We don't care that it's "a formalized version of a '70s Jamaican dancehall session," and we'd rather not hear that it plays for five hours when it tours Europe.

We're just happy it's coming. It is the Blood And Fire Sound System and it rolls into Roxy Blu tonight for a hugely anticipated show.

Sound systems, essentially mobile clubs, originated in Jamaica in the late '40s, rocking huge outdoor venues with R&B imported from the U.S. Deejays emerged three decades later, and evolved from playing masters of ceremonies at these events to chanting or talking over rhythms laid down by the selector.

"It's a simple thing, but it delivers," Steve Barrow, head of the Blood And Fire label and the system's selector, says from a hotel in San Francisco. "The crowd went crazy last night, it's the best response we've had. They were well active!"

The concept is, as the reggae authority admits, deceptively simple.

Barrow and "dub operator" Dom spin classic '70s reggae -- "We use a sampler and a space echo to give it a bit of flavour, so it's not us just playing records" -- before legendary microphone fiends Dillinger, Trinity, and Ranking Joe take turns burning our ears.

"This is a homage to the great soundmen," Barrow says, referring to pioneers Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd who operated Sir Coxsone's Downbeat, Duke Reid who ran Trojan, and Vincent 'King' Edwards, who oversaw Giant back in the day. Dodd and Reid went on to become two of Jamaica's most prolific producers.

Getting a taste of an old-style sound system seems delicious enough, but the prospect of witnessing Dillinger, Trinity and Ranking Joe in full flight is reason enough to get euphoric.

"Dillinger and Trinity were among the top five deejays in the late '70s," says Barrow, whose label has been releasing rare and classic reggae since its formation seven years back. "Trinity's really the link man between the Big Youth chanting style and the next generation of dancehall deejays like Johnny Ringo and Welton Irie.

"He really gives a show. You're not just getting a sound system deejay standing there rapping out lyrics like bullets."

Dillinger, adds Barrow, hasn't been to North America to perform since 1977.

"Ranking Joe was hugely important in sound system circles," he continues. "He was part of Champion Sound, one of the first Jamaican sound systems to travel abroad. He came to England, so we knew he was one of the wickedest deejays to hold a microphone."

Asked for his fondest memory of a sound system show in Jamaica, Barrow transports me back eight years.

"I was at (ace producer) Bunny Lee's house and his backyard backs out into a football pitch and (famous sound system) Stone Love was doing a dance there," he recalls. "It started at about three in the afternoon and they were playing a lot of U.S. R&B hits of the time.

"And I remember thinking, 'This is really how it is, the music is everywhere. You don't have to pay for it or download it from the Internet.'

"And even when a sound system's not playing, you're walking around the ghetto and everyone's got their radio tuned to IRIE-FM, so you're hearing it everywhere you go," Barrow adds. "It's a soundtrack to life."

We return to the present and our enthusiasm for tonight's show.

"We've got the hot stuff, no doubt about it!," he chuckles. "We've got three of the wickedest deejays I've ever seen.

"I've seen 'em work together and it's like ... it's like ... getting the commandments."

THE DRUM & THE BASS: Tickets for the Blood & Fire Sound System are $15 in advance and can be bought at Rotate This, Traxx, and Play De Record.

Doors open at 9 p.m.

Roxy Blu is at 12 Brant St. (one block west of King St. and Spadina Ave.).

Recent Blood And Fire releases worth checking include a reissue of Trinity's Shanty Town Determination, and Inner Circle and The Fatman Riddim Section's Heavyweight Dub/Killer Dub.