You ready to hear about some #OPM (other people's music)? I'm going to try something different this week and add all of the music I'm covering in one thread, with the blog containing slightly longer versions of all of these linked at the end. LMK what you think of this format.
A pleasant track that twists up the mellower side of drum and bass with an early ‘10s French reggae hit (Stand High Patrol’s “The Big Tree”). The breaks here are almost decorative rather than propulsive, so it feels aimed more at lounging back with a blunt than frantic dancefloor detonation, but that’s fine by me – I like my drum and bass on the chilled-out side these days.
Fun fact: Lila Iké is from Christiana, in Manchester, Jamaica - the same parish from which my spouse's family hails. In fact their auntie lives in Christiana. It's a teeny tiny town up in the hills. Pretty fun to see someone from there making it big.
'The full history of Atlantic slavery is scarcely taught in the US or the UK, and so it’s not surprising that few people in either country know much about Tacky’s revolt. Until recently, however, I didn’t realise that Jamaicans don’t know this history much better. I had assumed that in a country with a Black majority population, which had emerged from one of the most brutal slave societies in human history, basic education would have offered a much better understanding of slavery and its legacies than the one I had received in the US. I was wrong.
'While no one in Jamaica denies the importance of slavery’s history, little is known about antislavery uprisings. I asked my friend Sutopa, a high school teacher in Massachusetts who grew up in Jamaica, what she had learned about slavery and slave revolt in primary school. She paused and pursed her lips, then shook her head and smiled ruefully: “Almost nothing.”'
I used to call them 'Canada's best known Reggae band'... @zorrita
I've met them all several times, in #Halifax & #Toronto.
I have their early cassettes signed! Sadly Jo-Jo has passed.