The Year That Was ... 1976

Craig Stephen steps back in time to present a Top 10 (plus one) of all things 1976 …

There’s something about 1976. Above all, it was a pivotal year in music: reggae was its peak and punk was an obscure art school sub-genre about to be turned into a commercial anti-art dogma. While punk flared up on the streets of London, Manchester, and New York, Jamaica’s capital Kingston was literally on fire, with uncontrolled violence and gang warfare. 1976 was also about many more things and while this article focuses mainly on the albums released in the 12 months, I have broadened it out, as you shall see. 

Max Romeo: War Ina Babylon 

Diatribes on poverty and inequality, corruption of the clergy and a call for politicians to take the road to righteousness litter the magnificent War Ina Babylon. The cover reflects the music: a distraught woman holding her head in her hands with a handkerchief to cry into. Roots reggae opener ‘One Step Forward’ urges politicians to take the “narrow” road to righteousness. Then we’re into ‘Chase the Devil’ with its famous opening “Lucifer son of the morning, I'm gonna chase you out of earth”, the frightening title track and ‘Uptown Babies’, a dissection of the class divide.

Ramones: Ramones 

Sounding a little dated now, perhaps, but incendiary then, Ramones was latched on to by anyone who mattered in 1976 and became THE must-have item of that long hot northern hemisphere summer. To many, it’s considered to be the first true punk rock album, and still inspires to this day. It’s 14 tracks, among them ‘Beat on the Brat’ and ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, last all of 29 minutes. Nowadays, T-shirt City is bustling with Ramones tops but do those snotty teens wearing them even have a copy of the album that set them to a career of trademark buzzsaw guitars and short songs?

David Bowie: Station to Station / Nic Roeg: The Man Who Fell To Earth 

Changing tack once more, the album’s opener, the 10-minute title track began with the sound of an approaching train, more than three full minutes pass on a slow, hypnotic instrumental march before Bowie finally sings. It then erupts into a celebratory groove, leading into a lengthy, wild outro. It’s almost two songs welded into one. Kraftwerk were also an influence for Bowie and he would continue the musical adventure on the so-called “Berlin trilogy”. The cover used a still from the film The Man Who Fell to Earth in which Bowie took the lead role as a stranded alien. Released months after the album, it is a monumental sci-fi flick that bemuses and bedazzles in equal measures. 

100 Club Punk Special 

You could pin punk’s rise to the very first Sex Pistols gig, to the Screen on the green Midnight Special in late August, or even the Pistols’ foul-mouthed tirade at Bill Grundy on prime-time television that sparked tabloid front-page headlines. But this mini festival was the moment that seemed to propel the burgeoning movement into something more tangible and publically-consumable. It featured the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned, and The Clash, as well as Siouxise and the Banshees which had only just formed and pretty much played on the hoof. Whatever happened to the Stinky Toys? 

Can: Flow Motion 

I had to force myself to like Can but it was worth the pain. They are very much an acquired taste. By 1976 the German avant-garde prog-jazz-punkers found themselves on Top of the Pops with the electro-beat heavy ‘I Want More’ which features here. Flow Motion might be more accessible and it plays with disco rhythms, but it remained very much a Can album with a ten-minute track to close that continues a fine tradition of freeform recording.

All the President’s Men 

The film of the book of the event. Watergate was still raw in America, and in journalism around the world. The revelations of reporters Woodward and Bernstein in the Washington Post (and by other reporters) were like a Molotov Cocktail thrown at the established political processes. This was Dirty Politics before it became part of the culture. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford play the said reporters braving obstacles at every turn to get the story. And there were many of them, but their doggedness culminates in the president resigning. A film can’t truly encapsulate years of chasing or a 336-page book but it covers whatever it is able to do with fantastic dramatic effect. 

Debris: Static Disposal 

From Chickasha, Oklahoma, Debris formed in 1975 and self-released this solitary LP. A Dada/punk/psych masterpiece recorded in just under seven hours. It was a mindblowing album coming with a provocative, bondage-themed sleeve. Like The Saints’ debut, they were a band oblivious to the coming punk explosion yet this also sounds like a punk masterpiece. Debris came from the same harvest as Captain Beefheart, the Stooges, early Roxy Music and other pre-punk mainstays of the time. After this, they disappeared.

Godzilla vs Megalon 

Nuclear testing unleashes mayhem on the undersea kingdom of Seatopia, causing a series of environmental disasters that nearly wipes out Rokuro, the schoolboy protagonist at the centre of this film. Then ... fighting … a flying robot … napalm bombs … the world in danger … Tokyo smashed. In other words, exactly what all the original Godzilla films do best. (Although the film was released in 1973 in Japan, it didn't receive a full theatrical release in the US, and more generally "the west", until the balmy summer of 1976 - Ed)

The Damned: New Rose 

It might be lauded as the first British punk single, but ‘New Rose’ was a classic three-minute pop song. The famous spoken intro – “Is she really going out with him?” – is from the Shangri-La’s ‘Leader of the Pack’ for fox sake. Fuelled by amphetamine sulphate and cider, ‘New Rose’ laid a marker for all other punk bands to follow. Only a few ever did. 

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry: Super Ape 

Genius at the controls. Take a breath, open your mind and listen to this masterpiece of roots music. A must have for all Perry lovers and for the new generations interested in reggae music. Super Ape might not be the best reggae album of the 70s nor even Perry’s finest but it set a trend; reggae and dub meets, well, all sorts of sounds and influences. Various reissues and re-shaping has occurred in the past 44 years but the original still stands strong. 

