The music is superb. I almost cried when I listened to "Fisherman" on headphones for the first time. The the tenth track "Solid Foundation", is marred by an arhythmic scratching sound that, unlike the lowing cattle that feature so prominently on other tracks, does not sound as though the artists or Mr. Perry intended it to be there. (edit. compare this album's "Solid Foundation" with the version found on Blood & Fire's 1996 edition of "Heart of The Congos".
It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »
Despite the fire and brimstone that characterized reggae's revolutionary emergence in the 1970s, I have always had an abiding affection for the evolutionary period that immediately preceded that breakthrough, when the music seemed caught between two worlds. The style is usually referred to as rocksteady - post-Ska, but still experimenting with and expanding the possibilities of that one-drop, loping afterbeat; and though Rastafarian ideology was already beginning to swiftly gospelize the music (anthemed most notably… more »
