‘Close your eyes. What do you hear? Do you hear your own heartbeat? Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet?’ ‘Old man, how is it that you hear these things?’ ‘Young man, how is it that you do not?’
Musical Kung Fu care of Clive Hunt at the Black Ark.
OG had been a UK-resident for five years by the time of this Brenton Wood cover, recorded here during the Soul Vendors 1967 tour. (One night Jimi Hendrix was the support.) A Procul Harem on the flip.
Scorcher. Ska at the threshold of rocksteady. Mittoo and Dizzy Moore do it to it.
Tearaway sufferers anthem, roaring out of the blocks in 1989. Piercing, unforgettable song-writing by the Tetrack spar — jam-packed with anecdote, observation and warning — over a sick, breakneck, apocalyptic rhythm, with an ace dub. A digi classic.
Moody, heavy lovers, detourned by FW’s full-throated falsetto. Ace.
Further excursions on Black Oney’s Jah Jah Send The Parson rhythm. Far I rides a stripped dub (originally for a Carib Gems LP); the straighter Oney return was first released in a tiny run of blanks.