Duff Review: Horace Andy "Midnight Rocker"

Vinyl LP/CD/digital
On-U Sound
2022

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Like his superb collaborations with Lee "Scratch" Perry before his death (Rainford and Heavy Rain, which I reviewed here and here), Adrian Sherwood's latest effort with Horace Andy yields another masterpiece. Midnight Rocker is easily one of the finest albums in Andy's catalogue and certainly one of the best new roots reggae records you'll hear this year.

At 71, Sleepy's seemingly ageless voice remains in top form--always wonderfully expressive, whether conveying empathy for those suffering or passing along Jah's unyielding judgment on the wicked. He's backed by an all-star band, including Gaudi, George Oban (Aswad), Skip McDonald (Sugar Hill Records house band, Tackhead, African Head Charge), Douglas Wimbish (Sugar Hill Records house band, Tackhead, Living Colour), Horseman (Prince Fatty, Mungo's Hi-Fi, Mad Professor), and more. And Sherwood's virtuoso production--his first for Andy(!)--bathes everything in crisp warmth and life, and leaves plenty of space for Andy to do his thing.

Midnight Rocker contains a mix of new tracks and re-worked versions of Andy classics, some surely chosen for their heightened relevance today. The album opens with a fantastic rendition of Andy's plaintive "This Must Be Hell" (first released as a Tapper Zukie-produced single in 1978), Things may have been bad in the late '70s, but they have nothing on our everyone's-always-at-each-other's-throats times. This more sparse take on "Materialist" (which was originally produced and released by Niney the Observer in 1977) still packs a punch: "Material comes first in this society/You can't afford a car or a house, no one knows you" (and the track also warns of giving into vanity and acquiring too much). Andy's 1976 reggae lullaby "Rock to Sleep" is beautifully and hauntingly updated with cellos. And even Sleepy's much-revisited, Studio One/Coxsone Dodd-produced single "Mr. Bassie" is given a great new spin with this tightened-up take. (If you compare all of these versions to their originals, you'll be pleased to find that Andy has much more control of his singing, and his voice is arguably stronger and more nimble than ever.)

Like the reworked classics, Andy's new cuts are like late-night, pirate broadcasts of hope and warning--a rebel counternarrative for these entropic times. "Easy Money" (penned by Jeb Loy Nichols and Sherwood) is a melodica-driven sequel of sorts to his 1975 Phil Pratt-produced single "Root of All Evil" (key lyric: "It make friends/It break friends/Judas betrayed Christ for it!") that is an oblique critique of our capitalist way of life: "Tell me why/Did I ever start/To make money money/You did me wrong/You been cheating me/My whole life long." The stately "Today is Right Here" (by Sherwood/Nichols/Oban) reminds one that life is tenuous and fleeting, so you need to enjoy/be in the right now ("See that old black bird flying/See that fox on the run/They don't think about tomorrow/'Cause it might never come"). Despite its topic, "Careful" (by Leigh Stephen Kenny/LSK and Sherwood) is a bright and jaunty track about the pernicious disinformation we're swimming in daily ("All that glitters is not gold/All that's written is not so/Pictures, scriptures always told through the eyes of victors, all I know"). With all the turmoil, dangers, and moral quandaries to navigate these days, Andy pleads to Jah--over a Lover's Rock cut (written by LSK/Gaudi/Roydel Johnson aka Congo Ashanti Roy)--to "Watch Over Them." We need all the protection we can get.

One of my favorite tracks on Midnight Rocker is the cover of Massive Attack's "Safe from Harm" from Blue Lines. For all of Andy's past work with Massive Attack, this song from their 1991 debut--inspired by Martin Scorsese's neo-noir nightmare Taxi Driver (it's about Travis Bickle expressing his compulsion to protect the teenage prostitute Iris)--was originally sung by Shara Nelson. Yet hearing Andy singing it in this urgent, slightly futuristic dubstep-reggae setting (that rumbling bassline is ominous!), you don't think of Jodie Foster, but rather whoever means the world to you and you'd be devastated to lose: "But if you hurt what's mine/I'll sure as hell retaliate/You can free the world, you can free my mind/Just as long as my baby's safe from harm tonight."

