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Soundclash: U Brown with the Hit Sound |
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| Following in daddy U Roy's footsteps, the roots and cultural-oriented U Brown made a name for himself starting back in the mid-'70s, riding the tough roots rhythms of the day while paying his dues. As was customary, he kept a busy schedule of performing live on sound systems while also recording for every notable producer on the scene. Those included Ossie Hibbert, Yabby You, hitmaker Bunny Lee, Augustus Pablo, Carlton Patterson, Alvin Ranglin, and many more. But as the decade moved forward, U Brown started to do his own thing, increasingly taking control of the production work himself. This ultimately resulted in the birth of his own label, Hit Sound, which featured tunes from the singers and deejays who carried the swing in the dance. U Brown did keep recording for other producers in order to finance his own productions, but the Hit Sound output, though modest in size, includes some of the top works from that early '80s period in which the sound transitioned between roots and rub-a-dub. This new collection on the Roots Records label presents fifteen cuts from that phase, and aside from a few slight missteps, it's a well chosen selection. Choice tracks in the roots vein include "Never Give It Up" by Vincent Taylor, "Now I Know" by Al Campbell, Freddy McKay's take on John Holt's classic "What You Gonna Do" and the great "Don't Cuss Rasta" by Carlton Livingston. Killer tunes in the slower, rub-a-dub mood include "Steal Away Girl" from Sugar Minott and the murderous "You Come Running" by Steve Knight. Mr. Brown himself is of course represented with three songs of his own, including the addictive "Mr. Morgan" and "Blow Mr. Hornsman Blow" — the latter riding a propulsive version of the Take Five rhythm. "Archiebella Is A Samfie Sella," a version of Dennis Brown's Studio One classic "I've Got To Go," is further flushed out by the solid George Nook rendition following papa Brown's chat. The presence of the dub to U Brown's "Weather Balloon" just makes one yearn for the deejay piece, but it is oddly omitted here. There are a few weak moments, but they are kept to a minimum. “Ready For the Love” is firmly in the sappy lovers rock mode that quickly wears thin, and “You Got to Rock It” by Dickie Ranking is yet another example of a Jamaican deejay attempting the Sugar Hill Gang vocal technique that was so popular at the time, but it just seems to be missing some measure of authenticity. Despite an overlap of five songs with the U Brown compilation on the Tabou 1 label from about ten years ago, this release offers highly informative liner notes with details of each song and artist and ultimately gives renewed attention to a still under-celebrated deejay on CD.
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U Brown
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