My knowledge of roots and dub is nowhere near as deep as my love for what I am familiar with. I can't explain why it made an immediate connection with me where (say) the blues never has. I'm as white as Navin Johnson in my musical DNA - Perry Como is my soul brother - so it's strange that a culture so alien to my own whitebread suburban seemed such a natural fit. I'm not claiming that even the finest set of white rasta dreads would make me welcome at a Kingstown chalice party, or that I found the whole Black Starliner thing particularly convincing, but the music ...
John Peel, inevitably, gets the credit. I heard Two Sevens Clash on his show, my first roots album, and after that Bob Marley sounded, well, a little thin. Chris Blackwell deserves all credit for introducing Jamaican music to the UK, but he left something behind - he couldn't pull out the roots, and they were hard to find. And I'd kind of moved on by the eighties, filing roots and dub as a geo-historical [is this a word? - Ed.] phenom. New reggae seemed to be burping with synthesisers, and even worse, drum machines.
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Today's deliverable is Ghetto Dub and Across The Red Sea ['82 - Ed.], both pretty fucking amazing. If you're unfamiliar with Bim, this is as good a place to start as any. Speaker-rattling, bowel-churning bass, space as deep as the Mariana Trench, heavenly vox, mind-warping FX, this is the real deal. Nice tunes, too!
(This post has generated the lowest page hits and least interest in IoF© history)
What do you do to lively up yourself in these dark days?
ReplyDeleteI've already given away eight pencils, two hoola dolls, and an ashtray, so here's Shermania#1!
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/wsWhFZGF4fB
Get out to go hear live music. Dancing on the graves, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Perry Como -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQzhJG9SJ8
By dark days I assume you mean the state of the world, because here in the south of England we are emerging from the darkest and wettest winter I can remember, today the sun is out, it’s lovely.
ReplyDeleteI try not to worry too much, however lately I was getting a bit ‘down’, the sun helps, music helps, friends help, and planting tomato and chilli seeds for the year is an investment for a future.
This is an edited version of a longer and much darker reply FT3. There’s not much more to say, I count my blessings.
I listen to music, read, and try (my best) not to doom scroll....somedays better than others
ReplyDeleteFurther to my edited bleak message above (sorry).
ReplyDeleteIn the very early eighties I was still mainly listening to heavy rock music and attending rock gigs, some at the local town hall. We started noticing posters for reggae gigs at the town hall, one had a local band supporting, we attended and pretty soon we were going to all the reggae gigs there, Black Roots, Aswad, Talisman, Misty In Roots and one that was extraordinary Eek a Mouse who I knew nothing about, but was nearly seven feet tall in a pink suit. My town didn’t have a big black population but these gigs were multiracial events and everyone had a great time - the guys with dreads at the back were smoking chillums with very fragrant tobaccos - I floated home nicely after those gigs.
I still listen to reggae music at home, but haven’t attended a reggae gig for quite a while.
Things are, as it happens, especially dark for me as my spouse is having difficulty with activities of daily living. Plus, my two dogs are both old, and showing it in different ways.
ReplyDeleteThat acknowledged, walking and biking when the weather is sufficiently "Californian," and talking to neighbors and friends is a wonderful boost when the blues build up. Music and reading are essentials, with some new and some old content (and thank you for both!). I also have the time usually to exercise and do yoga (gads, how Californian, again), sometimes with appropriate cannabinoids in my system.
It keeps me lively enough...
D in California
Hey FT3, seems there’s not a lot of interest in Ghetto Dub and Across The Red Sea, but even if just for me, can you supply a deliverable please, I don’t know Bims’ work.
ReplyDeleteWe had a discussion here a while ago about peculiar gig line ups, and continuing my heavy rock / reggae gig experience (above), my go-to guy who remembers these things told me last night that the reason we attended the first reggae gig at the Town Hall was because the Portsmouth NWOBHM band Truffle were supporting John Peel favourites Black Roots - Truffle were a band who didn’t ‘make it’ like the Iron Maidens did, but did release a great (if you like that sort of thing) single called Round Tower.
Link up there! (my second comment).
DeleteThis is wonderful stuff.
I thought it was my ears that needed testing, not my eyes. Thankee.
DeleteBim's a great vocalist. When he's lined up on the right song and production he can really deliver a journey. Also, sings foreground and background on a lot of random On-U Sound tracks. Give him a try...
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of his stuff in the crawl space, including guest appearances.
DeleteJust chanced on this site - how have I missed it for so long??? Thanks very much for the divine Bim, and for all the hard work that must go behind your eloquent posts...
ReplyDeleteIt's comments like yours that keep th' IoF© afloat. Thank you. And good to see some appreciation for Bim - these albums in particular are like floating in a sunlit sea.
ReplyDelete