ghetto priest - vulture culture
ahhhh - the return of on-u sound productions. from the 3rd little axe release to chainstore massacre a label compilation to this, things do indeed look rosy once again. back in the height of on-u (86 - 96) i loved the gary clail albums. not for gary's obviously limited vocal lyrical talents but cos adrian sherwood basically built tracks around gary's rants that showcased the whole range of on-u styles, and, in many respects this album follows in that most glorious of traditions.
there are old school sweet vocal skanking classics ('dungeon'), dancehall raga gruffness ('dry bone' which i am sure digs up some old barmy army crowd samples), newsreader commentary to an african headcharge style beat 'strange cargo', and one seriously fucked up bass noise terror monster a la mark stewarts paranoid grooves 'master of deception' which appears to have mr mark stewart involved and so explains why this track once again will damage speakers .. you have been warned.
over the 12 massive sounding tracks we find out just why ghetto priest has been an involved member of the on-u sound family .. he has been on the fringes for quite a while according to my information (african headcharge) - luckily for us though adrian sherwood has propelled the priest to the fore of the on-u church so we can all rejoice in the dubbed up excess, and adding a stellar backing cast which includes sly/robbie, keith leblanc, style scott, skip macdonald, bubblers, and new comer ri ra (another new on-u solo artist) it really does feel that we have the on-u family back together
.. damn right too, if the priest will pardon the bad language.