Feel Good All Over (Anthology 1970-1976) - Horace Andy

Advantages: Fantastic bassline. Original sounds. Good chioce of tracks.
Disadvantages: It's music designed for sound systems. Sound quality suffers.

...This album has such a good first track - it starts with a short melody, and then ploughs straight into the relentless, unforgiving bass that is the backbone of all dub reggae. The start to this album is so heavy and mystical, you’ll be restarting it a few times- trust me. Augustus Pablo was born Horace Swaby in 1954 and was one of the biggest players in the dub game. His music reflects his unique talent. He was the first to use the melodica as a serious instrument but also played keyboard, organ, piano, strings, clavinet and produced his own music. The album, released in the year 2000 is a compilation of previous material taken from albums such as ‘East Of The River Nile’ and ‘Original Rockers’. Fans of the era will recognise riddims like Real Rock, Satta Massa Gana, Java and that Horace Andy hit ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. All tracks... Read review

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Advantages: Original sound
Disadvantages: mostly downbeat

.... The instrumentation here is like what The Wailer's would have sounded like if they had become a function band at a beachside resort in Hawaii... and added a DJ. Horace Andy delivers the goods and we can all chill and feel the sea lapping at our feet. 5) Five Man Army In many ways this is simply a hip-hop track. It has all the elements and yet carries an entirely unique take on the genre. The vocals are rap with Horace Andy singing additional parts. It has a great bassline, well produced drums with a nice rimshot. This is one of my favourites - so simple yet so much in it. 6) Unfinished Synphony A much more uptemo track. A real epic and triumphant feel but the singing both in style and lyrics much more sad. Shara Nelson give her best performance on the album. This is a song that builds fantastically and never really goes anywhere but its ok because... Read review

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Advantages: A great collection of Deaf Schools musical history.
Disadvantages: Maybe better if it were a mix of their best work, not all of their work.

...I bought this album a few weeks ago after hearing some of Deaf Schools tracks on line. It is very different to what i thought it would be, the range of genres and quality of the music is huge. There are particularly dramatic differences in the music between the 1976 Album 2nd honey moon, and the 1978 album, English boys/working girls). The band seem to have a more experimental feel to them in the first album (featured at the beginning of this anthology) and the focus on all kinds of music, featuring blues, soul, punk, new wave, and rock music. I find that this section of the disc (tracks 1 - 12) are the best and most inspiring, their experimental attempts at a range of musical genres showing what the band were really like, without the media influence that followed over the next few years. By the end of the second disc in the anthology... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful