“Storming the Death Star” begins with the cinematic premise already in motion. Bass and drums establish the physical center while guitar, organ, horns, and fragments of melody move in and out of the mix. “Mission Impossible” and “The Alien Aborts” continue the space narrative without requiring lyrics to explain it. The titles provide images, but the real drama comes from the console: a snare can repeat into darkness, a chord can surface briefly, and the low end can remain steady while everything around it changes.
The Roots Radics were built for this kind of transformation. Their playing is disciplined enough to survive radical subtraction, yet each part has a recognizable shape when it returns. “Buck Rogers in the Black Hole” emphasizes that balance between groove and disorientation, and “The Death of Mr. Spock” closes the first side with another playful collision of popular science fiction and Kingston studio craft. The humor in the names does not diminish the seriousness of the ensemble's timing or the mixers' control.
On the second side, “The Princess Takes Her Revenge” and “The Crushing of the Stormtroopers” make the album sound like a sequel assembled from rhythm rather than film. “Flash Gordon Meets Luke Skywalker” is one continuous track despite listings that occasionally divide its title. The mix draws attention to the relationship between performance and negative space: what disappears can feel as important as what remains, because every mute, echo, and filtered passage changes the listener's sense of scale.
“The Son of Darth Vader” carries the sequence toward the closing equation “C-3PO + R2-D2 = The Force.” Those references locate the record in its era, but the sound is not merely nostalgic. Dub's methods anticipate later approaches to remixing, electronic production, and bass-centered dance music by treating the studio as an instrument. Scientist and Jammy do not simply decorate completed songs; they expose structures inside the Radics' performances and reorganize them into ten distinct pieces.
This LMLR release is a deluxe, limited, remastered reissue on blue vinyl, scheduled for June 12, 2026. It restores the original ten-track album in a single-LP format and should not be confused with a standard black pressing, an earlier Trojan issue, or another Roots Radics dub collection. UPC 819514013051 identifies this exact colored-vinyl configuration.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
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