Fourteen tracks capturing the heat of the earliest days of Studio One, the birth of the Skatalites, and the dawn of the ska scene, featuring not only The Skatalites but also standout performances from Roland Alphonso, Lynn Taitt, Jackie Mittoo, Don Drummond and Johnny Moore.
Philip Justin Yap, a young and up-and-coming producer, shifted nearly all of his production work to Studio One's new recording room, where he cut numerous Skatalites classics. He also recorded a great many fine instrumental sides using a small brass section, drawing chiefly on the members of the Skatalites and crediting the tunes to their composers and arrangers. Together with Coxsone's own recordings, these sides — made for Justin's Top Deck and Tuneico — brilliantly capture the members of the Skatalites playing at their absolute peak within Studio One's singular atmosphere, and stand as a precious document of a pivotal moment in Jamaican cultural history, when the birth of the Studio One recording studio coincided with the formation of the mighty Skatalites. (Original Japanese text by COMPUMA)