The Heater’s On

Posted on October 21, 2013 by

heater1Reggae. The perfect soundtrack to a summer barbecue, conjuring images of tropical beaches, cracking open another can of Lilt, your Levi Roots inspired chicken sizzling aloft hot coals as you softly skank out of time. Yes, this is indeed the epitome of sunshine music.

However, like much of the world, Jamaica has a night time. This might sound like a painfully obvious observation but you’d never believe it when talking to the average man in the UK about the sunny disposition of reggae music; one record exec at Virgin even went as far as telling me they couldn’t market reggae out of season, which means they have around a 2 week window a year, given the brief heatwaves we’re afforded upon our tepid shores.

heater2And then there’s the reggae diaspora. Transplanted to temperate climes, the world of relocated reggae focused on it’s often bluesy, murkier themes, reflected succinctly by Manchester’s X-O-Dus who dubbed their style “rainy city reggae”. Yet, to claim this as a UK invention would be a fallacy; Jamaican artists have been documenting these apparent weather anomolies for decades, what with Bob Marley proclaiming “got to have kaya now, for the rain is falling” and Keith Hudson pleading “turn the heater on”.

heater3Testament to all this was Ian Curtis’ love for the latter Hudson track, which leads us to today’s selection – New Order’s skeletal rendering of Hudson’s late night lament, featuring ice cold synth strings and haunting echoes. Recorded during their 2nd Peel session in ’82 whilst still defining the NO sound after their transitional debut LP, Turn The Heater On was performed in tribute to the late Curtis who still seemed present on early New Order songs like Ceremony and Denial. Perhaps Turn The Heater On could be viewed as a final farewell to their former band mate before the dancier electronic shift of 1983′s Power Corruption & Lies.

Whatever their reasoning, and despite polarizing opinions, Peel saw fit to release it as the opening track on the 1st ever Peel Sessions release in ’86, marking another watershed moment in the Spiky Dread annals…

An early live performance of the Joy Division penned Ceremony…

And one of the darkest moments from Keith Hudson, claiming his crown as the dark prince of reggae…

(Wrongtom)

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Mari Curio

Posted on September 15, 2013 by

Mar1Well, dear readers, it has been a fair while. Old Father Time bent us over his withered knee to administer forty of the best, but we’re back at last for more punky reggae rambles.

I had the pleasure of reading Tom Newton (a.k.a. L. Ron Weasley)’s excellent Cardiacs piece on his new blog this morning in which he gives a shout out to us Skankers, and his kind words have helped provide the mental kick up the arse I needed to get scribbling again.

So – with tools sharpened and patient on the slab, let’s have a rummage…

mari2Today I’m offering up the decidedly peculiar debut from the late, great Mari Elliott, more commonly known as Poly Styrene of the voluminously fabulous X-ray Spex.

Singing in a hearty faux-Jamaican patois peppered with ‘lickle’s and the odd ‘cha’, the pre-punk Poly spins the tale of Silly Billy, the father of her unborn child who ungallantly refuses to acknowledge his – presumably rather sudden – parenthood. This takes the form of an appeal to the errant scoundrel’s mother to urge him to face his responsibilities, set to a rather soppy lovers rock lilt, though with some sprightly sax not too dissimilar to that of X-ray Spex themselves (NB no one else from the band is associated with this record).

mari3Though light years away from the searing critiques of modern life she penned for Spex, Silly Billy does have an element of social commentary, with the future Ms. Styrene’s somewhat chilling prediction for her newborn that ‘when ‘e get a lickle stronger, Billy ‘e stand no longer’ in the concluding couplet.

The b-side, What a Way, takes a rather scornful look at the author’s unceremonious ‘first time’, though this sadly lacks any of Silly Billy’s lopsided charm and sounds more akin to someone singing over Ceefax muzak at karaoke.

mari4

Production on the single was handled by Falcon Stuart, who went on to manage X-ray Spex and produced all of their releases as well as working with Adam and the Ants, Danielle Dax and even La Toya Jackson (!) before his death in 2002. Silly Billy seems to have been his only foray into reggae production, and despite the wonkiness of the track itself, he didn’t do such a bad job.

But enough yattering. Fire up the clips below and get skanking along with the sorely missed Poly’s prelude to a musical career fronting one of the greatest punk bands that ever roamed the earth. It’s a lickle weird and a lickle nice.

(Dread Zed)

And finally, simply because it’s just wonderful:

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Pray For Rain

Posted on July 3, 2013 by

rain1As our ‘borderline’ fest draws to a close and more overtly punky reggae shores heave once again into sight, it seems fitting that we herald today a gaggle of post-punks who sailed within a whisker of those fertile lands. Well, at least it feels as though they did…

Although The Raincoats, much like The Pop Group, seem prime candidates for a punky reggae crossover (both bands shared a deep connection with Caribbean and African music, not to mention drummers with The Slits) the reality is somewhat different.

rain2As The Slits embraced reggae (though very much on their own terms) The Raincoats applied it far more tentatively, often with some happy accidents along the way – the stuttering chorus of the track In Love, for example, was apparently the result of the band being initially unaware that tape delay could be added in the studio.

Reggae’s primary influence for The Raincoats seemed to be a concentration on what wasn’t there – the spaces in between sounds having just as much, if not more significance than the sounds themselves.

rainshapeTheir exquisite 1981 LP Odyshape reflects this approach most vibrantly – its sharp, introspective feminism underpinned by spartan yet deeply arresting polyrhythmic arrangements bearing aspects of jazz, reggae and African tribal music.

Yet despite the dubby bassline of Shouting Out Loud, the jazz-tainted one drop-ish beat of Baby Song and staggering skank of the album’s title track, The Raincoats never fully give themselves over to a reggae sound which is why they have so far fallen shy of a SBB feature.

rain3Sometimes however, it’s the subtle appropriators who make the most interesting noise, and few could ask for a more shining example than The Raincoats.

 

(Dread Zed)

A slightly more distant connection, but as the wonderful Harry Beckett collaborated with the ‘Coats on Moving, here’s a slice of roof-raising electro dub from his own Modern Sound of Harry Beckett LP:

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