While Midnight Rocker immediately appealed to me from first play on the turntable, I've been listening to it on and off for weeks now--and still don't think the album has fully revealed itself to me yet.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin and Horseman "The Model" b/w "The Model Dub"

Evergreen Recordings
7" vinyl picture sleeve single/digital
2020

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Originally slated for release this past April for Record Store Day 2020 (that is until the coronavirus pandemic hit), Prince Fatty's terrific cover of Kraftwerk's "Das Model" featuring Shniece Mcmenamin and Horseman will now be issued on July 3, 2020. This track, of course, was first released on Kraftwerk's The Man-Machine in 1978, but went stratospheric when re-released in 1981 as the B side to the "Computer Love" single during the height of synth-pop in the UK. (The song has been both criticized for objectifying women and interpreted as a commentary on the commodification of desire, as well as the male gaze and scopophilia.) The wonderful simplicity of "The Model" has lent itself to being easily recast in many genres (name a style of music and there's been a cover version of it done) and its immediate catchiness makes "The Model" an ideal and enduring pop song. In Prince Fatty's boss reggae version, the synths remain artificially chilly and the riddim is rigidly martial, but Shniece's vocals are mighty alluring and Horseman's toasted commentary provides humanizing depth ("She's a modeling queen/'Cause she nice up the scene"). While it was recorded well before Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider's death this past April, this single serves as a fantastic tribute to this incredible musician who was an essential part of one of the most influential bands of all time.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin "Disco Deception" EP

Evergreen Recordings
Vinyl/digital
2020

(Review by Steve Shafer)

