Consider this your invitation: Conscious Party, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers’ Grammy-winning 1988 reggae album, will be reissued on vinyl this fall. Due out September 25 via UMe, the reissue marks the album’s first time on vinyl since its original release. In addition to a 1LP 180g emerald green color vinyl, Conscious Party will be reissued on standard black vinyl, CD, and a deluxe digital edition available via streaming services.
Upon its original release, each format of Conscious Party featured a different tracklist. The vinyl editions will now feature “We A Guh Some Sum Weh,” previously a CD exclusive, tacked onto the end of the original vinyl sequence. The original CD tracklist remains unchanged. The digital deluxe edition adds a remix of “Tomorrow People,” a Bomb Squad remix “Tumblin’ Down,” and a live rendition of “Lee And Molly” recorded at the Spectrum in Philadelphia in 1988.
Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers brought together four of Bob Marley’s 11 children: Sharon, Cedella, Stephen, and, of course, Ziggy. Conscious Party, their third LP, followed Play The Game Right and Hey World! The band recorded Conscious Party at Sigma Sound in New York City with production from Tom Tom Club members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, otherwise known as the rhythm section from the Talking Heads.
“Conscious Party came at a pivotal time for us,” Ziggy Marley says. “I think we grew a lot in-between the last album [Hey World!] and Conscious Party. We were exploring a lot, and just growing up and becoming young people. So I feel it represents that young energy, and was a very monumental album in our life at the time.” He continues, “It was a new experience, too. With Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from the Talking Heads producing it, and we were living in New York for a little bit, it was a whole different and very enlightened experience for us.”
