"I was born and raised in the ghetto": these are the words that open Bronco Knowledge's new album. Behind this pseudonym hides one of the founding members of Knowledge, a little-known Jamaican band that came out of the Trenchtown ghetto at the turn of the 1970s, in the full fever of rockers, and was rehabilitated by Makasound in 2002 with a compilation ("Straight Outta Trenchtown") of the best tracks from their first two albums, "Hail Dread" and "Judgement". A multi-instrumentalist, Bronco (who wrote the powerful Sentry, among others) remains, with Michael Smith, the last surviving founding member of the combo: of the seven members the group has had, three were murdered...
Anyone with the good sense to pick up that compilation knows which side of the line Knowledge stood on: the kind of musicians for whom music is a formidable weapon; the kind of album whose message demands your ear. "More knowledge for the people", the new effort from Delroy Michael Fowlin, follows no other road.
Now a French resident after living in England, Bronco composed, arranged and produced this new album in France, accompanied by an army of musicians (including Kubix and Rico "Faya Horn" Gaultier). His message has lost none of its force over the years. We find the powerful breath that defined Knowledge, that educational militancy ((Bag a lie), You, Charity) steeped in Rasta orthodoxy (Armagedeon, Judgement).
"His music is as rich as his story," says the press release. It is true that the 13 tracks, driven at full tilt by a conquering drum, are stuffed with arrangements (horns, flutes, guitars, violin), to the point of sometimes drowning the melody. A "homemade" side that in no way alters this little roots rockers bomb, brimming with energy.
