RECKLESS BREED

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Review written by Benoit Georges on Monday, February 05th 2007 - 20 991 views Nocturne continues its series of reissues of the Wackies catalogue, the famous Bronx studio that reigned supreme over New York reggae from 1977 to 1985. The selection on this "Reckless Roots Rockers", rare and original dubs, amounts to no more and no less than an album made in 1977, impossible to find in its original version. The reissue is of good quality but without frills, far from the work of a Pressure Sound, for example: it contains the 10 tracks that were on the LP (that is 30 minutes of sound) and the original sleeve. No unreleased material or bonus tracks, still less a booklet... The content is nonetheless worth the detour. The riddims are first-generation, recorded at King Tubby's studio with the help of Soul Syndicate in 1974-75, before Lloyd "Wackie" Barnes left Jamaica to settle in the United States. He then founded the Wackies studio in the Bronx, whose best-known gems were the opuses by Horace Andy ("Dancehall style" or "Exclusively") and Wayne Jarrett ("Bubble up"). The sound on offer here is much earlier and often more obscure. The engineers, Jah Upton, Prince Douglas and Wackie himself, mixed the riddims of 10 singles released on the Senrab label (Barnes backwards), one of Bullwackie's many imprints. The one exception, and a major one, is a superb single by Don Carlos (credited as Jah Carlos), Prepare Jah man, which would later serve as the backing for Wayne Jarrett's Brimstone and fire. Among the essentials are Roots rockers, the first version of the riddim of Jah don't like that by the Chosen Brothers (Wayne Jarrett and Leroy Sibbles, as it happens), Reckless roots, the dub of Joe Morgan's Basement session, and Creation, the dub version of Recession by in-house singer John Clarke; the instrumental versions take on their full dimension under the touch of the engineers who helped forge the Wackies sound. One might nevertheless regret that this release remains a strict reissue, running the risk of seeming anecdotal. It could have gained in interest by presenting, for example, the singles alongside their dub versions, or at least a detailed booklet. Good music flowed freely at Wackies; let us not forget to give it the packaging it deserves.

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