All the fresh plates Snake got were right when dance-hall sound systems were turning to Ragamuffin or just Ragga style - it was the same dance-hall sounds systems and often the same stable of artists but the style became pumped up and people were using synths for bass and drum machines.. this was  the mid 80's - this new style had brash Ragamuffin lyrics & vocals and it was like a competition from lots of artists doing their version of the 'Latest Rhythm' like Sleng Teng, Runcome or Rumours - just fucking loads, anyway you'd try and get the baddest hardest versions of each rhythm and you'd get to know which artist was the baddest - usually the serious stuff was played by the big sounds like Sir Coxsone  - so like big name artists like Sugar Minott or Courtney Melody or Barrington Levy, they would do the lyric on the latest Rhythm- like a personalised pre release plate for a particular system, we'd get our hands on the public release plates maybe a few months after that - but they were still fresh in Northampton!

Being selector/operator you had to get to know & pick each track and vershun, how many plates we had of that rhythm & then judging it on the night as to which one you'd play as your main tune for a certain rhythm, making sure the other sound isn't gonna drop the same track, and then of course you've got to pick the one with the best vershun so your mc's and crew could toast over something big and bad...once you'd got to know the rhythms - you could drop the bass in & out or let off sirens or we had little synth boxes that made maybe 4 or 5 sounds on presets like 1st a Klaxon then a Police siren, a synth drum sound or a bomb whistling as it drops - something to grab attention..then...that moment when you drop the 'right' plate and the dance-hall goes wild shouting and all the crew are cussing and shouting "yeah man! yeah man! come again & rewind" - you'd make a big deal about winding the track back ready to drop it back in - there was a sense of anticipation...then Boya! Off again..everyone shouting out - the bass would come in and it was just fucking brilliant - no sound like this sound..Reducer Universal Sound System - Hooly Selector.