Various Artists

These days, the excavation of reggae’s history is a full-time operation for several labels. Every month coughs up another bongload of compilations and reissues of albums by the genre’s legends. (England’s Soul Jazz has been particularly exhaustive and excellent.)

The Bronx-based Wackies imprint allows us to take some American pride in this archive-plundering bonanza, although it took the cooperation of Germany’s Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound companies to coordinate this release. Jamaican-born Lloyd Barnes immigrated to New York in the early ’70s (not before working with ska/rocksteady stars Prince Buster and Duke Reid) and launched Wackies House of Music in 1977. This became America’s first major reggae studio and label; the artists who sauntered through there include such giants as Horace Andy, Sugar Minott, Jackie Mittoo and Augustus Pablo.

This eighteen-track collection serves as a strong introduction for novices and a money- and time-saver for dread-headed collectors. Although some tracks sink into sugary sentimentality, most of Wackies Sampler Vol. 1 skanks down rougher-hewn paths. Reggae’s psychedelic cousin, dub, also surfaces on the disc, adding welcome doses of strangeness to the proceedings. At its best — Minott’s “Wicked Ago Feel It,” Andy’s “Musical Episode” and Jamaica Super Dub Session’s “Dub Stew” — this CD bridges the gap between reggae’s more tuneful side and dub’s innovative studio trickery.