Scotland 2, England 1, Hampden Park, 15 May 

This game would become a skeleton in goalkeeper Ray Clemence's cupboard after allowing a saveable Kenny Dalglish shot to roll through his legs for Scotland's winning goal. Mick Channon had given England an early lead but there was only ever going to be one winner. Bruce Rioch equalised just six minutes later. Clemence would later say he had Dalglish’s shot covered, but it bobbled and the next thing he knew it went through his legs and into the net. Scots fans didn’t care, they’ve never let the keeper forget it to this day.

A Double Dose of Scratch: Rainford and The Black Album

Producer, artist, and all-round reggae superstar Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry isn’t one to live on his weighty legacy. Now well into his 80s, Perry has produced two studio albums in less than two years as he continues his journey into the new sounds of Jamaica. Craig Stephen takes a closer look: 

Rainford (2019)

Perry’s umpteenth studio album was co-produced with dub reggae producer extraordinaire Adrian Sherwood. Perry as ever provides the vocals, sounding, yes, like an elderly man, but a man with fire still burning in his belly. 

Some tracks have a freestyle, go-with-the-flow format, with Biblical allusions that veer into babbling chants, snarls and shrieks. 

The final track, perhaps ominously but appropriately, is ‘Autobiography of the Upsetter’, and while I expect Perry to continue for a few more years yet there will naturally be a point at which the book is closed. This feels like some sort of career-capping memoir as Perry reminisces on his life in music. 

Unfortunately, the vocals ebb and flow and there are words that are hard to comprehend. He begins by saying he was born Rainford Henry Perry in Jamaica in 1936, informing the listener that his father was a freemason, his mother an Eto Queen (no, I don’t know either) … “They shared a drink together, they then go on to make a Godly being/ Just look at me.” 

Among his reminisces are how, he says, he made the Wailers, and in particular its frontman: 

“Bob Marley come to me saying ‘my cup is overflow, my cup is overflow, and I don’t know what to do. Can you help Mister Perry?’ Yes I can, I give you Punky Reggae Party.” 

He later reminds listeners of his work with Susan Cadogan, who had a number of big reggae hits in the UK including the Perry-produced ‘Hurt So Good’. 

A couple of tracks, if we are honest, don’t quite continue the quality but ‘Makumba Rock’ partially makes up for such slackness – it is an unhinged jam where Perry alternately cries like a baby, bleats like a goat, and whines “I want my mommy, I want my daddy” as heraldic horns blast forth and a hardcore dub rhythm transports the listener back to 1974 and near the end warns Britons: “Prince Charles will not be King.” 

The Black Album (2018)

The Beatles released The White Album; Metallica released a self-titled album that became known as The Black Album. Both colours completely dominated the respective covers. The difference with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s work is that it reflects his skin colour, and the blackness of the cover is his wrinkly, ageing hand. 

This is the artwork, but it suggests a theme. Or a statement. 

With Robbie Lyn and former Perry producer Daniel Boyle in tow, Perry has created an album that harks back to the 1970s halcyon days of reggae and dub. To add to the retro feel each track is followed by its dub version, which means that the vinyl version spills over on to two disks. Some of these versions are as good as, or perhaps even better, than its daddy.

The opening track, ‘Mr Brown In Town’, includes Perry’s declaration that “I'm still alive, refuse to die”. You can’t argue with that.

Continuing with the colour theme, let’s skip to ‘Your Shadow Is Black’, a track that has that roots reggae feel as Scratch and background harmonies mingle in true 1975 fashion with obscure, repetitive lyrics rattling off frenetically. Then hold on for the dub version with the beautiful amalgam of flute and melodica brought to the forefront with a minimal amount of lyrics.

The Beatles reference at the beginning wasn’t merely a clutch at an album with similar tones of colour. The Black Album includes ‘Dub at Abbey Road’, which is not a version but the original track, that sees the apparently mad Jamaican recall The Beatles’ heyday and their LSD consumption. 

Furthermore, the vocal sessions for this album were held in the famous Abbey Road studio where the Scousers recorded the eponymous album half a century ago. 

I immediately struck up a rapport with ‘Captain Perry’ in which the gaffer transposes himself “on the high seas .. on the moonbeam .. on the mother ship …”. He doesn’t miss a trick, so the female backing singers would have us believe.

Those vocal harmonies lend a contrast to Perry’s limited range, a clear flaw in the album but it would also appear, if I listen really intently, that this is a trick to deliver some risqué statements. Stripped of the mumblings, the dub version, with its focus on the chorus is a superior, minimalist beast. 

Clearly, Perry will keep going until his body stops, and even as I write I see there’s a new album with Brian Eno (yes, that Eno) which we’ll endeavour to get to as well.

Album Review: On-U Sound - Pay It All Back Volume 7 (2019)

I’ve got to be honest: I’m generally such a committed fanboy of just about everything the On-U Sound label releases, I fear I can’t really review this album objectively. I’m concerned that my love for the work of (producer) Adrian Sherwood - across something close to four decades now - will blind me to anything other than its most obvious flaws or shortcomings. But I’ll do my best ... and if I can’t be totally objective, then at the very least I can offer some information about what you can expect from Pay It All Back Volume 7.

