Released in tandem and sharing a title with the Tate Britain art museum’s exhibition that’s showing now through April 3, Life Between Islands is the latest deep-dive compilation from the Soul Jazz label. Smartly assembled on 3LP and 2CD, the set is subtitled Soundsystem Culture – Black Musical Expression in the UK 1973–2006, with its contents exploring the impact of Caribbean sound systems on a wide variety of Black British musical styles. While reggae is dominant in the scheme, spanning from mucho lovers rock to Rasta to dub to dancehall, there are hybridizations and dalliances with jazz, R&B, hip-hop, techno, and pop. It all coheres into an illuminating listen that’s due in stores on January 28.
The stylistic range heard on Life Between Islands plays no small part in the collection’s success, but more important is that the music, inspired by Caribbean innovations but created in the UK, evinces not a trace of the watered-down, even as a significant percentage of the selections flirt with the pop sphere. Also, numerous musicians included are of Caribbean ancestry, which helps, but there is a consistent current of sensitivity on display throughout the sequence. Ultimately, Life Between Islands is about inspired extensions and continued innovations rather than shallow co-opting.
It helps that all six sides contain at least one absolute gem, so let’s get right to it. Black Slate set the proceedings in motion with “Sticks Man,” a solid dose of roots reggae that was released as a single in 1976. Formed in London in ’72, Black Slate didn’t get a LP out until the cusp of the ’80s, but then they persisted in releasing a bunch and are apparently still extant. That they were chosen to back up visiting Jamaicans is not a bit surprising.
Lovers rock singer Dee Sharp is next with “Rising to the Top,” a 1983 single that’s relationship to then contemporary R&B stylings is unsurprising given that it’s a cover of “Risin’ to the Top,” which was released in ’82 by Keni Burke of the Chicago group The Five Stairsteps. Amid the electro squiggles and the outro saxophone solo, the reggae groove is refined and somewhat restrained, but it’s still felt, and that’s alright.
“Rising to the Top” is the compilation’s first instance of a British artist under the sway of Caribbean sound system culture simultaneously tapping the R&B and soul genres of the USA for source material. While Dee Sharp’s tune goes down easy, there are stronger examples of this creative triangle still in store, but before that, there’s DJ-rapper Asher Senator’s “One Bible” to consider, as it offers a deep plunge into dancehall-jungle electronica complete with window-rattling bass throb.
Side one ends with Cymande, one of Life Between Islands’ higher-profile inclusions and an enduring cult favorite with lovers of old school funkiness and by extension a cherished find for crate diggers. “Fug,” a doozy of a jam, is a true bouillabaisse of styles, including funk, jazz, soul and Caribbean rhythms as the hand drums deepen a joyous groove. Here’s absolute gem #1.
The duo Digital Mystikz’s opens side two with a serving of dubstep, a now long-established subgenre of techno that’s inclusion here is reinforced by the style’s very name. Like a lot of electronic body music, dubstep can hit hard but lack depth, but “Misty Winter” is an exception, with its looped horn line hovering in a manner that got me to thinking of Augustus Pablo. Hey, thanks.
Reliable info on Winston Curtis isn’t easy to come by in a pinch, though the singer was reportedly born in Jamaica and moved to England sometime prior to releasing a string of albums and singles beginning in the mid-’70s. Late in his career he cut a fantastic version of William DeVaughn’s ’70s soul killer “Be Thankful for What You’ve Got.” If Curtis has a calling card today, that song is it, and it’s Life Between Island’s absolute gem #2.
Trevor Hartley is another Jamaica-to-UK transplant, having recorded with Joe Gibbs circa the late ’70s in his home country before moving up north. His “It Must Be Love” is a nicely stripped-down slice of easygoing soulfulness, differing in tone with hardcore-breakbeat duo Shut Up and Dance’s “Java Bass,” which is pumped the fuck up and features The Ragga Twins, who return on side four.
Side three brings a double dose of lovers rock sweetness, opening and closing with a pair of gal vocal trios, Brown Sugar and Black Harmony, with the former’s “Black Pride” originally issued on 45 in 1977 (by the Lover’s Rock label, so you know it’s bona fide) and the latter’s “Don’t Let It Go to Your Head” (a Jean Carn cover), which dates from ’79. A little dub echo gives it the edge by a nose as absolute gem #3. Sandwiched in between is The Terrorist’s extended Drum and Bass-Jungle excursion “RK1,” rhythmically hyperactive (natch) and sporting a recurring KRS-One sample that intensifies the track’s ’90s thrust.
All three cuts on side four vie for the title of gem, with the level of quality so impressive that it’s tempting to call it a three-way tie and just be done with it. There’s the Dennis Bovell-produced deep dub of Pebbles’ “Positive Vibrations,” the impossibly infectious dancehall rap of The Ragga Twins’ “Ragga Trip,” and the discoed-out and early rap-tinged energies of the Funk Masters “Love Money.” Three heavy hitters, but upon extensive consideration it’s Pebbles who gets the nod for the gem of side four.
Interestingly, side five opens with the flipside of “Positive Vibration,” released on a split single by the Arawak label, Cosmic Idren’s horn-laden and dubbed-up instrumental “Compelled” another fine Dennis Bovell production. It’s followed by a track from Harry Beckett, which broadens the compilation’s scope a bit, as the Brit trumpeter and flugelhornist was a native of Barbados who was recently included on the Decca compilation Journeys in Modern Jazz: Britain.
“No Time for Hello” is the opening track from Beckett’s 1975 LP Joy Unlimited, an undeniably Fusion-kissed affair that benefits from the inclusion of Ray Russell on electric guitar. He dishes a wicked tangle of string burn that’s one of Life Between Islands’ finest moments, even as well-mannered aspects of Beckett’s approach lessen the track’s overall impact somewhat.
Side five is rounded out by the pairing of British-born singer Janet Kay with one of the most successful vocalists in Jamaican music history in Alton Ellis, though it bears noting that he was based in England after 1972. As its title should infer, “Still in Love” falls into the lovers rock category, but with Ellis’ assured presence delivering a welcome hint of rocksteady to the mix. It’s gem #5.
Entering the home stretch, side six opens with Sandra Reid’s version of “Ooh Boy” as written by Temptation and key Motown figure Norman Whitfield and originally recorded by Rose Royce. It’s a pleasant number that bookends well with the return of Brown Sugar, whose “I’m in Love With a Dreadlocks” closes out the final side, but in between sits Tabby Cat Kelly with “Don’t Call Us Immigrants,” another Bovell production (also released by Arawak) that’s serious message (and continued relevance) stands out a bit amid so much lovey-dovey stuff. It’s the set’s final gem.
But really, there isn’t a cut in Life Between Islands’ bunch that registers like a curational misjudgment. It’s yet another example of Soul Jazz Records winning combination of historical insight and high quality, often exceptional music, the label spreading knowledge with nary a trace of academic dryness.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
