I danced in flames and drunk in the depths of love...

This year has seen the passing of one musical great after another...

Gregory Isaacs, the 'Cool Ruler,' himself, one of Reggae music's true innovators - the personification and life-affirming embodiment of Lovers Rock - joins one of his producer's, Sugar Minott, in that great Dancehall in the sky.

Also, unbelievably sadly, the loss of Ari Up of The Slits at the cruelly early age of 48. For many, The Slits were the epitome of the Punk D-I-Y aesthetic - couldn't play, boorish, uneducated, raucously self-righteous, quintessentially full of themselves. What rubbish. What truth. The Slits first album is one of the most deliciously subversive records ever committed to plastic - bone raw, it rocks with a sensuality and ribald rebelliousness - and, in Ari, they had someone with the personality to pull it all together, to pull it all off.

Isaacs and Reggae music, particularly of the late 70's/early 80's, shared the same musical and cultural sensibility as Punk, and, often, similar levels of undiluted critical opprobrium. In the work of both Gregory Isaacs and Ari Up, music became, in effect, a call to arms, a unifying rallying cry. It was this overwhelming desire to communicate their musical ideas, and the success they had in doing so, that ensures their legacy.

Babylon Lovers Rock. Oh Babylon Lovers Rock.

'Mr Cop'

'Love Forever'

'So Tough,' and 'Instant Hit,' from Peel Sessions