As of late, Prince Fatty has been mining his and his collaborators' shared love of soul music (for instance, see the awesome covers of The Temptations' "Get Ready" and William DeVaughn's "Be Thankful for What You've Got"). Of course, since black American musical forms like rhythm and blues, soul, gospel, and early rock 'n' roll significantly influenced the Jamaican musicians who created ska and its descendants (and there were a host of soulful rocksteady and reggae singers, like Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, Phyllis Dillon, Susan Cadogan, Marcia Griffiths, Jimmy Cliff, Toots Hibbert, and many more), it makes sense that many soul songs are ripe for being repurposed as reggae cuts (and there are numerous examples of such from the '60s onward). Rocksteady and reggae's slower tempos open up the space for soul singers to do their thing over tight, propulsive Jamaican grooves custom-made to pack dance floors--and the tracks on Disco Deception will do just that. For his latest release, Prince Fatty and singer Shniece Mcmenamin (of The Drizabone Soul Family, who's also worked with Chaka Kahn, Chic and Nile Rodgers, Sister Sledge, Aswad, Mungo's Hi-Fi, and The Last Poets) select some incredible tracks to cover: Lyn Collins' 1974 hit "Take Me Just as I Am," Gwen McCrae's 1974 single "90% of Me Is You," LaVern Baker's "Love Me Right" from 1957, "Fever"--first recorded by Little Willie John in 1953 who had a #1 hit with it, and Tina Turner's "You Got What You Wanted" from 1968. As always, all of the performances captured on Disco Deception are top-notch; Shniece's singing is never short of spectacular (and she makes it seem so effortless); and Fatty's production is impeccable. "Take Me Just as I Am" (with the great Horseman toasting), "90% of Me Is You," and "Love Me Right" are particularly wonderful and effective, though their stellar version of "You Got What You Wanted" ("...now you don't want what you got") has moments that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. It's hard to match Turner's heart-wrenching performance (and, given her abusive relationship with Ike Turner at the time, horrifically true to life), but Shniece comes tantalizingly close.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty Presenting Monkey Jhayam "The Rolê of Monkey Man"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Prince Fatty Presenting Monkey Jhayam The Rolê of Monkey Man (digital/LP, Delicious Vinyl Island, 2018): I knew next to nothing about this LP when I mail ordered it after finding out that limited copies were available through Prince Fatty's Bandcamp page. But it didn't matter--his recent, left field collaborations with Nostalgia 77 and Dele Sosimi and The Last Poets, in addition to just about every other release in his catalogue, have been consistently excellent, so why would this collaboration with Monkey Jhayam--one of Brazil's top reggae artists, who sings/toasts in Portuguese and has a terrific, laid-back delivery--be any different? As The Rolê of Monkey Man is slated to be the first of several Fatty/Jhayam albums for Delicious Vinyl, this record is consciously pitched to introduce him to an audience beyond Brazil's borders (and succeeds). So, it follows that Fatty employs almost a dozen classic/evergreen riddims and choice covers for Jhayam to toast over/augment, and utilizes a host of ace guest artists (Horseman, Earl 16, and Tippa Irie), many of whom are well known to the PF crowd/have appeared on his productions (and are a good contrast to Monkey Jhayam's chill style). The album kicks off with "Rolê" ("Scroll"), which versions Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Vendors' "Hot Milk" riddim (also used decades ago for two of my all-time favorite tracks: Yellowman and Fathead's "I Can't Stand It" and Carlton Livingston's "100 Weight of Collie Weed"). Other riddims/covers heard here include "Mãe da Lua" ("Mother of the Moon")/"Everybody Love the Sunshine" (with Omar Lye-Fook and Fatlip--of The Pharcyde), which is another great take on this 1976 Roy Ayers jazz-funk-soul gem that Fatty, Omar, and Fatlip released as a single for last year's Record Store Day; John Holt's "Police in Helicopter"; Dub Specialist's "Dub Creation"/Dennis Brown's "Created by the Father" on "Eles Não Sabem" ("They Don't Know"); Smoke City's 1997 trip-hop hit  "Underwater Love" (featuring a fantastic Nina Miranda--she co-wrote and sang on the original track--who reminds one very much of Hollie Cook); Gwen McCrae's 1974 funk-soul b-side "90% of Me is You" (with a completely phenomenal Shniece McMenamin); an incredible funky reggae take on James Brown's "Soul Power" for "Soul Powah" (also with McMenamin); as well as a few other riddims I know are in there, but can't quite identify without investing major time figuring them out. In sum, another winning Prince Fatty production!

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Duff Review: Prince Fatty w/Omar and Fatlip "Sunshine" b/w "Sunshine Dub" (RSD 2018 Release)

Evergreen Recordings
Vinyl 7" single
2018

(Review by Steve Shafer)

This is a fantastic and instantly recognizable Prince Fatty roots reggae take on Roy Ayers perfect 1976 jazz-funk-soul creation "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" (if this song doesn't completely epitomize the sound of American black music the 1970s, what does?). For this Record Store Day release, Prince Fatty enlisted the UK neo-soul singer Omar Lye-Fook on vocals and Fatlip from The Pharcyde rapping in the breaks ("Teach the children/celebrate diversity/Like The Beatles/They say, 'Let it be'"), as well some of the great usual suspects in Fatty's musical orbit, including Horseman (drums), Mafia (bass), Bubblers (keys), and Kashta Tafari (guitar). The results, of course, are top-notch--and you probably wouldn't be surprised if I told you that this makes for an ideal summer reggae track. This is coming to a sound-system near you.

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Preview "This Town" Off The Skints New Album "FM"!

If you're like me and have come across many people online raving about The Skints, but haven't really checked them out--well, now's the time to pay them proper attention! The Skints' new album FM (their third) was produced by the incredibly gifted Prince Fatty and is slated to be released in the USA on March 9, 2015 from Easy Star Records on vinyl, CD, and digital download.

"This Town," featuring Tippa Irie and Horseman, is the first previewed track off FM and is a fantastic 80s Saxon-style dancehall tribute to their hometown of London.

Word from The Skints' camp is that the band's first tour of America is scheduled for this coming May! Watch this space for details!



