2020s 178 Items

Percussionist Pecker came to Jamaica in 1980 to reissue the Japanese DUB original work he created with The Wailers and Sly & Robbie!

Pecker Power, Japan's first dub album, was produced in 1980 by Pecker, a percussionist who created Japan's first salsa band, Orquesta del Sol. This stateless dub sound was born from sessions with The Wailers at Bob Marley's studio ``tuff Gong'' and sessions with Sly and Robbie at ``channel One'' and was titled ``21st Century Dub.'' A strange masterpiece that was distributed in the United States in 1987 and has since become known all over the world.

■Japanese dub originator Dub, which originated in Jamaica, was adopted by British rock bands such as The Clash and the Rolling Stones in 1980. Pecker produced this dub work around the same time. By the way, Mute Beat, known as Japan's first dub band, started their activities in 1982. This shows how advanced this work is.

■Authentic dub session This work is based on a session with The Wailers at the ``tuff Gong'' studio and a session with Sly & Robbie at the ``channel One'' studio. The former includes the rhythm section of the Barrett brothers from Aston and Carlton, Marcia Griffiths from I-3, Judy Mowat, and other fierce performers who supported Bob Marley's golden age. The latter was gaining momentum and popularity at the time, featuring an ironclad rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, who were still in their 20s, and Augustus Pablo on piano. Additionally, Rico Rodriguez, the trombonist from The Specials, flew in from Berlin for both sessions. The two teams, who viewed each other as rivals at the time, competed with their high-potential performances, resulting in a miraculous recording that brought out their best performance.

■Started as a sequel to Katsumi Watanabe's album "kylyn" Initially, the plan was to record in New York as the second part of the ``kylyn'' session, but the core members, Kazumi Watanabe and Ryuichi Sakamoto, became busy, so the plan was changed to Jamaica recording as Pecker's solo work. In addition to Pecker, Minako Yoshida and Naoya Matsuoka will be traveling to Jamaica. The legendary session mentioned above was held. After returning to Japan, Kenji Omura's guitar was overdubbed at Columbia Studios.

■World-recognized DUB from Tokyo The album ``Pecker Power'' (released on July 25, 1980) and the 10-inch album ``Instant Rasta'' (released on September 25, 1980) that were completed in this way received high praise in some quarters, but their content was timeless. Perhaps because we were too proactive, it did not lead to sales. However, in 1987, a cassette was released under the title ``21st Century Dub'' by the New York label ``roir'', and the unique, stateless DUB received high praise. It was later released on CD in 1999 and became known to DUB enthusiasts around the world.

■Recording location Channel ONE session (Sly & Robbie): Track.A1, A3, B2, B4 Tuff Gong session (The Wailers): Track. A5, B1, B3 Tokyo session：Track. A2, A4

■Musicians Pecker, Minako Yoshida, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Aston Barrett, Carlton Barrett, Augustus Pablo, Rico Rodriguez, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowat, Kenji Omura

Drum-machine soul, funk, disco and boogie from Buffalo, NY. Rare 7" singles and previously unreleased tracks presented as a complete album. In the early 70s, Jessie Key and Sylvester Cleary - two passionate idealists living in Buffalo, New York - formed a close friendship based on a mutual mission to better their city. The Attica State Prison Riot of 1971 was a burning memory, and the Arthur vs. Nyquist lawsuit - brought against the City of Buffalo for creating and maintaining a racially segregated school system - was on the docket. Key was once a cotton-laborer in Mississippi, who journeyed north for school where he met his kindred spirit, Cleary. The two struck up an intense friendship, bought a drum machine and recorded their first 45, "A Man," a paean to self-actualization and Black American empowerment, which they custom pressed and issued privately. Dozens of recordings followed over a decade long span, issued on local labels and warehoused on cassette tapes. Perennial optimists, Key & Cleary tried any - perhaps every! - path they could demarcate in hopes of forwarding their agenda of self-effected, positive change. They formed Buffalo’s first minority-owned construction company, opened a health food restaurant in a building previously occupied by a fast food chain, and even concocted a candy bar called "The Buffalo Treat," which they manufactured and sold locally. Eventually they started their own label, Buffalo’s Reflection. On it they released their masterpiece, "What It Takes To Live," a sought-after disco and Northern Soul classic, which previously appeared on Now-Again”s Soul Cal anthology. This album collates the breadth of Key & Cleary’s recordings from 1970 until the mid 1980s, both with songs issued on rare 7" singles and previously unreleased. It presents a conjoined musical vision and tells the story of a duo years ahead of their time, both musically and culturally. Love Is The Way was their ethos - their goal was to enlighten humanity and to bend history in a more loving direction through communion.