Donovan Germain

Donovan Germain (born 7 March 1952) came into production the way several of the diaspora producers did — through retail. He was running a record shop in New York in the 1970s and began producing in 1972, setting up Revolutionary Sounds from there in the early 1980s alongside the Rub-a-Dub, Reggae and Germain imprints.

In 1987 he opened Penthouse in Kingston, named for its position on the top floor of a Slipe Pen Road building, and later moved it to Ballater Avenue with a pressing operation attached. Penthouse became one of the defining rooms of the late 1980s and 1990s: Buju Banton's transition from slack deejay to Rastafari singer happened largely there, and Marcia Griffiths, Beres Hammond, Wayne Wonder, Freddie McGregor, Delroy Wilson and Tenor Saw all recorded for him.

He is a good example of something this archive keeps meeting — the producer whose name is on comparatively few sleeves but whose room shaped a decade. He was named Producer of the Year at the EME Awards in 2012, received the Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica in 2014, and was awarded the Order of Distinction in 2015.