Track Listing

1. Train to Doomsville
2. Billy Bonds M.B.E. - Barmy Army
3. Circular Motion
4. What a Wonderful Day - African Head Charge
5. No Alternative - Doctor Pablo & Dub Syndicate, ,
6. Run Them Away - Bim Sherman, Singers & Players
7. Water the Garden - Prince Far I, Singers & Players
8. Throw It Away - African Head Charge
9. Digital - Eskimo Fox

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #436044 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Album Details
Leftfiled: Reissued with Original Artowork. Includes Lee Perry, Dub Syndicate, Barmy Army, African Head Charge, Bim Sherman, etc.

Customer Reviews

Sadly missing 7 excellent songs from cassette version
Having owned the cassette version of this release for over ten years I was very disappointed to find the cd version containing 9 rather than 16 tracks. The Pay It All Back series is the work produced by Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound company. Sherwood is a producer/noise manipulator/audio collage artist extraordinaire whose only real peer would be Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto. This compilation features several artists in varying degrees of collaboration with Sherwood and each other producing what can only be described as a combination of dub, reggae, electronic, industrial noise, found sound, and ethnic music. The original version of the comp. has an overall dubby, reggae feel with smatterings of Gregorian chants, harsh noise excursions, and vocal snippets from various sources. The "reduced" or "lite" cd version leaves off 7 of the more adventurous and consequently best (in my opinion) tracks from the compilation. Three of the least dynamic songs (#'s 2,3,4) are left on the cd version. I am still hopeful that the full version exists on cd somewhere.

Get the Full version
There is an import version out there that has all the original 16 tracks. I agree with the other reviewer that the missing tracks are the better tracks. Skip this version and search out the full CD.

It waters my garden
One of my favourite ever dub tracks is Water the Garden by the incomparable Singers and Players, featuring His Highness Prince Far I. One could hardly imagine that the original track could be bettered, but the maestro Sherwood actually managed to do that with his remix of this tune on Pay It All Back Volume 2, part of a series of compilations of On U Tunes. The remastered version of this glorious tune is a highlight of this disc. Apart from Water the Garden, standouts are Train to Doomsville, Billy Bonds M.B.E. and What a Wonderful Day.

Regarding the gripes that this CD is not as inclusive as the imported version, the response is: if you can get your mitts on that, great. If not, this is still worth your money