The main thing you need to know that it’s the latest release in a long-running series of sampler compilations for the On-U Sound label. It was released in late March, some 23 years after the release of Pay It All Back Volume 6. 

Yet, even after such a lengthy period, many of the same artists who graced the first six volumes - which covered work from the early 80s to the mid 90s - feature again on Volume 7. See, for example, offerings here from label stalwarts like African Head Charge, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Mark Stewart, Little Axe, Doug Wimbish, and Sherwood himself. 

But it’s far from retro-centric; it’s not a nostalgia document. It’s a sampler to showcase new, recent, or forthcoming On-U Sound releases, Sherwood mixes of material not exclusive to the label, and/or previously unreleased stuff that never found a home elsewhere. 

As such we get a genuine hybrid of musical styles (except generic rock and pop) with the one common denominator being that everything here has, to one degree or another, been touched by the hand of Sherwood. That’s the glue that binds. 

Highlights include: the Play-Rub-A-Dub mix of Horace Andy’s classic ‘Mr Bassie’, Neyssatou and Likkle Mai’s version of Bob Marley’s ‘War’ (see clip below), Denise Sherwood’s ‘Ghost High’, Congo Natty’s ‘UK All Stars in Dub’, Sherwood & Pinch’s ‘Fake Days’ (featuring LSK), Little Axe’s ‘Deep River’, Ghetto Priest’s ‘Slave State’, plus the Coldcut/Roots Manuva collab, ‘Beat Your Chest’, which closes the album … and of course, there’s the understated magnificence of ‘African Starship’, which is a typically eccentric taster from the now 83-year-old Lee Perry’s 2019 album, Rainford ... climb aboard with “Pilot Perry” if you dare! 

The aforementioned flaws and shortcomings are few. Only a couple of tracks (of 18) leave me feeling a little cold, but I guess that’s the nature of sampler compilations. And, in my experience, so far as On-U Sound compilations are concerned, those tracks are just as likely the ones I’ll be listening to most this time next year. 

My own purchase was a rare foray back into the world of the compact disc - my OCD preventing me from deviating from the format I collected the first six volumes in. The supplementary booklet not only offers a plethora of information about the tracks included on the album, it also provides a comprehensive year-by-year guide to the label’s entire back catalogue.

Paying It All Back and Buying On-U

It’s fair to say that one of my most anticipated album releases of early 2019 is the seventh instalment in On-U Sound’s Pay It All Back series.

Earlier this month, some 23 years after the release of the volume six, the label announced a March 29 release date for the unveiling of a mouth-watering volume seven. Here’s the blurb from the On-U Sound Bandcamp page (where you can also pre-order, here):

“An 18 track showcase of new Adrian Sherwood productions featuring previews of several forthcoming On-U releases, unique mixes, deep cuts, and unreleased tracks from Roots Manuva, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Coldcut, Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band), Mark Stewart, Horace Andy and more. The long-awaited latest instalment in the legendary On-U sampler series that first emerged in 1984. In the classic tradition of the series the tracks are stitched together with a number of special pirate radio style segueways, making for a unique journey through the modern world of On-U Sound! Both vinyl and CD editions come with a fully illustrated and annotated On-U catalogue, track exclusive to physical formats and is presented in a gorgeous colour-printed kraft board sleeve.”

The full Pay It All Back set, volumes one through six, is the only long running compilation series - on any label - I’ve managed collect in its entirety in the same format … only on CD, sadly, although I had at least one, if not two, of the early volumes on vinyl back in the day.

With the first six volumes having provided an in-depth overview of the label’s first decade, and nothing since 1996, volume seven is more than just a little overdue.

There have, of course, been many other Adrian Sherwood and On-U compilation releases during that period, but the Pay It All Back series remains the most definitive. Up until 1996, at least.

In anticipation of the forthcoming addition, I’ve compiled a How to Buy On-U Sound (collections) guide, and although every On-U devotee would add and delete as applicable to create a completely different set of favourites, the ten releases listed below all take pride of place in my own collection, roughly in order of preference.

How to Buy On-U Sound …

15 Years in an Open Boat (1997)

Although each Pay It All Back volume comes with its own unique set of charms, 15 Years in an Open Boat is perhaps the only collection to trump them all, and it currently ranks as the most comprehensive On-U Sound overview to date, covering off the label’s first - and surely most important - 15 year period. 29 tracks across two CDs and/or LPs. As such, we get everything from Prince Far I’s seminal ‘Virgin’ (of 1982), through to Sherwood’s mid-90s work with the likes of Little Axe, Audio Active, and 2 Badcard. It also ticks boxes for the hugely significant Tackhead (‘What’s My Mission Now?’), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (‘Jungle’), Dub Syndicate (four tracks), and many others along the way. 15 Years in an Open Boat is an absolute essential for any self-respecting On-U collector.

Pay It All Back Volume Three (1991)

My pick of the Pay It All Back bunch. Just. It opens with Strange Parcels’ ‘Disconnection’ and it doesn’t relent across 17 FX-drenched Sherwood masterpieces. Perry and Dub Syndicate again feature, the latter with another three gems, but there’s also arguable career highpoints on this one for key Sherwood sidekick Gary Clail with ‘False Leader’, and the much loved Little Annie, aka Annie Anxiety, with ‘I Think of You’. Naturally there’s some Barmy Army (two tracks), African Head Charge, Mark Stewart, and the late, always missed, never forgotten, Bim Sherman, who closes proceedings with ‘Nightmare’. This one is pretty much the equivalent of an On-U “Who’s Who” of the label’s roster as things stood at the end of its first decade.

