Description
Born in Brixton, a child of the Windrush Generation, Letts slippery and unorthodox career is somewhat hard to define, without taking a few detours around London, New York and Jamaica. He began his working life managing the dauntingly hip Acme Attractions on Chelseas Kings Road, where he made a mark with his attitude, dress and, especially, the pounding dub reggae that vibrated the shops walls. His first gig as a DJ at the short-lived Roxy in Neal Street, became mythical for turning a generation of punks on to reggae. They in turn hipped him to their DIY ethos resulting in his reinvention as a filmmaker. This led to a shed-load of music videos (Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Clash, Bob Marley) not to mention documentaries on the likes of Gil Scott-Heron, George Clinton and Sun Ra.
In the 80s, he was part of Mick Jones new venture, Big Audio Dynamite and his innovative use of samples were a core part of their sound. Listeners of his weekly 6 Music radio show are taken on a musical safari that moves seamlessly between time, space and genre. Its not called Culture Clash Radio for nothing. So this latest bulletin from Letts HQ is merely one angle of a multifaceted personality, his take on the JA tradition of the cover version.
The history of Caribbean music owes a debt to R&B as many of the early island releases were cover versions of US 45s. Skas breakthrough commercially, Millie Smalls My Boy Lollipop, was originally recorded by Barbie Gaye in 50s New York. Cover versions became quite a thing in Jamaica and Don, following in that tradition, has dug deep with a selection of interesting dubbed out covers including thirteen exclusives.
A disciple of sound system, raised on reggae n bass culture my go to sound was dub. Besides being spacious and sonically adventurous at the same time, its most appealing aspect was the space it left to put yourself in the mix underpinned by Jamaicas gift to the world – bass. But thats only half the story as the duality of my existence meant I was also checking what the Caucasian crew were up to not to mention the explosion of black music coming in from the States. Thats why this version excursion crosses time space and genre, from The Beach Boys to The Beatles, Nina Simone to Marvin Gaye, The Bee Gees to Kool & The Gang, The Clash to Joy Division and beyond. Youd think it impossible to draw a line between em but not in my world. Fortunately, the cover version has played an integral part in the evolution of Jamaican music and dub covers were just a natural extension.
The song choices are diverse, from French dubsters OBFs renditions of Sixteen Tons, the miners paean popularised by Tennessee Ernie Ford in the 1950s, to Ash Walkers refix of Omars Theres Nothing Like This and All I Do Is Think About You, immortalised by the ill-fated Tammi Terrell and preserved here by Quantic (the latter two both exclusives). Being a Rebel Dread compilation, theres a cover (by Wrongtom Meets The Rockers) of The Clashs Lost In The Supermarket while Dons exclusive, naturally, is a rendition of Big Audio Dynamites debut hit, E = MC2,produced by Gaudi.
Truth be told Ive wanted to work with the Late Night Tales crew from the get go. Were talking nearly two decades such was the allure of their musical aesthetic typified by curators like Nightmares on Wax, The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Trentemoller, Khruangbin and countless others. Now being as old as rock n roll (born in 56) and having nearly 20 years of Culture Clash Radio under my belt I figured I was tooled up to musically juggle with the best of em. But I wanted to carve out a space that was distinctly my own – something that reflected my musical journey and the culture clash thats made me the man I am today.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.