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.)

Jamaica Farewell

There is a fascinating article in the Jamaica Observer ("J'can Lock-Out - Foreigners Dominating Jamaican Music Form") lamenting how dub and ska music have been abandoned in the land of their birth, while these genres have taken root and are flourishing (to some degree) in Europe and the U.S. (and I would add Japan and Latin America). The writer refers to the dominance of non-Jamaican acts on the iTunes reggae charts as proof of this development.

Since we're concerned with all things ska at The Duff Guide to Ska, here's a pertinent passage from the article:

Dub music is one form which Jamaica has all but forgotten. Stakeholders have also lamented on the absence of Jamaican ska bands to profit and influence modern ska. There are currently hundreds of ska bands internationally but the musical form is dormant in the land of its birth. Up to Saturday ska music was charting in one territory on iTunes reggae charts via a compilation album entitled Ska Mania. Ska, however, is more popular in the rock than reggae categories.

They do note, however, that Jamaica's Jolly Boys have staged an improbable comeback for mento:

Surprisingly, mento a local genre which waned in popularity in the '50s received some international acclaim last month when The Jolly Boys, a mento band (produced and managed by Geejam based in Portland Jamaica), beat all living reggae and dancehall artistes to top the international reggae charts. They are supporting the album with a prolific tour across Asia, Europe and the US.

The Jamaican government is aware of the decline in this aspect of their cultural heritage (and what is arguably Jamaica's greatest export) and is taking action to bolster this musical form:

In February, minister of culture, Olivia Babsy Grange, asserted that Jamaica was losing a grip on Reggae. She called for creative initiatives which emphasise training for the development of a stronger infrastructure to support the music and to recognise the new paradigms that have emerged with the convergence of popular culture and digital technology.

Back in the 90s, I remember either reading or talking with someone about how in Jamaica ska was considered an old-fashioned musical form--something kids' grandparents had listened/danced to when they themselves were teens (and apart from the original 60s ska artists playing out for 2 Tone and 3rd wave ska audiences, to my knowledge, no new Jamaican ska acts had formed since the genre evolved into rocksteady and reggae). So, certainly ska's uncool factor in the minds of Jamaica's youth will be something that any new practitioners there will have to overcome when attempting to revive the genre.

Ska Flames Added to the 2011 London International Ska Festival Line-up!

London Calling: Sean Flowerdew has just announced that The Ska Flames are the latest addition to the 2011 London International Ska Festival line-up. This premier Japanese traditional ska outfit is probably best known in Europe and the U.S. for their fantastic debut Ska Fever album, which Gaz Mayall produced and released on his label in 1989...

NYC Ska Gig Alert: Big D & The Kids Table, King Django Septet, The Drastics, Across the Aisle TONIGHT!

Saturday, November 6, 2010
Brooklyn, NY
The Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tel: (347) 529-6696

VERSION CITY PARTY
11:00pm - Big D & The Kids Table (from Boston)
10:00pm - King Django Septet (NYC via NJ)
9:00pm - The Drastics (from Chicago)
8:00pm - Across the Aisle (NYC)

$12 in Advance, $14 day of show. ALL AGES.

MOJO Does UB40's Signing Off and New Lee "Scratch" Perry Book

It's once again time for The Duff Guide to Ska's wrap-up of ska and reggae coverage in the latest issue of MOJO Magazine. The December 2010 issue contains a very positive four-star review of Jeremy Collingwood's book "Lee 'Scratch' Perry: Kiss Me Neck," which reviewer/reggae expert Dave Katz dubs "an indispensable guide to the iconoclastic producer's recorded output." There are few artists whose catalogue is as extensive and bewildering as Perry's, so this is a welcome development. (It should be noted that Collingwood provided the excellent liner notes for the recent Sound System Scratch dubplate comp from Pressure Sounds.)

Also, the 30th anniversary collector's edition of UB40's seminal debut, Signing Off, receives four stars from MOJO. While the band is now more famous for its reggae covers, back in 1980 UB40 was revolutionary (in every sense of that word). MOJO reviewer Ian Harrison sets the scene: "they wore Fred Perrys and played strident, punky-attitude reggae slamming the Tories; truly, they were the 2 Tone band that never was. Signing Off--a reference to the old dole claim form that provided their name and debut's sleeve--has retained much of its fire, with songs railing at capitalist inhumanity, racism and the legacy of colonialism..." (Catch some videos I shot of UB40 performing several cuts from Signing Off at their recent NYC gig here.)