Pay It All Back Volume Two (1988)

Where it all started for me, on vinyl, and while the On-U Bandcamp page appears to insist that Volume Two is short and sweet at just nine tracks in length, the album in hard copy form (CD) consists of 16 tracks, most showcasing Sherwood’s love of reggae at the rootsy end of the spectrum; opening with Perry & Dub Syndicate’s ‘Train To Doomsville’, and closing with Dr Pablo’s melodica-driven ‘Red Sea’. Everything in between is a genuine On-U classic. Highlights include two Bim Sherman collaborations, with Singers & Players on ‘Run Them Away’, and Dub Syndicate on ‘Haunting Ground’. Singers & Players back Prince Far I on two tracks, and Far I’s own, immortal, ‘Bedward The Flying Preacher’ is another obvious stand-out. There’s two great contributions from African Head Charge, and three Mark Stewart/Maffia offerings across the second half.

Sherwood At The Controls Volume 2 1985​-​1990 (2016)

A recent raiding of the On-U archives from just a couple of years back. I thought the most important aspect of the two recent Sherwood At The Controls releases - will there be more in this series? - was the way each one highlighted the label’s evolution from its earliest post-punk roots, and this volume serves to showcase Sherwood’s early forays into a fledgling form of industrial EDM with tracks from the likes of Mark Stewart (with ‘Hypnotized 12 Mix’), Tackhead (‘Mind at the End of the Tether’), Keith Le Blanc (‘These Sounds’), Ministry (‘All Day Remix’), and KMFDM (‘Don’t Blow Your Top’). But the dub/reggae staples - Perry, Dub Syndicate, Sherman, and AHC - also feature prominently enough, and At The Controls Volume 2 at its best presents a hybrid mix of all of the genres Sherwood found himself tinkering with across the late 80s. Which means this one is perhaps the most eclectic of all the albums featured on this list.

Pay It All Back Volume Four (1993)

The importance to Sherwood and On-U Sound over the years of key individuals like bassist Doug Wimbish and guitarist Skip McDonald can never be overstated, and their omnipresence is the most immediately obvious thing about the material found on Volume Four: collectively, individually, or as key members of Strange Parcels - effectively Tackhead in disguise - with that collective contributing five out of the 14 tracks on offer. Elsewhere, we get McDonald, aka Little Axe, in a “solo” guise with ‘Hammerhead’, and in partnership with Wimbish on ‘Stop The Clock Part 2’ ... all of that before we even start on the duo’s involvement with various other On-U projects - see Barmy Army, Dub Syndicate etc. And McDonald is credited with co-production on ten tracks here. Curiously enough though, my choice cut from Volume Four has to be the Norman Grant-produced Twinkle Brothers dub-with-strings extravaganza that is ‘Don’t Betray Me’. A shout out, also, to the mournful social commentary of Jalal’s ‘Mankind’.

On-U Sound - Dub Xperience: The Dread Operators (1996)

Given that it was released on Cleopatra Records, and includes material lifted from the Cherry Red imprint, pesky purists might insist this one’s not authentic to the On-U label, but one quick glance at the track-list should be enough to quell the concern of any sceptic; things don’t get much more early On-U Sound than Creation Rebel - Eskimo Fox, Style Scott, Sherwood, et al - with five tracks, including two co-credits with New Age Steppers, or Singers & Players, with four tracks, including ‘Autobiography (Dread Operator)’, which serves as an opener and title track. Prince Far I features with ‘Quante Jubila’, and Voice of Authority, effectively Sherwood himself, is there with ‘Middle East Power Station’. However you wish to frame it, Dub Xperience: The Dread Operators, is pure foundation-era On-U Sound, and a few years after its release as a standalone document, compiler Matt Green saw fit to include it as one third of a wider On-U Sound box set, also released on Cleopatra.

Pay It All Back Volume One (1985)

The first release in the Pay It All Back series, yet one I was forced to work my way back to after buying all the rest, given its relatively rare status for the decade or so after its release (here in New Zealand, pre-internet, at least). A couple of tracks featuring here would resurface again on Volume Two - it probably depends on what release/version/format is being discussed - but obviously Volume One was crucial in that it meticulously covered off the label’s earliest output. Which means it contains some of Sherwood’s most rudimentary and experimental production work. The sort of stuff fans of the label would later come to know (and love) as easily identifiable signature moments - his explorative use of space, echo FX, and sampling, being at its most raw and cutting edge during this phase. Highlights include Dub Syndicate’s ‘Must Be Dreaming’, and African Head Charge’s ‘Timbuktu Express’, but there’s state-of-the-art work too from Singers & Players, New Age Steppers, and Mark Stewart’s Maffia.

Sherwood At The Controls Volume 1 1979-1984 (2015)

At The Controls Volume 1 was all about excavating some of the super early Sherwood stuff that might otherwise have been forgotten about. Again, as with the template or formula explored further on Volume 2, it brings into sharp focus Sherwood’s links with punk, new wave, and post-punk; bands like The Fall (with ‘Middle Mass’), The Slits (‘Man Next Door’), and Shriekback (‘Mistah Linn He Dead’) take pride of place, all blending seamlessly with the obligatory portions of dub on offer here - see work offered by the usual suspects, Prince Far I, Singers & Players, and African Head Charge. Naturally, Mark Stewart’s seminal ‘Learning to Cope with Cowardice’ is right at home, and Vivien Goldman’s album closer, ‘Private Armies Dub’, will doubtlessly be of some interest to trainspotter types. For my money, this one is not quite as listenable as Volume 2, but it’s a hugely important document all the same.

