Kentone ska from Federal Records : Skalvouvia 1963-1965

"Ken Khouri's Federal was the birthplace of the Jamaican music industry. The first proper recording studio on the island, Federal was home to Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid and every other producer of note in the ska era. Although Khouri's productions have sometimes been dismissed by purists as being too slick or lightweight, this compilation reveals the Kentone subsidiary as home to plenty of hard-hitting ska, recorded by the likes of The Maytals, Eddy Perkins and Eric "Monty" Morris, whose "Blackman Ska" advanced radical ideas. Guitarist Ernest Ranglin was an in-house arranger and his outstanding creativity is well-represented here, with instrumentals such as "Free Form" and the title track being complex blasts of emotive ska. The Maytals' "One Look" is an unknown classic".