US Clappers label. I'll do full homage to this album in a review before long but suffice it so say that the album notes were by the Dub Organiser who according to the sleeve "for 10 years has done a Reggae Radio show in the USA at WUSB-90.1 FM". Which of course is that self same radio station with which this site is associated. How's that for a pedigree? Reggae history, living on through the net! There's so much material on this site that one visit will not be enough. You'll need to return again and again to really do it justice. Everything you point the cursor at seems to be a link to somewhere else. The visuals and graphics are very professional and attractive. The text is bright and clear on darker backgrounds and the visuals are never flashy and intrusive but always guide the eye on to further areas of interest.
Much material relates to the reggae programmes put out by WUSB radio which seem very impressive. Go to Clappers Eclectic Reggae Tour, press one of the bus tickets down the side (bus tickets? in Jamaica?) and read about shows like No Sound Test and Saturday's A Party. There are full programme listings for WUSB which describes itself as "Long Island's largest non-commercial and free form radio station since 1977." (Hang on a minute, so how come in 1980 DJ Dub Organiser had been with the station ten years?) But if, like me, you don't happen to live in Long Island there's a link by which you can hear WUSB worldwide if you have RealAudio software. There's also a handy phone number so you can listen to WUSB Audioline over the telephone. There's a lot of material on an 8 day reggae marathon that the station ran over the New Year and which seems to be an annual event. These guys are really committed!
There's an exhaustive index of web pages devoted to Linton Kwesi Johnson which in itself would make the site worth visiting. There are links to thirteen other websites, some of which are very good indeed and which I'll review at another time. There's a fascinating guide to ecotours in Jamaica. There's even an on line conference room where you can talk to others about the music. There's probably all sorts of other stuff as well that I missed because I just couldn't take it all in at once. So, a forward looking, innovative site, professionally put together by people who care about reggae. Any complaints? Not really. Some features, like the Reggae Charts, were not available, probably because they were being updated. Also the message "mapOver is not defined" popped up from time to time and ruled certain areas out of bounds. What does that mean? Search me. Perhaps it just means that as Horace Andy says, everyone got problems only Jah can solve, even a site like Clappers which positively oozes class.
Geoff Parker, June 1999