Pay It All Back Volume Six (1996)

From a personal listening/consumer perspective, Volume Six was all too quickly overshadowed by the release of the more expansive 15 Years in an Open Boat set (see above) the following year. Had I known at the time that it would be the last Pay It All Back release for nearly quarter of a century, I might have been inclined to give it a little more ear/air time and love. I did, however, give Audio Active’s ‘Paint Your Face Red’, and Bim Sherman’s ‘It Must Be A Dream’, plenty of long-term love, and although it probably won’t be a universally popular choice amongst hardcore On-U devotees, I think ‘Japanese Record’ is something close to the best track Dub Syndicate ever recorded. They’re all highlights here. At just 12 tracks, in relation to other releases in the series, Volume Six was a relatively brief offering.

Pay It All Back Volume Five (1995)

Hmmm. Keen observers will note the album cover I’ve posted above is rather different to the more widely recognised/official On-U cover for Volume Five. That’s because, in order to stay true to my own collection, I’ve posted the Restless Records (US) version. And while I’ve always been vaguely aware that my Restless Records Pay It All Back was a black sheep in terms of sleeves, it was only in the course of writing this blogpost that I became aware of the inconsistencies within the track-listing for each version … I’m not sure of the issues surrounding licensing, but the Restless Records release includes 2 Badcard’s ‘Rock To Sleep’ instead of ‘Weed Specialist’, Gary Clail’s ‘Another Hard Man’ instead of ‘One Flesh And Blood’, and Tackhead’s ‘Laws Of Repetition’ rather than Doug Wimbish’s ‘Life In Arena (version 1)’ … all of that said, this volume’s highlights come in the form of Dub Syndicate’s ‘Roots Commandment’, and Bim Sherman’s ‘Can I Be Free (From Crying)’, which are among the ten (of 13) tracks included on both editions.

Of course, this is a far from complete “how to buy On-U” guide, and with a focus only on collections or compilation releases, I’ve ignored so many gems within the wider catalogue - terrific albums released by Perry, Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, Audio Active, African Head Charge, and Sherwood in a “solo” guise, to name just a few - but I may yet cover off a few of those in a future blogpost … for now it’s all about looking forward to Pay It All Back Volume Seven, and an appreciation of just how we got here in the first place ...

I’ll leave you with some Audio Active:

Porky Post ... Classic Album Review: Max Romeo - War Ina Babylon (1976)

Another guest post from Porky, looking back at a genuine roots reggae classic:

1976 was a pivotal year in music: reggae was its peak and punk was an obscure art school sub-genre just about to be turned into a commercial anti-art dogma.

While punk flared up on the streets of London, Manchester and New York, Jamaica’s capital Kingston was literally on fire, with uncontrolled violence and gang warfare occurring during much of the decade. Political divisions and tribal loyalty were fuelling the economic distress afflicting the island.

Reggae reacted by getting proactive and putting down a roots agenda. 1976 alone saw some exceptional albums from Peter Tosh, Johnny Clarke, Linval Thompson, Burning Spear, the Mighty Diamonds, Tapper Zukie, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, King Tubby, and the genre’s sole superstar, Bob Marley and the Wailers, with Rastaman Vibration.

So it was a tough time to release a record with the danger of any record falling between the cracks, but among all of the above, please add this: War Ina Babylon by Max Romeo and the Upsetters (but commonly just attributed to Romeo), with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry at the controls.

Romeo had experienced a burst of Warhol-esque fame/infamy in 1968 with a worldwide hit in Wet Dream, a song that really, like really, does not require any explanation. Then he grew up, became a Rasta, and saw the shit hitting the fan.
The music reflects the cover: a distraught woman holding her head in her hands with a handkerchief to cry into.

The magnificently roots reggae One Step Forward is a call to reject a narrow road to despair and urges politicians to take the “narrow” road to righteousness.

It opens side one, which contains the four heavyweight tracks that tie War Ina Babylon together. As we’re digesting the demagoguery of this, Romeo tears into Uptown Babies, a more accessible track, feathering the traditional pop modus operandi of musicians in other parts of the Americas, with a dissection of the class divide. For some, life isn’t a chore if you have a network of people to look after you.

“Uptown babies don't cry/ They don't know what hungry is like/ Uptown babies don't cry/ They don't know what suffering is like/ They have mummies and daddies/ Lots of toys to play with/ Nannies and grannies/ Lots of friends to stay with.”

How nice it is in Pleasantville.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks …

“Hear that little baby crying?/ Yes she's crying, she's crying/ She's crying because she's hungry/ You can hear her mama saying/ It ain't easy, ain't easy/ Ain't easy when you're poor, you see/ And speaking of life in the ghetto/ Where survival is the motto/ And putting it to you/ Poverty is a sin.”

Chase the Devil (later sampled by The Prodigy) begins with Romeo bellowing: “Lucifer son of the morning, I'm gonna chase you out of earth”, before it turns into this magnificent spiel on the righteousness of Rastafarianism and the dangers of turning to the ‘other side’.

