Various Artists Jonny Greenwood Is The Controller

Let me start this review with a question to you, my lovely reader. What did you first think when you heard that Johnny Greenwood - post-modern miserablist, experimental-for-its-own-sake, wimpy indie boy extraordinaire - was curating a compilation for Trojan, one of the most beloved and respected reggae labels, operating their own personal high standards of excellence since 1968? My own suspicion was that it would be that ultimate in cringe-inducing hipsters, the floppy-haired, middle class reggae pseud, a personal marathon to create the most unlistenable, dour, awkward compilation possible from a back catalogue of incredible diversity.

As it turns out, Johnny Greenwood Is The Controller, and he does a remarkably fine job of it. Certainly there's a fair share of spacey dub, but nothing so inaccessible as to put off the casual listener. Indeed the record's theme seems to be one of mainstream reggae, just versioned up a little bit - Gregory 'Night Nurse' Isaacs is represented in his more, let's say, relaxed vein, and there's even a fine smattering of more straightforward: Junior Byle's fun reworking of the old standard Fever is followed by the lilting, calypso-ska styled Beautiful And Dangerous, helmed by the pure voice of Desmond Dekker.

That this is followed by Lloyd's All Stars with Dread Dub (Dub It Out Deh Version) says a lot: it's an eclectic mix, but one that's many kinds of fun. As the best reggae so often is: what we have here is an overview showing that while political sentiments can be confined in the island sound as well as in any genre, this is essentially Jamaican pop music - fun, fascinating and often completely incomprehensible and all the better for it. I certainly wouldn't have guessed in advance that Johnny Greenwood, of all people, would produce a fun album, but there you have it: a real mixture, and in places a serious dub master class (Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Johnny Clarke and Scientist mingle with lesser known names like the Jahlights and Lloyd Campbell also represented). For example, if you've never dipped a foot into dub before, start here with 'Black Panta' by Perry & The Upsetters - an entirely acoustic recording, yet it sounds like nothing else you've ever heard.

Whether you are convinced that Radiohead are the best thing since sliced bread, or you just want to explore a field that might intimidate you a little at the start, this is a 17 track introduction, not to anything well known, but to the world of more experimental Jamaican music out there, and it shows serious devotion to the subject. It's not possible to fault any of the tracks here for anything, and as Mr Greenwood himself says, "really, all musical life is here."