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Features Disc of the day
The Heptones
Night Food
(Mango/Island, 1976)
Before they hooked up with Lee Perry they cut this soulful, strings-laden slice of sex, sunshine and domestic violence.
By the early ’70s The Heptones were eight years old and had recorded with Coxsone Dodd, Joe Gibbs, Harry J, Niney The Observer and many others. Their leader, Leroy Sibbles had established his name as an esteemed session bassist and arranger for Studio One and the band had made a name for themselves at the forefront of a mellow, spacier, bass-led rock-steady sound. Then, in 1973 Sibbles emigrated to Canada to become a pop star. It was, he said “the worst thing that I ever did… I was trying my best to keep up as much as I could, but I lost touch with what was happening here in Jamaica." Despite cutting several decent albums for Pete Weston's Micron label Sibbles felt the need to reconnect with his Jamaican roots. Signing with Island, The Heptones recorded the now legendary Party Time album with Lee Perry. Released a year earlier however, and regularly overlooked, is this lazily mellow exercise in reggae reconnection. Sibbles’ decision to re-cover such Heptones classics as Fatty Fatty, Mama Say and Book of Rules, polishing the rock-steady with sweet Farfisa, soul guitar, sax and string arrangements, alienated many irate irie-ists. However, the weird mix of Sibbles’ slightly sinister echoed diction with this smooth production and lyrics like I’ve Got The Handle (“I’ve got the handle, baby / you’ve got the blade / So you don’t try to fight me girl / ’cos you’ll need first aid”), lends Night Food an eerie glow, where something wicked lurks behind the palm trees. The perfect summer barbeque CD, it also works pretty well when the shadows grow long on the lawn and the sky turns black and orange, or when heavy snow bounces the sodium glow of street lamps back into the night-time front room.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 11/02/2009
Further Listening
The Heptones – Party Time (Mango/Island, 1977)
John Martyn – No Little Boy (Mesa 1993)
Frank Black – Frank Black Francis (SpinART, 2004)
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where can i get a list of the credits for this album?
Posted by Jon at 2:39 PM GMT 03/08/2010 Report Abuse
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