Dread Beat An' Blood (CD)

A poet and chronicler of the social and political conditions of blacks in Britain during the late '70s (and into the '80s), Linton Kwesi Johnson was an originator of the "dub poetry" form popular among UK punk audiences at that time. The style involved the reciting of poems over a dub-inflected instrumental backdrop. Johnson's musical compatriot Dennis Bovell mixed a pair of dub albums from LKJ's early recordings, which are prime examples of early UK dub science.

• Category:  Music  »  Reggae  »  Roots Reggae
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: August 21, 2001
• Label: Frontline (USA)
• UPC: 724384992125
• WAPI (Tower ID): 105788489
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #54256 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #355 in Reggae (See Top 100 Reggae Bestsellers)
• #127 in Roots Reggae (See Top 100 Roots Reggae Bestsellers)

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Linton Kwesi Johnson went under the name "Poet & The Roots" for this release.

Personnel: Linton Kwesi Johnson (vocals, percussion); Lila Weathers (vocals); John Varnom (guitar); Dennis Bovell (keyboards, guitar); Desmond Craig (keyboards); Floydie Lawson (bass, guitar, background vocals); Vivian Weathers (bass, guitar, vocals); Winston "Crab" Curniffe, Jah Bunny (drums, percussion); Everald Forrest (percussion).

Producers: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Vivian Weathers.

Includes liner notes by Vivien Goldman.

This is the first Heartbeat label release.

The debut album by Linton Kwesi Johnson hits with the force of a fist. A Jamaican-born British immigrant, Johnson worked as a poet and political activist before deciding to set his rhymes and convictions to deep roots music, effectively inventing the style known as "dub poetry." DREAD BEAT AN' BLOOD directly addresses the racial and economic strife of Tory-ruled England in the late 1970s, particularly as it manifested in West Indian and other immigrant communities. With narratives that balance unflinching journalistic accounts of specific injustices ("It Dread Inna Inglan") with high-octane associative lyricism (the title track), Johnson embodies both the militant revolutionary and the visionary prophet.

DREAD BEAT's superb backing band weaves a dub-heavy web that is churning and ominous enough to suit the messages, and when the rhythms combine with Johnson's no-nonsense monotone, with its heavy cadences of British Jamaican patios, the effect is mesmerizing. Although many of the cuts cover issues that are time and site-specific ("Man Free" and "Five Nights of Bleeding" speak to the then-current political plight of individuals), the sheer intensity of Johnson's fervor makes the record timeless. DREAD BEAT is a statement that is impossible to ignore.

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