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While we're on the topic of UB40's Signing Off, check out the excellent review of the album by Real Gone.

Duff Review: Mr. Symarip - The Skinheads Dem a Come

Jump Up Records (US) 2008
Liquidator Music (Spain) 2006
CD/Double LP

Editor's note: Since Roy Ellis recently played several high profile gigs in the U.S., we thought it might be good to give a review to his most recent release (even if it is a few years old)...

While Mr. Symarip (AKA Roy Ellis) will forever be associated with his stellar, ultra-popular skinhead reggae group Symarip, it comes as a bit of shock to discover that The Skinheads Dem a Come is a flat-out Skatalites-style vintage ska album--there's not a lick of early/"dirty" reggae to be found here. (Indeed, one album that I'm immediately reminded of in terms of its sound and quality is Lord Tanamo's incredible collaboration with Dr. Ring Ding and the Senior Allstars, Best Place in the World.) Skinhead reggae fans pining for the sounds of '69 might be disappointed by this news, but they should definitely not despair. Mr. Symarip is in top form on The Skinheads Dem a Come, performing fourteen terrific original ska tunes, all backed by spot-on session men.

Dubbed the "Pied Piper of skinheads" by a certain well-known ska insider who has witnessed the extraordinary loyalty exhibited by Roy Ellis' fans (on the red album cover, the skins are not trying to beat him, but chasing him down to sign their copies of Skinhead Moonstomp--they're showing him the love!), The Skinheads Dem a Come largely celebrates and/or name checks reggae skinhead style and culture. For proof, check out songs like "Wang Yu," which mines the skinhead reggae obsession with martial arts (championed vigorously by Lee "Scratch" Perry back in the day) by envisioning Buddhist skinheads in China ("Some people says you find skinheads in the east of Nepal/But I man saw skinheads in the Shaolin Temple/Wang Yu, your boss is asking you/Can you do the kung-fu, Wang Yu?"); the title track ("With the Dr. Marten boots a-stomp the floor a bum bum/The found out I'm the boss, they say forever I'll last/So them rush the stage, and they started to dance/Ska music starts to play, them jump up and prance"); and the sartorially-focused follow-up to "Skinhead Moonstomp," "The Skinheads Them Crash the Moon" ("I've my shirts, my Ben Sherman shirts/When we storm into the rocket/Put on them shirt we gonna stomp all over the moon").

The Skinheads Dem a Come also features a number of sweet love songs for that special someone, including the seductive rocksteady of "Come on and Dance with Me," "My Sugar Dumpline," and the sultry "My Caravan Queen." The broken-hearted can commiserate with "I'm Gonna Knock, I'm Gonna Knock" ("Do you remember, night in September/The stars was shining for me and you/And now you tell me to go away/"I think I never see another day"), the swinging, jaunty "I Don't Want You, I Don't Need You Anymore," and Ellis' versioning of the traditional African American spiritual "Amen Amen," which becomes "Say When, Say When" ("Say when we have this fuss and fight/Say when I'm never home at night/Say when I didn't hold you tight...I give you everything you need in life/And now you want to tell me I should pay the price...").

One of the more unusual tracks is the wonderfully confessional "I was Busted" that continues the Prince Buster "Judge Dread"-type tales of running afoul of the law: "I was busted in the bar last night/I was busted because I started a fight...a hungry man is an angry man/And a flirty woman give jealous man/That's why I was busted, busted last night"). The song opens with some great spoken dialogue between the singer and a bobby ("But wea di babylon a hold me up? I didn't do nothing man! Just get your black ass up against the wall..."). There is also an urgent, driving plea for peace in "I'm Talking About Love," and what is perhaps the greatest tune on the record: the joyfully optimistic "Take It As It Comes" ("You don't need to worry about money/as long as that life is happy and funny"). The album concludes with the very Potato 5-ish "Eastern Star" instrumental.