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Update (2/7/15): The video for "This Town" has just been released and can be watched at New Noise Magazine.

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Update (2/9/15): The Skints' video is now available to embed, so here ya go...

Duff Review: "Prince Fatty vs. Mungo's Hi-Fi"

Mr. Bongo Records
LP/CD (several tracks released as 7" singles, too)
2014

(Review by Steve Shafer)

If you're wondering whether or not to pick up the new Prince Fatty vs. Mungo's Hi-Fi soundclash album featuring what have to be the two best reggae producers/collectives/sound systems today, it's a no-brainer--this is unquestionably one of the top reggae releases of 2014. Yes, all of the songs from both crews have been previously released--but the raw material used here is incredibly good (Mungo's Hi-Fi tracks come from their albums Sound System Champions from 2008 and their Forward Ever from 2011 and feature Sugar Minott, Top Cat, Soom T and Marina P, while the Prince Fatty cuts are from various releases featuring Hollie Cook, Winston Francis, Horseman, and The Pioneers' George Dekker--most notably Cook's debut album, Prince Fatty's Supersize, and Prince Fatty Versus the Drunken Gambler) and what each producer does with their allotment of tracks is nothing short of phenomenal.

The brilliant twist here is that Prince Fatty and Mungo's Hi-Fi have versioned each other's songs in their own particular style--and both, in many ways, have improved upon (and not merely re-fashioned) the other's work. I'm a bit embarrassed not to know the Scottish (!) sound system Mungo's Hi-Fi better; I had to look up samples of the original tracks in order to be able to compare them to Prince Fatty's versions. But, I discovered that the Mungo's Hi-Fi source tracks vary between loose, late-70s roots reggae to early, computer-y dancehall. In Prince Fatty's hands, everything is tightened and revved-up, and given a full, rich, warm aural sheen. I particularly liked Prince Fatty's versions of "Herbalist" (with Top Cat), "Scrub a Dub Style" (with the great, late Sugar Minott and Horseman), and "Under Arrest" (with MC Ishu)--which features the terrific lyric, "Hands up a Babylon/You're under arrest!/Selassie are ya victim/Haile Haile the best!" that turn these driving-while-black/stop-and-frisk times on their head.

Mungo's Hi-Fi take Prince Fatty's highly polished tracks and bring them back to the future of early 80s Prince Jammy-style dancehall. Since I'm very familiar with all of the Prince Fatty songs here, I particularly appreciate and love their transformation via Mungo's Hi-Fi imagination in the control room. Hollie Cook's haunting "Sugar Water" (one of my favorite songs ever) now floats above a fantastic propulsive bass and drum track, George Dekker's "Say What You're Saying" sports these Inspector Gadget-like keyboard lines, and Winston Francis' "Dry Your Tears," and Horseman's "Horsemove" receive equally as cool and inventive treatments.

Fans of both Prince Fatty and Mungo's Hi-Fi are really going to dig this album--but even if you've never heard a track from either group, this is an essential purchase for all fans of ska, roots reggae, dub, and dancehall.

If we're lucky, the gods of music will permit/facilitate another collaboration like this between Prince Fatty and Mungo's Hi-Fi in the near future...

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Duff Review: Hollie Cook "Hollie Cook"

Mr. Bongo Records
2011
CD and LP

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Hollie Cook has branded her compelling mix of roots reggae and Sade-like, chanteuse-styled vocals (a contrast in styles that works brilliantly here) as "tropical pop." While this label connotes images of sculpted and curvy young bodies cavorting alongside crystalline Caribbean waters (and helps her to avoid having this album shunted solely to the reggae section of iTunes, the record shop, and radio playlists), the oftentimes gorgeous music and lyrics reflect a far less happy place--with lovers using, isolated from, betraying, and (psychologically) maiming each other.

Cook's producer/collaborator/co-songwriter Prince Fatty has done a superb job of creating a warm, confident, golden-era-of-the-70s reggae sound that plays extraordinarily well off Cook's modern pop vocals (and what a pure, ethereal instrument she's got) on her nine-track debut. The rotating backing band is consistently spot-on, with guest artists like guitarist Dennis Bovell (Linton Kwesi Johnson) and singer George Dekker (Pioneers) raising the level of quality even higher.

