Quality recordings of reggae/ska and alternative

Bob Marley, Exodus on MFSL gold CD (if you can find one) is superb!

The Specials
The English Beat
Madness

Have all produced some awesome stuff ....enjoy.

and for something modern
Rebelution

My wife & I love "Best of UB40" The recording quality is extremely good, songs are all great. An addded plus is the playing time is quite long as well.
Enjoy, John

Bad Manners,(buster Blood vessel rumored to have eaten 24 big Macs in one sitting, and I am sure he had a good sitting afterwards,lol)
Fun Boy 3,
*Ian Dury & the Blockheads- 'New boots & Panties'- a must!
The Selecter
Maxi Priest
The (English)Beat
Prince Buster
Dave & Ansel Collins
*The Bolshoi-'Lindy's Party'-
Desmond Dekker
Jimmy Cliff
Public Image Limited
*high quality.
The rest, who knows?

Check out this site for a comprehensive list of Ska bands
http://www.billtanner.net/ska/skabands.html

Now where's my ancient Ben Sherman, braces, Doc Martins & Harrington Jacket.
Nostalgia.

Try some of these.

Jazz Jamaica- Skaravan
Monty Alexander- Stir It Up
Monty Alexander- Rocksteady
Ernest Ranglin- Below The Bassline
Pressure Cooker- What She Wants
Eastern Standard Time- Tempus Fugit
Skatalites- Ball Of Fire
Midnite- Ras Mek Peace

Happy listening!

Great recommendations, so thanks everyone! I'm very familiar with many of the 80's ska/reggae bands (I enjoyed many UB40, Specials and English Beat shows and even saw Selector at the Whiskey in 1980), but there are many bands here I'm not familiar with, so I'm loving this! The Rebelution song on Youtube(link in earlier response) is great, so it's a must buy! Please keep the recommendations coming!

Jamaican Classics Vol. 2 - Freddie McGregor

start with the first wave..anything my millie(aka millie small) and desmond dekker. some of the coolest music ever.

Great stuff! Not to change the scope of my original question (let's keep the original rolling!), but for those of you that have responed - what other groups/recordings/genres have you grown to love for high quality audio?

Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
Great music, decent sound.

Arkology: the 3 CD retrospective of Ark Studios in Kingston: the near complete Lee "Scratch" Perry
Asward
Augustus Pablo
Black Uhuru
Burning Spear
Chaka Demus & Pliers
The Congoes
Devon Irons
Dillinger
The Heptones
Jacob Miller and Inner Circle
Jimmy Cliff
Junior Dread
Luciano
Max Romeo
The Meditations
Mikey Dread
Peter Tosh
Raphael Green
Steel Pulse
Third World
Toots and the Maytals
U-Roy

Ska:
The Bodysnatchers
The Beat
Goldfinger
Less Than Jake
Madness
Operation Ivy
Rico
The Selecter
The Specials
Sublime
311

For a crazy wide/deep soundstage try No Protection-Mad Professor Vs. Massive Attack. This album should have your head spinning.

Bongofury,
You've put together quite an extensive list of both reggae and ska here! Any short list suggestions representing best sounding/ highest quality of recording?
Thanks!

10 ft. Ganga, album BASS CALICE

The Specials first album should be in every collection. Amazing writing, playing and production.

There is also a wonderful compilation from the 1980s called the "2 Tone Story" that assembled all the English bands together, including the Bodysnatchers, The Beat. Madness, Rico, the Selecter and the Specials.

Island Records came out with a similar compilation called "Island 40th 1972 - 1995 Reggae Roots" that has many of the seminal artists listed above.

I highly recommend "Arkology Volumes 1 to 3" for dub reggae by Lee "Scratch" Perry and some of the newer Trojan Records compilations for lessor known Reggae groups.

A great source of information is Wax Poetics Magazine, which has featured Jamaican artists over their 37 editions. Check out their website.

I really like all the Counting Crows cd's for two channel.
Also check out a Cd called "Dub side of the Moon" by the "Easy star all stars". It's a full dub remix of Pink Floyd's DSOTM. Awesome cd, great for parties, too.

Bongofury is recommending some pretty great stuff...I have a ton of those records. This Are 2 Tone is another good ska comp. I'm more into dub stuff than regular reggae. If you want some pics that's my expertise.

This is great stuff. I've been into ska/reggae music since high school in the 80's, and now that hooked on this hobby of quality 2-channel audio (on a working man's budget mind you!)I'm looking for the best of both worlds. Haven't been into dub but am looking forward to giving it a good try.

I agree with you on Counting Crows Fishcat1. Dub side of moon sounds very interesting so I'll have to check it out.

If you really want to expand your horizons; you should give the Jazz Jamaica All-Stars a listen! In particular; 'Massive' & 'Double Barrel'. Big Band Ska/Reggae, beautifully recorded and very well played. Huge added bonus is that one can usually find these on the very cheap on Ebay! Don't be fooled by the price or the seemingly 'gimmicky' genre, this is outstanding music!

Thanks Chazro. I just bought it on Half.com for $6 including shipping!

Check out Ernest Ranglin "Below The Bassline"

Check out 'Sonic Boom Six' also.They are excellent!