Playing into the run-out groove is the title track, a spectacular, foreboding track that is up there amongst the best things Perry has produced – and this during a period in which he was positively hallucinating with ideas which he provided to Marley et al.

The second side seems almost an after-thought in comparison but neglect it at your peril. Stealin' (in the Name of Jah), is a gospel-style condemnation on the corruption of the clergy with an easy, swinging chorus.

“My father's house of worship/ Has become a den of thieves/ Stealing in the name of the lord,” and bemoaning the fact the clergy makes everyday sacrifices while the reverend drives a fancy car and “buys everything tax free”.

“Strike the hammer of justice/ And set my people free,” demands Romeo.

Tan and See sounds very much like the Wailers at their peak, with female backing singers; Smile Out A Style is back to Romeo’s late 60s early reggae sound, sans the smut, and the penultimate track, Smokey Room, is an infectious track with a hook line spitting out ‘riddim’ over and over.

War Ina Babylon is in many ways a snapshot of reggae; it harks back to the early almost soulful days of the mid to late 60s, to the movement to the political mourning; an expression of the anger of the Rasta people and also a nod to the movement towards the rockier sound of roots reggae at the time that Marley and his rump Wailers used to such effect after the ’73 split.

It was just the beginning of a tremendously fertile period for Perry. In under two years he would produce an impressive batch of albums, several of which remain classics, such as Junior Murvins’ Police and Thieves and the Congos’ Heart of the Congos. War Ina Babylon can measure up to those and many others and is an essential piece of the roots reggae canon.

Romeo and Perry fell out over this record (the singer apparently felt he didn’t get remunerated properly) and while he recorded for many more years (including working with the Rolling Stones), nothing quite touched on War Ina Babylon. I would also suggest seeking out Fire Fe the Vatican, an immense single that didn’t – but should have – appeared on this album despite coming out in the same year.

Album Review: Coldcut & On-U Sound – Outside the Echo Chamber (2017)

It is, of course, a very logical collaboration – two parts Coldcut, in the form of Matt Black and Jonathan More, and one part On-U Sound, courtesy of Adrian Sherwood. As producers of some of the finest electro and dub music to come out of the UK over the course of the past three decades, these guys are experts in the art of collaboration. They also know a thing or two about sonic possibilities.

In fact, if you removed the output of the Ninja Tune label, of which Black and More were founders, and the On-U Sound imprint (ditto Sherwood) from the rich tapestry of the aforementioned genres, not to mention the wider dance music and roots reggae scenes, you’d be left with an awfully big hole. One the size of several giant speaker stacks, even.

Yet, oddly enough, rather than engage the Ninja or On-U handles on this occasion, the trio have released Outside the Echo Chamber on the Ahead Of Our Time label, which previously served as the vehicle for Black and More’s earliest forays into production.

The collaboration goes well beyond that of the album’s three key protagonists, naturally. Throw in, just for starters, uber producer Lee Scratch Perry, onetime Black Uhuru vocalist Junior Reid, UK hip hop legend Roots Manuva, plus a couple of guys from the industrial dub heavyweight Tackhead; guitarist Skip McDonald (aka Little Axe) and bass player Doug Wimbish … and, well, you start to get an outline sketch of just what Outside the Echo Chamber is all about.

Look out also for the contributions from the comparatively low profile, or youthful, likes of Chezidek, Toddla T, Ce’Cile, Elan, and Rholin X (phew!).

There’s also a brief but nonetheless fascinating excursion into what I can only describe as Bollywood-soul, in the form of ‘Kajra Mohobbat Wala’, courtesy of Hamsika Iyer, the tune being an update of an old Hindu/Urdu love song.

We end up with 16 tracks in total; ten core tracks, plus six dub versions. The highlights of which include the distinctly political roots-drenched Perry/Reid/Elan offering ‘Divide and Rule’, the Roots Manuva-narrated opener, ‘Vitals’, and ‘Metro’, which, rather unusually, skirts around the outer limits of synthpop.

See also: genre-bending, hybrid flavours, immaculate production, all manner of special FX, bottom end, and echo … sugar, spice, and all things nice.

The bottom line is you’ll be hard pressed to find another album released in 2017 with as much emphasis on hybrid dub or big fat slabs of beefy bass.

The whole thing is really quite wonderful.

But, as a longstanding fan of the walks-on-water Adrian Sherwood, and as a long-distance admirer* of the Coldcut boys – I probably would say that, wouldn’t I?

* I don’t have a huge amount of Coldcut work in my collection, but I do have the early Sherwood edit of their ‘Stop This Crazy Thing’ from nearly 30 years ago. And as a certified hip hop-sceptic, I’ll stop short of suggesting that the Coldcut remix of that early masterclass example of rhyme and flow, Eric B and Rakim’s ‘Paid In Full’, is one of the greatest 12-inch singles ever made. But, between us, it just bloody well might be …

 

Here's 'Divide and Rule':

 

 

 

Album Review: Various/Sherwood at the Controls Volume 2 1985 - 1990 (2016)

I ordered the CD/T-shirt bundle for this release as long ago as March (a pre-order for a June release), so my excitement when the package turned up in my letterbox last week was palpable. I may be a grizzled middle-aged man, but my inherent ability to revert back to "kid in a sweet shop" mode right on cue really is quite remarkable at times.

Of course, that's really just another way of saying that anyone hoping for a balanced or objective review of the latest On-U Sound compilation release will probably be best served going to another site.