The album leads off with two tracks that comprise her excellent first single (reviewed by The Duff Guide to Ska here). "Milk and Honey" is about someone so removed from life--aware of everything going on, but disdainful of and unable to take any joy in it: "Every day/in the morning paper you/You got the News of the World/You're gonna make them change/It’s time to laugh all alone in your room/If only you could shine through the darkness." And the only path to salvation/deliverance (milk and honey are fruits of the promised land, after all) is to "taste" life again--to choose to live, not merely exist. "That Very Night" may remind one a bit of a Specials AKA In the Studio-type reggae excursion (where Dammers delved into alienation, madness, betrayal, addiction, and agoraphobia)--particularly Hollie's detached and disaffected vocal delivery (think Terry Hall) as she sings, "You are the perfect boy/for my brand new number/I have bought the purse/and the spring time flowers...all around, oh/You'll be a charming boy/not like my previous one/'Cause he disappeared and left me all alone/with my frozen heart...oh." The track is shimmeringly, nite club gorgeous, but could never mask the emptiness and pain of "going through the motions" evident at the core of Cook's vocals.

The cover of The Shangri-las' "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" is even more haunted and lonely in this reggay-fied version and, of course, recounts the shell-shocked devastation ("Oh, what will happen to/the light I gave to you/What will I do with it now?") at receiving a "Dear Jenny" letter after the singer's boyfriend went overseas (to war?). The protagonist of "Sugar Water (Look at My Face)" has been so damaged by her relationship with a lover that it's almost as if her very body chemistry has been monstrously transformed: "Look at my face/look what your charm has done to me/and the sugar water runs through my veins/it's really so odd...sweet darling, is it night or day?/Can you say my name?/Can't you see I'm losing my head because of you?" The spectacularly deep and dubby bass line of the track plods along, as if reflecting the singer's stumbling around in a daze, as she loses her grip on reality. It's a chilling song--one can almost imagine the inevitable and furious revenge to be visited upon the guy who messed with her.

"Shadow Kissing" starts out with "That Very Night's" eerie organ line, but then blossoms into a wonderfully different version of this cut with some lovely, evocative imagery: "I'm shadow kissing you/on my balcony/A serenade from you/echoes in the street...Oh, we know we're magical/I hear your thoughts/and you read mine." You can hear the longing and ache in her singing due to their inability to directly, physically connect, but it's like the very air they share transmits their feelings and touch.

In a way, the perfect, glowing reggae-pop of "Body Beat" (which may remind one--in a good way--of Scritti Politti's "Word Girl" off Cupid & Psyche '85) resolves all the conflict, tension, and misery that precedes it, both in sound and content. The errant lover has returned (for a duet with Horseman, whose toasting is excellent throughout the LP) back where she belongs, but doesn't regret the journey: "It's been so long since I've been home/(I've been missing you from the start!)/My body beats and I'm feeling raw/Too many places I have gone (Where?)/Playing the game/Scoring my name/It couldn't have been so wrong..."

Hollie Cook's album should go over very big with ska and reggae fans--but also could have massive appeal to the more pop-oriented or alternative scenes, which as of late seem to be much more receptive at least to reggae-hybrid artists (Santogold, MIA, etc.). If any new reggae record this year deserves to be heard and loved by a lot of people, it's this one.

Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A

Duff Review: Prince Fatty: "Insane in the Brain" b/w "Insane Dub Mix" and "Christopher Columbus" b/w "Dry Your Tears"

Mr. Bongo Recordings
2010
7"

For anyone who hasn't been introduced to Prince Fatty yet, it's a reggae collective that was originally assembled by producer Mike Pelanconi (who, amongst other things, helped engineer Lily Allen's brilliant ska-reggae-pop confection Alright Still--check the credits and you'll find a certain Victor Axelrod on keys!) for recording a single, "Nina's Dance," to promote Stussy's 25th anniversary. Their one-off was a minor hit in the UK, so they decided to make a go of it as a group. Prince Fatty's debut, Survival of the Fattest (Rasa Music, 2008), was one of those left-field surprises that the a-hole, snobby music-nazi in me almost dismissed outright as some sort of pop perversion of reggae (the sticker on the album boasted that "Milk and Honey" had been featured on an episode of the sudsy, doctor make-out fest "Grey's Anatomy"--a definite turn-off).

Survival of the Fattest is full of sprightly and stunningly good original roots reggae that sounds like it's straight outta mid-Seventies JA. Of course, it helps to have incredible Jamaican greats like Winston Francis and Little Roy sharing duties on the mic (plus the fantastic Holly Cook, daughter of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook and member of the reformed Slits). The album is a mix of playful instrumentals like "The Fat Panther" and the Rico-inspired "Switch Blade"; soulfully uplifting, make-you-smile cuts such as "Curious" and "Don't Give Up"; the drop-dead, heart-thumping-in-your-throat sexy "Milk and Honey" with Hollie Cook on vocals; and the stoned and on the prowl "Gin and Juice" with Horseman toasting under the influence. If you don't already have this record in your collection, you really should.

Prince Fatty is now back with a pair of vinyl singles to help promote the new Supersize album (which also features the legendary Dennis Alcapone): "Insane in the Brain" (featuring Horseman) b/w "Insane in the Brain Dub Mix," and "Christopher Columbus" (featuring Little Roy) b/w "Dry Your Tears" (featuring Winston Francis).

"Insane in the Brain" is a maddeningly good cover that betters Cypress Hill's 1993 hip hop original (which was featured in the excellent Warren Beatty liberal political comedy "Bullworth"). Horseman's toasting is fast and furious and top-notch (note the whinnying at the start of the track!). You'll have a hard time knocking this one out of your noggin. The dub is a somewhat reworked version of the A side instrumental track--nice to have, but not essential.

On the bitter and defiant "Christopher Columbus," Little Roy plaintively sings, "Why did he go" to the New World and deliver such misery (enslaving the native peoples he encountered and opening the door for the horrific, genocidal slave trade between Africa and the Americas) and wreak such havoc (plundering the indigenous people of their riches and their land's natural resources): "Him go away and him come again/bring Babylon on ya/Him go away and him come again/but Natty wouldn't give up!" Little Roy originally wrote and recorded this superb track in the 70s--and it can be found on a 1998 collection of his singles compiled by Pressure Sounds on Tafari Earth Uprising, which is definitely worth tracking down. (The companion piece to Little Roy's "Christopher Columbus" might be The Toasters' "History Book," a ska tune written from the point of view of the Old World invaders: "South Devon pirates, buccaneers on the Panama coast/With a cargo of potatoes and Indian princes, but what they want the most/Is to fill that hold with Spanish gold and make proud their boast/That England will smile on their piracy while they drink Elizabeth's toast...Arab traders ply their weapons on the Africa shore/And hapless victims bound in chains on the galleon floor/That their blood may be spilled in the land of Brazil/And they'll see their hopes forlorn/History will be cruel as it uses its tools/To shame the New World more.")

The gorgeous rocksteady track "Dry Your Tears" is an ace cover of "Dry Up Your Tears," originally sung by Bruce Ruffin (of The Techniques). Winston Francis' captivating voice will seal the deal if you desire to seduce someone who's on the rebound ("I know he's done you wrong/It's a good thing I came along/To dry up your tears")--it's powerful stuff.

The Duff Guide to Ska Grade for "Insane in the Brain" b/w "Insane in the Brain Dub Mix": B+

The Duff Guide to Ska Grade for "Christopher Columbus" b/w "Dry Your Tears": A

[These singles can be tracked down at Ernie B's Reggae.]

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(Please note that there is one shot in the fan video for "Insane in the Brain" that is NSFW.)