or most devotees, Trojan Records is as synonymous with reggae as Jamaica is. What's interesting, however, is that, like the music of Jamaica as a whole, the music of Trojan Records is only partially concerned with reggae. There's also rocksteady, ska, calypso, lover's rock, gospel, traditional rhythm & blues, and a bunch of other stuff thrown into the mix. The trouble is, most of the other music (with the exception of ska) is generally pushed to the margins when music fans are sifting through the Trojan catalogue. There is good reason for this; Jamaican music shone brightest during the reggae era. But there remains a larger story to tell.

In recent years, Trojan has released a lot of its back catalogue in affordable, three-disk boxed sets. Each of these boxed sets is centered around a theme—dub, rocksteady, UK reggae, lover's rock, male singers, female singers, etc—and there have been a whole bunch of these boxed sets released (the 50th set is coming out early in 2004). Still, there hasn't been a truly comprehensive overview release that encapsulates the entirety of Trojan's oeuvre. Muzik City—The Story of Trojan is a four-disk compilation that tries to do just this. The first two disks tell the story of Trojan, while the last two disks feature rarities, oddities, and unreleased gems. I think it's great that they actually include two whole disks of weird, rare stuff, but considering that the collection is supposed to tell "the story of Trojan," wouldn't it make more sense to leave more space to telling that story?

Disk one covers 1968 to 1971, the time when reggae was being defined, as artists like Bob Marley and Junior Byles and producers like Lee "Scratch" Perry were shaping their sounds. Many of the classic tracks from this period are represented here, including The Upsetters' "Return of Django," Tony Tribe's "Red Red Wine" (made famous in the 80s by UB40), Jimmy Cliff's "Wonderful World, Beautiful People," Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Duppy Conqueror," The Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon," and Junior Byles' "A Place Called Africa." As a reggae and dub enthusiast, I already own most of these songs on other collections; luckily, there are other tracks here, including many wonderful non-reggae or quasi-reggae tracks like The Coloured Raisins' "One Way Love" and Bob & Marcia's "Young, Gifted and Black," along with some oddball reggae tracks like Symarip's (that's "Pyramids" spelled backwards) "Skinhead Moonstop" and Boris Gardiner & The Love People's "Elizabethan Reggae" (an instrumental based on an Elizabethan melody). So there's plenty of new stuff here to attract the ears of even the most seasoned reggaeologist. The important thing here isn't eccentricity; it's quality, and that's where this disk scores big. Each song, whether familiar or not, is wonderful, and conveys the spirit and imagination and musical power emanating from Jamaica in this, the island's greatest musical period.

So, if the first disk covers 1968-71, and (as I've said) disks three and four cover rarities, what does that leave for disk two? That's right: everything from 1971 to the present. Why such a long span of time for one disk? In part, it's because Trojan became little more than a reissue label as early as the late 70s, and most of the crucial Jamaican music released during this decade was coming out on other labels (most notably, Chris Blackwell's Island Records). Still, if that's the case, wouldn't this collection focus more attention on the 68-71 years—make that one two disks long, then this disk, and one disk for rarities? Perhaps. But what matters here is the music itself; luckily, it is generally excellent, including Eric Donaldson's wonderful "Cheery Oh Baby" (another song covered by UB40), Linval Thompson's "I Love Marijuana," Big Youth's early toasting hit "S.90 Skank," and some crucial lover's rock tracks by John Holt and Gregory Issacs. Most of the music on this disk was released in the mid 70s; there's only one track from the 80s and two from the current decade (including a weird Lee Perry one called "Evil Brain Rejecter"). And, to be honest, this is not nearly as interesting and exciting a disk as the first one. Still, it is filled with a lot of memorable music, and is well worth checking out, especially as most reggae fans don't own most of these tracks.

So that's the official "story" of Trojan. What of the (I suppose) unofficial story? Well, the music on disks three is a bit weak, but at least the tracks function well to tell that unofficial story of Trojan—a story that reveals the label as not simply all about reggae. Emile Straker & The Merrymen's "Dirty Dog" is calypso music through and through, The Johnny Arthey Orchestra's "Serenade to Summer" is Muzak, Freddie Notes & the Rudies' does a Nuggets-styled cover of Credence Clearwater Revival's "It Came From Out of the Sky," and Jimmy Lindsay's "Tribute to Jimmy Hendrix" is exactly what the title suggests (though Jimi would cringe at the bad guitar sounds here). These tracks certainly reveal a side of Trojan Records that most people don't know about, and the songs are historically interesting. The problem is, they're not interesting enough to listen to more than once. These are (mostly) Jamaican artists emulating American and British artists; and no matter how good these emulations might be, I'd rather listen to the American and British originals.

Luckily, the final disk goes back to Trojan's reggae roots. It features a lot of great tracks I've never heard before. Some of the best include Lee Perry & the Upsetters' "Bush Tea" (an early dub experiment with Perry making whooshing sounds over a funky track), Tommy McCook & the All Stars' "Strings and Things," The Aces' "I'm Not a King," and Keith Hudson's "Nowhere." These are wonderful tracks, and most of them are either unreleased or released only on limited editions in Jamaica.

In the end, the problem with this collection is its organization. If the compilers had simply organized disks two and three differently—added more stuff from 1968-71, stuck the weird stuff from disk three into the historical chronology of the other disks—then the set would be an essential overview of the most essential of all Jamaican labels. Of course, as I said above, disk four is fantastic, and it an essential purchase for all reggae fans. But if you're just starting out in your journey through Jamaican music (beyond Bob Marley, that is), then don't start here. Instead, get the Tougher Than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music, a four-disk boxed set that really does tell the complete story of Jamaican music. Alternately, if you want an overview of great Trojan releases, then get one of the aforementioned three-disk boxed sets (especially the Trojan Upsetter Boxed Set, the Trojan Roots Boxed Set, and the Trojan Dub Boxed Set Volume 2). They each include about 50 great songs, and they're each about 1/3rd the price of Muzik City.