RhoDeo 1144 Roots

Hello, we're still on that island with a huge place in the global music catalogue, Jamaica. A production hothouse and they say the Weed makes you slow and lazy-go figure. Without the ganja driven reggae music Jamaica would have remained a Caribbean backwater and dare i say would never have given us Bolt, the fastest man in the world.

One of Jamaica's most distinguished and beloved vocalists, Horace Andy blessed with one of the most distinctive voices on the island is showcased here today.Together with an artist who's career started with writing and singing some kinky lyrics that despite being the summer of love-1969- upset the BBC ayatollahs but as these things go their fatwah only stimulated the interest in "Wet Dreams" Max Romeo , he had more up his sleeve he was politically engaged aswell and by 76 he and Lee Pery produced a classic War Inna Babylon, in the years that followed his career had it's ups and downs but he's still on stage,

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Horace Andy ( Horace Hinds) started with his first recordings, "Blackman's Country" and "I May Never See My Baby" in 1967 for producer Phil Pratt, but he didn't gain instant success, to some extent maybe because he tried in vain to sound like his then idol, rocksteady singer Delroy Wilson As with so many reggae artists, Studio One helped Horace Andy to make himself a name as a singer with several singles and records he cut for Studio One producer Clement Dodd (who also gave him his stage name), notably such songs as "Skylarking", "See A Man's Face" and "Every Tongue Shall Tell". Another Studio One classic is "Mr.Bassie", his respect to bassist and member of The Heptones, Leroy Sibbles.

Very soon many of the leading producers wanted to make records with Sleepy, as Horace Andy is also known. He then recorded - among others - for Phil Pratt again. Many tunes for those and other producers were available only as Jamaican 45s and have disappeared long ago, after the first pressing was sold out. In 1977 Horace Andy teamed up with New York based producer Everton DaSilva and from this collaboration comes the outstanding set "In the Light", which was produced together by Andy and DaSilva with the stellar backing band of Michael Taylor and Leroy Sibbles on bass, Leroy Wallace and Noel Alphonso on drums, the legendary Augustus Pablo on keyboard, and Privy Dread on guitar. In the Light Dub was given the dub treatment from King Jammy. Tragically this partnership, which also gave birth to a bunch of singles and 12", came to a sudden end when Everton DaSilva was murdered in 1979.

During the Eighties Horace Andy continued releasing music on a regular basis both in Jamaica(among others for Jammy, Sly & Robbie and Bobby Digital) and in the USA on his own Rhythm imprint and for 'indie'-label Rough Trade. A highlight of this period is the album "Dance Hall Style", one of two records Horace did with producer Lloyd 'Bullwackie' Barnes.
In 1990 he was approached by Bristol-based hitmakers Massive Attack to join them for recordings. Since then he contributed vocals to all of Massive Attack's records and they even reworked some of his earlier tunes. Other work of the 90s are two sets produced by Mad Professor and various singles with drum & bass partnership Mafia & Fluxy in Kingston, JAM.
October 99 saw the release of "Living In The Flood", with the title track co-written by Joe Strummer. Mek It Bun was released in 2002. Horace Andy's latest album This World saw the light in 2005. He also featured on the world music project, 1 Giant Leap, and on the Easy Star All-Stars 2006 album, Radiodread. The live On Tour album landed on Trojan in 2008 and then two years later he hooked up with German producer Andreas “Brotherman” Christopherson along with the Groove Attack label for the album Serious Times.

Horace Andy's Exclusively was recorded in 1983, at the same session that produced what some feel is his best album, Dance Hall Style. If that album is indeed his best then this isn't far behind. Andy floats and bobs like a sparring angel and the songs are as catchy as bird flu and wrapped in heavy, typically dubby and note-perfect Wackies arrangements and productions. The record never drags like much roots reggae of the era and you have to credit Andy's light touch for this.

Horace Andy - Exclusively (flac 226mb)

01 Bob Lives On 4:15
02 Stop The Fuss 3:41
03 Love Him 4:25
04 Good Will Survive 3;34
05 Take It Easy 3:45
06 Eating Mess 4;43
07 Musical Episode 3:54
08 Live In The City 5:18
09 Live In Unity 4:36
10 Lonely Woman 3:37

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Max Romeo (born Maxwell Livingston Smith, 22 November 1947, left home at the age of 14 and worked on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon, cleaning out irrigation ditches, before winning a local talent competition when he was 18; prompting a move to the capital, Kingston, in order to achieve a successful musical career. In 1965 he joined up with Kenneth Knight and Lloyd Shakespeare in The Emotions. In 1966, the group had their first hit, with the Lack-produced, "(Buy You) A Rainbow". The Emotions went on to have several hit singles and by 1968, the singer, by this point known as Max Romeo, felt confident enough to launch a solo career.

Later on in 1968, Romeo wrote new lyrics for the rhythm track of Derrick Morgan's "Hold You Jack" and handed them over to Bunny Lee, leading the producer to Romeo to sing the lyrics he had written. The result, "Wet Dream" (1969), was an instant hit in Jamaica, although in the UK it was met with a BBC Radio (cringe) ban. Predictably, the ban only made it more popular and the single entered the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 10 and ultimately spending almost six months in the chart, before featuring on his LP, A Dream (1969), which included several follow-up singles in a similar vein. A UK tour also met with Romeo being banned from performing at several venues, although many allowed him to play.

Early in the seventies saw Romeo release a series of politically charged singles, most advocating the democratic socialist People's National Party (PNP), which chose his song, "Let The Power Fall On I", as their campaign theme for the 1972 Jamaican general election. Romeo joined the PNP Musical Bandwagon, travelling around Jamaica, playing on the back of a truck. He worked with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, producing the classic singles "Three Blind Mice", "I Chase the Devil". and "Sipple Out Deh", and a remixed version of which entitled "War Ina Babylon", was another popular track in the UK, the first fruits of his deal with Island Records, and was followed by the classic album of the same name, after which the pair fell out.

Romeo moved to New York City in 1978, where he co-wrote (with Hair producer Michael Butler) the musical, Reggae, which he also starred in. In 1981 Keith Richards co-produced and played on Romeo's album, Holding Out My Love to You. The rest of his output during the decade went practically unnoticed, with Romeo finding work at a New York electronics store. He returned to Jamaica in 1990, and began touring and recording more regularly. He visited the UK again in 1992, recording the albums Far I Captain of My Ship and Our Rights with Jah Shaka. In 1995 he recorded Cross of the Gun with Tappa Zukie, and he joined up with UK rhythm section/production team Mafia & Fluxy in 1999 for the album Selassie I Forever. This last decade saw the release of several compilations.

War ina Babylon is something of a mountain on the reggae landscape. But what makes it so remarkable is not just the consistently high quality of the music rather, it's the fact that Max Romeo had proved to be such a convincing singer of cultural (or "conscious") reggae. There's no denying the authority of his admonishing voice here, and the title track (which describes the violent mood during Jamaica's 1972 general election) has remained a standard for decades. Essential..

Max Romeo and The Upsetters – War Ina Babylon (flac 200mb)

01 One Step Forward 5:15
02 Uptown Babies Don't Cry 5:00
03 I Chase The Devil 3:27
04 War Ina Babylon 4:51
05 Norman 4:50
06 Stealing In The Name Of Jah 3:04
07 Tan And See 4:36
08 Smokey Room 3:03
09 Smile Out A Style 3:32

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