The second volume of Adrian Sherwood's At The Controls series showcases a selection of the On-U label's extensive archives from the period 1985 to 1990. It's a follow-up to last year's impressive first instalment, which featured producer/label guru Sherwood's work from 1979 to 1984. More generally this release covers what was arguably Sherwood's most productive period, and highlights the man's uncanny ability to sprinkle fairy dust across a variety of different musical genres.

As such, hard-edged industrial post-punk electronica from the likes of Mark Stewart ('Hypnotised' 12-inch) and KMFDM ('Don't Blow Your Top') sits comfortably alongside the heavy funk beats of Tackhead ('Mind At The End Of The Tether') and Doug Wimbish & Fats Comet ('Don't Forget That Beat').

Naturally there's the obligatory helping of dub (roots/reggae and electro) with tunes from Lee Perry ('Music & Science Madness'), Bim Sherman (a stripped back dub version of 'Haunting Ground'), African Head Charge ('Hold Some'), plus a couple of tracks from label stalwarts Dub Syndicate ... although one of those is little more than a short interlude, effectively paying tribute to label legend Style Scott, R.I.P.

Other highlights include the so-very-Eighties politically-charged early hip hop of The Beatnigs with 'Television' ("it's the drug of the nation"), which features a pre-Spearhead Michael Franti. There’s a genuine synthpop relic from pre-hard industrial era (read: pre-heroin) Ministry with 'All Day', and Pankow's completely bent but still wonderful take on Prince's 'Girls And Boys'.

Contributions from Tackhead drummer and frequent co-conspirator Keith Le Blanc, ex-anarcho-punks Flux, Afro-German outfit The Unknown Cases, plus the otherwise little known Italians, Rinf, take the track-listing up to a generous 16 cuts in total - or just over 72 minutes of listening pleasure all up.

And yet, despite the wide variety of artists and styles merged together for this compilation - as with the first volume - nothing feels out of place. Every track is drenched in Sherwood signature moments - be it his absolute understanding and mastery of space through the use of echo FX or reverb, be it the careful placement of a politically-motivated sample or three, or be it some other odd sound-shape or subtle bass drop just when it's least expected. This is Sherwood at the controls, as uncompromising as always, and operating at something of a career peak.

Finally, the quality of the liner notes - not always an On-U label strength - was a nice surprise. The CD release comes with a booklet containing a very comprehensive set of notes, which provide some of the best commentary I've yet read about this remarkable label. There's a good selection of rarely seen photos - including one of a young Sherwood, with hair.

Oh, and I love the Tee, black with the album cover design, even if it is somewhat tighter fitting than I had anticipated it would be … three months clearly being an unruly length of time in the life of your blogger's ever expanding waistline.

I can hardly wait for the next volume already. Make mine an XL.

Here’s Tackhead’s ‘Mind at The End of The Tether’ ...

 

 

Retail Therapy 4: Avalanche Records/Love Music, Glasgow

Another regular train journey I made during my years of living in Scotland in the early Nineties was the one that took me out to the bosom of family living in Coatbridge, about half an hour east of Glasgow, in an area known as the Monklands. The not-so-picturesque Glasgow Queen Street to Coatbridge Sunnyside, return, was made at least every couple of weeks.

On the fringes of Queen Street station, in Dundas Street, was a shop called Avalanche Records, perhaps THE prototype indie record store, a genuine throwback to a bygone era, and very much a serious distraction for me on those occasions I wasn’t running for the train. It isn’t called Avalanche Records these days. It’s called Love Music, but at last sighting the shop was very much alive, and it remains in that very convenient location.

I’m not sure if it is still owned and operated by a guy called Sandy McLean, but when I was there most recently in 2008 – or it may actually have been as recently as 2011 – it was like walking back in time. But in a good way. And it wasn’t only a sense of nostalgia driven by my relationship with the shop 15 years earlier, or the vague whiff of familiarity, it was the sense that the shop had successfully retained its soul, its independence, and a most charming point of difference from the chains and superstores surrounding it.

Back in the mid Nineties that meant Tower Records, HMV, and Virgin. All had megastores within shouting distance of Avalanche Records, but none offered the warmth and quiet passion offered by the comparatively tiny side street shop. Selling used and new, vinyl, tapes, CDs, everything was sorted into some semblance of order, yet there remained a prevailing sense of chaos – something which becomes unavoidable when at any moment a used copy of a long deleted title can jump right out at you and greet you like its long lost owner ... or owner to be.

The walls of Avalanche weren’t about being bombarded with the latest major label favourite either. Rather it was more about the retro, the obscure, the low budget, and the unique. And when I finished scouring the racks and bins for that rarely sighted old soul 45, I could flick through magazines, pick up a fanzine, or get local gig information by perusing the multitude of flyers left laying about.

I think I probably spent more money on gap-filling CD singles, mixtape fodder, rather than anything else when I regularly shopped there back in the day. But the last time I was in the store a few years ago – I’m pretty sure it had become Love Music by this time – I came across a used (but mint) Lee Scratch Perry CD that I’d never seen before, and an album often omitted from many of his “official” discographies: ‘The Essential Lee Scratch Perry’ on Mastercuts, a series more renowned for its retro dance music collections and various artist titles.

I’m not so sure that CD – picked up for a mere £3.99 – correctly identifies the truly essential Perry but it does at least showcase some of his best work from the Seventies. It remains my most recent purchase at the shop, and it felt quietly satisfying and no less fitting to find it there.

