Creation Rebel - Psychotic Junkanoo (1981)

Creation Rebel was one of Adrian Sherwood’s first endeavours as a producer. Originally the backing group for the late reggae great Prince Far-I, Creation Rebel worked with Sherwood from 1977-1980, recording some of the best reggae dub music this side of Lee Perry during the early English punk era. Languorous, funky, spacey, and totally intoxicating, it’s exciting to hear the awesome production/mixing talents of Sherwood in their early days. Similarly, the band (drummers Style Scott and Fish Clarke, bassist Clinton Jack, keyboardist Bigga Morrison, guitarist Crucial Tony, and percussionist Slicker) play with a grace, effortlessness, and power that most studio bands would kill to achieve. With the band’s talents so wonderfully used by Sherwood, this is without a doubt some of the best and most important non-rock music to be made in England in the late ’70s.

Creation Rebel's penultimate album, "Psychotic Junkanoo" might not be the most revolutionary collection in the band's catalog, but it is one of the most enjoyable. Indeed, if it demands any comparisons, it is period Black Uhuru that comes fastest to mind, with Crucial Tony's militant vocals riding on a bed of delicious harmonies and, on the opening "The Dope," a guest appearance from sax legend Deadly Headley. Anthem by anthem, the album takes shape. Reworking Jah Woosh's "Woodpecker Sound" rhythm, "Chatti Mouth" is a frenetic singsong toast laid over a haunted, effects-riven rhythm. With backing vocals from John Lydon, "Mother Don't Cry" echoes Black Uhuru's "Abortion" in its stark delivery, and "African Space" is propelled by so startlingly evocative a wah-wah guitar that one doesn't even realize it's an instrumental till it's over. Across the board, Adrian Sherwood's production and mix are as crisply clean as any "mainstream" roots album -- cleaner, in fact, as the rhythms float in a space all of their own, and the echoes simply ricochet off one another.

Anybody searching Sherwood's catalog for an easy point of entry would do well to start here, and everyone else can simply applaud "Psychotic Junkanoo" as the last truly great roots reggae album of the 1980s.


Tracklist:

A1 The Dope
A2 African Space
A3 Chatti Mouth
A4 Threat To Creation
B1 Highest Degree
B2 Mother Don't Cry
B3 Yuk Up
B4 Drum Talk

Creation Rebel - Psychotic Junkanoo (1981)

(256 kbps, cover art included)