The ska world has been particularly fortunate to have had so many first generation Jamaican artists composing superb new music and performing well into their later years--someone's got to show the kids how it's done properly, right? Mr. Symarip continues to school us all with his musical mastery.

The Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A

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Check out videos for "I Was Busted,""Eastern Star," and "Wang Yu" below:

Free Four-track Download from Madness!

To help promote their upcoming "Do Not Adjust Your Nut" tour of the UK, Madness are offering a FREE download of four songs recorded during last year's winter tour (the cuts are "NW5," "It Must Be Love," "House Of Fun," and "Night Boat To Cairo"). Click here to make it all happen!

Is it Christmas already and I forgot to buy my friends and family their gifts?

Review of "Ska with Laurel" Exhibition in Leicester

There's a short but very positive review of the "Ska with Laurel" exhibition at the New Walk Museum in Leicester (UK) from the Socialist Worker Online. Not surprisingly, the reviewer was particularly struck by Laurel's lyrical take on social and economic injustice (most likely in songs like "Landlords & Tenants," "Everybody Suffering," "Freedom," "Suffering Still," "People of the World Unite," "Stop the War in Vietnam"--but probably not "Pussy Price Gone Up").

It's also interesting to note that there is a lot of public programming related to this exhibition sponsored by the museum, including interactive art projects, musical performances (by Kingsize, El Pussycat, and Red Stripe), and more.

New Music from Rico, Dick Cuthell, and Jerry Dammers?

According to this extraordinary thread on the Specials Fan Site bulletin board, before a performance by Rico Rodriguez and his frequent musical partner Dick Cuthell at Gaz's Rockin' Blues last Friday (10/19/10), Jerry Dammers (who was in the crowd--see the photo on the board) had asked Gaz to play a new track that was a collaboration between JD, Rico, and Dick Cuthell (an "honorary" member of The Specials--check the credits on just about any Specials release and you'll find that he either played brass on it and/or helped produce it; he also worked with the Potato 5 and The Deltones amongst many others)! Apparently, the new tune was well-received by the crowd and was, according to the poster, "the most radio friendly thing Jerry's been involved with for a couple of decades."

Can't wait to hear it! And can I just mention how jealous I am of the ska fans in and about London who can attend gigs like this at Gaz's?

Duff Gig Review: The Toasters Live at B.B. King's (10/29/10)

I've been doing a lot of freelance work from my light-deprived apartment lately (and feeling like how Jerry Dammers depicted a depressed and withdrawn Terry Hall in "Housebound"--a record I've been playing a lot lately), so it was good to have the excuse to go be among other people at The Toasters' terrific gig at B.B. King's in Manhattan.

Since this was an unusually early show (for NYC at least), I missed the first two acts (Royal City Riot and Hub City Stompers), as both of my kids had friends over after school. I did make it in time to see The Pietasters (who played a surprising number of songs from their somewhat fractious Moon Records days, like "Biblical Sense" and "Girl Take it Easy" off Oolooloo). However, as their set went on, the sound levels were pushed to ridiculously high levels, so much to the point that it was hard to distinguish any melodies or what was being sung. (I guess the band wanted it that way, as everything was set to more discernible levels by the time The Toasters hit the stage). Despite all that, the kids on the dance floor seemed more than happy with The Pietasters' set.

Having seen several different iterations of The Toasters hit the US shores over the past several years, I can safely say that this batch of musicians that Buck had backing him for this tour were among the strongest I've witnessed--they were really smokin'! (Thad Merritt from Westbound Train was on bass; Logan Labarbera was on t-bone; Anant Pradhan from Void Union blew sax; Jesse Hayes, also from Void Union, was on drums--and ex-Toaster Dave Barry played keys and Westbound Train singer Obi Fernandez accompanied Buck on "Pirate Radio" and "Matt Davis.")

The set opened with a killer new tune, "House of Soul" (which, according to Buck, will be released as a 7" single at some point down the line; sorry that I didn't capture it on video for you), and then The Toasters ran through a long string of super-charged versions of their hit songs, touching on most of the albums from their deep catalogue. I may have gone a bit overboard with videotaping most of their set, but The Toasters were so damn good this night that I wanted to document it for posterity...