Here’s a clip from the album:

 

Album Review: The Orb and Lee Scratch Perry – More Tales From The Orbservatory (2013)

Well, this was something of a surprise – a second outing for The Orb and Lee Scratch Perry. I hadn’t anticipated any follow-up to 2012’s The Orbserver In The Star House, let alone an almost immediate one. More Tales From The Orbservatory gives us a further eleven cuts from the Berlin Orbserver sessions.

 

 Perhaps the biggest surprise of all though is that as an album it all comes together so well. That as a set of tracks not initially considered worthy of release, everything gels together so nicely. The album feels every bit the cohesive and fluent whole it was probably never intended to be, and it stands as testimony to the chemistry and genius of what is now starting to feel like a perfectly natural heavyweight collaboration of talent and ideas.

When I say eleven cuts, what I actually mean is five new songs, five instrumental versions of said songs, plus a charming little interlude (‘Tight Interlude’) which clocks in at just over a minute long. The quality control factor is so high, it’s fair to say that none of these tracks would have been out of place on the debut, and you have to wonder just how many more quality leftovers have been left on the shelf.

Opener ‘Fussball’ is an infectious trip into the simple joys of football, with Perry intoning “pass de ball … kick de ball … win de game” over some deep housey spaced-out electro goodness. Despite its apparent simplicity, its precision and careful use of repetition works well as an attention grabbing album starter.

 

 

‘Africa’ is typical Perry, a so-called “message” track to some extent (“let’s enjoy de eart dat god has give us”), one that hits its mark mainly because of the moments of oddball humour provided in Perry’s stream of consciousness delivery. The glitchy electronic shuffle that passes for a beat provides an almost perfect contrast to Perry’s vocal. It’s a great little track.

 

‘Making Love In Dub’ probably just shades ‘Fussball’ as the album’s highlight. Where Perry dominates the majority of material on More Tales From The Orbservatory, Alex Paterson’s Orb influence is much more obvious and immediate on this one – it feels fuller, a little more complex somehow, and this track definitely works on a more cerebral level than any of the others.

‘No Ice Age’ and ‘Don’t Rush I’ (a Perry mission statement?) round things off – and both tracks are pretty decent – before we get the five instrumental versions spread across the second half of the album. If there is any filler here, if any of this could be regarded as throwaway or leftover material, then I suppose a particularly sticky finger could be directed at this “version” stuff. But even that response feels hard hearted; instrumental versions have long been a staple of dub/dubplate tradition, and I think there’s some value added with their inclusion here.

So I’m loving this album right now. An unheralded, under-the-radar arrival; for all that it is a continuation of the same themes and ideas we got on The Orbserver In The Star House, it’s also a great little album in its own right.

I hadn’t expected any of it, and it somehow feels all the sweeter for that.

Recommended.

Here’s ‘Fussball’:

 

 

 

Albums of 2012 # 3: The Orb & Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – The Orbserver In The Star House

After all of the advance promotion and social media hype for this album, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by The Orbserver In The Star House when I finally picked up a copy on CD.

I’d whet my appetite on the continuous drum-roll of preview mixes and pre-release samplers, but somehow it felt lightweight and flimsy when listening to it in its physical form; a throwaway piece of dub/crossover fluff, and the result of little more than a few weeks worth of studio frivolity for Alex Paterson and Lee Perry. A wee bit of fun on the side, before each man returned to whatever else they had on the go.

A few months on, I’ve softened on that first impression. It may well still be all of those things, but having repeatedly taken this out on a series of road trips over the past three months or so, having given it the car audio treatment, having “open road tested” it, if you like, I can unequivocally state that it’s every bit the carefully crafted work of art I initially anticipated it would be.

 

 It isn’t as though the build up wasn’t justified. Each man is a production genius, a past master in the art of what was once considered cutting edge dub, a student and innovator of the form. It seems only natural that the pair should collaborate in the studio sooner or later. That it wasn’t sooner is the only surprise.

With dubstep and its confusing multitude of sub-genres dominating the bass music landscape, there would undoubtedly have been temptation for Paterson and Perry to deviate from what they know. To offer their own unique take on the latest trends. That they didn’t, that they stuck to the tried and trusted forms of what each man does so well, is of some relief, and it offers no little testimony to the collective self belief that runs right through The Orbserver In The Star House. Some of it might be distinctly “old school”, but if that’s the case, it’s a seat of learning that today’s young tykes can only marvel at and learn from.

Perry is once again in imperious form with his stream of consciousness ranting and raving, toasting atop of Paterson’s electro noodlings to create an upbeat and warm summery vibe throughout. None of Perry’s observations are especially profound but they’re frequently offbeat and humorous … more “sly grin” than “laugh out loud”.

 

No, this isn’t an album that you can take too seriously. Yes, there is something distinctly off-the-cuff about it, and yes, it may be lightweight and fluffy in nature, but what I hadn’t realised at the outset was that all of those elements are a big part of its ongoing appeal.

Definitely one for the summer.

Highlights: ‘Ball of Fire’, ‘Soulman’, ‘Hold Me Upsetter’, ‘Golden Clouds’, and one of the most unusual takes on Junior Murvin’s ‘Police And Thieves’ that you’re ever likely to hear.

There’s been a few great remixes of material sourced from the album already, here’s the popular OICHO remix of Golden Clouds: