20 years after the release of Blood and Fire’s outstanding but now deleted Heart Of The Congos reissue, VP Records / 17 North Parade release a definitive, 2017 remastered edition, put together with both respect and gratitude to that illustrious antecedent. Heart of the Congos is a landmark reggae album whose initial obscurity was due to a dispute between producer Lee Perry and his label, Island records. Perry's idea to create a roots vocal album took shape when Cedric Myton and Roy Johnson auditioned at his Black Ark studio. The resulting album had Myton and Johnson wrapping their falsetto and tenor around one another in the sweetly rendered Children Crying and La La Bam-Bam. Perry's production lent heart of the Congos a hazy, dub-like sheen that swathed the rastafarian imagery of songs such as Sodom and Gomorrow and Ark of Covenant in muted shadings. Backed by a number of legendary session musicians including Sly Dunbar and Ernest Ranglin, Heart of the Congos could have been a smash, had Perry not held back the record from Island records who handled his international distribution. Instead, it became a lost classic cherished by countless reggae aficionados.

3LP - This new deluxe hand painted 20 Track 3LP features the now almost impossible to find original mix of the album, unavailable since producer Lee Perry withdrew the set in 1977. Also includes the more well-known re-mix, dubs, disco mix, seven and twelve inch versions and Don’t Blame It On I an overlooked previously unreleased track unearthed, too late to include on the Blood and Fire release, by Steve Barrow and David Katz in 1997.