Korean Job Discussion Forums

JeJuJitsu · Joined: 11 Sep 2005 Location: McDonald's

Smoked a spliff with Perry in Budapest many years ago...ah, the days...

anyway, even though he makes like 5 albums a year, my essential Lee Perry to a newbie would be something like:

Time Boom - De Devil Dead (w/ Dub Syndicate)
SuperApe (w/ The Upsetters & Greatest album cover of all time)

From The Secret Laboratory (lotsa old schoolers don't like this one, but i think it's mostly brilliant)
Kung Fu Meets The Dragon
Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread
Black Ark in Dub

I prefer the heavy dub though, so I could listen to the bass lines and Perry screeetching all day...whereas lots of his 80's stuff is rather normal (for scratch) raggae fare...

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

No, actually Korea is pretty far behind. Generally reggae and ska are connected with the growth of punk music, but in Korea it's been largely ignored. I think if you're just talking about stoner dub reggae, it's a bit rarer.

Japan - Yeah, obviously. They have everything there.

China - There are just more people in touch with reggae and ska there. The two main skinhead bands in Beijing are both very traditionally influenced. I'd say they're not very far ahead of us, but Beijing's underground scene is the fastest growing on the continent. They've had two ska bands, both of them filled with foreigners.

Malaysia - They have a huge skinhead/ska/rocksteady/reggae scene. The best recommendation is Gerhana Ska Cinta. Indonesia and Singapore are pretty similar too.

The Philippines - I don't know anything about it there either but every Filipino person I talk to generally knows more than just the basics of reggae.

Whatever they have for reggae and ska in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Nepal, or Vietnam, I don't really know.

My personal taste is the older stuff, skinhead reggae done by the likes of Derrick Morgan and Clancy Eccles and so on.

Satori · Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: Above it all

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Satori · Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: Above it all

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Reggae is a big thing with a large catalogue. I like older reggae and you like newer reggae. There is a strong connection between ska and reggae because ska is the roots of reggae.

Ska-punk is neither ska nor punk. Bands like Goldfinger and No Doubt and Sublime and Reel Big Fish were a serious aberration; on that we agree. Madness and the Specials were two-tone, not ska-punk. What I'm talking about is music like the Slackers, Hepcat, and the Aggrolites. They play music that respects the roots of ska and reggae.

Roots reggae was the era after skinhead reggae. If you look at all the old skinhead reggae bands, a lot of them grew their hair out into dreadlocks in the early '70s and started getting into Rastafarianism and playing roots. One of my favourites is Junior Byles, who sang in the Versatiles in the late '60s and then later Rasta-ised. Skinhead reggae is definitely less Jamaica-focused than roots reggae. But it did come first, roughly between 1967 and 1971. And for the most part it was the same group of singers, just most of them matured a bit for roots reggae. Both terms were applied after the fact.

Satori · Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: Above it all

I`ll try some of those links, but not all of them thanks. And I`m well aware that the core wailers were first playing ska and blue beat.

Of course ska came before reggae, it is the roots. But don`t call ska reggae. A major major shift happened in the music, and they are quite distinct forms. Reggae slowed down, got the distinctive "one drop" kick drum pattern, and the expanded basslines with lots of pauses. It is this "space" in the music of reggae that makes it so much more sophisticated and rhythmically complex for me. Reggae got soul. Cool

Reggae has the "skank" that I need. Ska to me sounds musically teenaged, hyper, and unsohpisticated. And I don`t like the culture surrounding it either. Reggae has a much more complex rhythmic interplay between the drums, bass, and guitar. It`s more europhic, conscious, and pot oriented. UK ska is more associated with whizz, alcohol, and has undertones of violence, and low culture. Roots reggae is conscious political "uplift" music, and is just more musically absorbing to me.

My pick for you, though I can`t link an mp3, is a New Zealand group called "Fat Freddies Drop" whose albumn "Based on a true story" is a vibrant blend of roots reggae, soul, jazz, funk, and RnB, both modern and trad at the same time. Very very classy and understated.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I'll give a look for that band, thanks.

What I like in early reggae and ska is that hooligan aspect, the drinking and singing along with your friends atmosphere. More important is a stable dance beat. You can't dance to Augustus Pablo. Also, lyrics about going back to Africa and King Selassie don't really do it for me as much as "The Ten Commandments from the Devil." I also don't like a lot of bluebeat because it is unsophisticated and sounds more like early R&B.

It annoys me when people say that there is no link between ska and reggae. I think the name of ska was smeared too much by ska-punk. Too many people just assume reggae is black and ska is white. Race is important only in roots reggae. You said it: the only difference between ska and reggae is that little bit of the rhythm. I have to agree with you that the music is less mature--definitely--but I like that about it.

I also enjoy the really complex stuff like that Mikey Dread song I threw up there; don't skip that one.