Sometimes the same name keeps cropping up on the production credits of killer records. Mike Dorane is one of those names. Born in Jamaica he spent his early childhood in the US before moving to London aged 8. By his teenage years he’d already become an accomplished multi-instrumentalist focusing on soul and funk (an influence you can continue to hear in his later productions) before moving into the world of reggae in the early 70’s as a session musician for Pama Records. In the mid 70’s he started producing his own music and secured a distribution deal with Island Records for his two labels – Rockers and Movers. His best known record from this era is a version of The O'Jays ‘For The Love Of Money’ released as the Disco Dub Band in 1976 on his newly formed Movers imprint. A stone cold dubwise disco classic that has been reissued in recent years by Mr Bongo.

Fitzroy Henry’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ was the inaugural release on his other label Rockers. A sweet heartfelt love song delivered in a catchy soulful reggae style with a pleasingly deep and funky bassline it’s definitely 'a love at first listen' kind of tune. On the flip there’s also a dub version going under the title ‘Your Sexy Eyes’ credited to Dorando (one of the many aliases taken by Dorane). The absence of any additional dub effects make it more of an instrumental rather than a hands-on dub in the traditional reggae sense and it’s credit to the strength of Dorane’s musicianship and song writing that it still stands strong as a wonderful standalone piece of soulful funky reggae.

Both the Rockers and Movers labels were sadly only operational for the one year in 1976. However in that time they became home to 15 releases in total including Dorane’s only official album under his own name (‘Reggae Time’) and an intriguingly illusive white label dub album (‘Avonmore Dub’) which has been on my wants list for many years (and due to it’s scarcity is likely to stay there for many more to come...)

After his venture into the record business Dorane returned to a more behind the scenes role as a session musician, producer and engineer often operating under the name ‘Mike Dan’ and continued to produce some amazing records (check out the lovely lovers rock 12" ’Love And Key‘ by Junior English that I posted on Instagram a few weeks back.) If you’re interested in hearing more of his productions than an excellent starting point is this fantastic mix put together by Optimo’s JD Twitch last year and then it’s a case of keeping your eyes peeled for the appearance of one of his many aliases on those all important (but often very small print) production credits.

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