How the West Was Won is a dope match up of talents with one of my favorite DJs of all time, Toyan holding the mic over dubs engineered by Scientist. And Toyan is probably at his best during this period, still got a real hungry rasp in his voice and a eyebrow scowl to make Ice Cube look like he's just farting. He was one of the front liners in producer Junjo Lawes' champion stable of artists (Yellowman and Fat Head, Little Harry, Billy Boyo, Michigan and Smiley, etc) runnin things in dancehall. So this is the third companion with Scientist Rids the World and the Wailing Souls' Fire House Rock, they all share a good number of rhythms (Wailing Souls usually being the original). With the three you got a good beginning dub session working on the same rhythms. According to the rules of the old renwick, "Capital Offense" mixed with the Scientist's "Corpse Rises" is the lung crusher. This was originally released on Greensleeves in 1980 before the other two records, all of which are engineered by Scientist, produced by Junjo and backed by the Roots Radics band: deadly combination.

• black vinyl pressing
• music label: Greensleeves 2012

reviewed by the mgmnt 05/2009