Maffi 7"-missile number four is ready to hit, this time with Mr. Hopeton Lindo on the mic,
the man who's responsible for one of the 80s-digital-alltime classics ("Territory"), who
co-wrote Shabba Ranks' "Mr. Loverman" - and who blows the most deadly whistle south
of Shinehead.
"Rude Boy" epically unfolds over an ultra-spooky Maffi riddim, creating a haunting atmosphere
unheard on a floor before. Hopeton is driving the messagge home like a bullet between
ghostly
synths, brutal snares and a hypnotic low end loop. Play this one out at the windswept
street
corners of your inner city concrete jungles.
When a new type of electronic (and inexpensive) music gear revolutionarized the sound
of Reggae and Dub forever in the mid-1980s a wave of great releases was the result on
legendary labels like Firehouse, Unity, Jammy$, Xterminator, etc. The raw and straight-
forward charme of these minimal riddims, pulled off with nothing but the cheapest Casio
and SynDrum models, is still unmatched; drawing it's strangely timeless qualities from a
closeness of sound aesthetics one might more associate with early Electro or Techno
records than classic Roots Reggae. While the original Jamaican vibe remained all over the
place the riddims were shot to a new futuristic dimension of sound.
The special mark of innocent roughness was replaced in the early 1990s by a more clean,
soft - and boring - synthsizer sound, rather striving to emulate a 1970s King Tubby with
a FM synth than continuing to explore the musical future of Reggae. Thus the Computarized
era ended as sudden as it had started, and remained a relavitely small niche genre, mostly
for avid collectors, ever since. The sound came back to the wider attention of a bigger
audience with the Watch How The People Dancing comp on Honest Jon's only recently.
Jahtari is running an ongoing 7"-series well in that very spirit of the mid-80ies
computarized
Reggae vibe: dirty Casio basslines, smashing drum machines and simple
melody hooks with
that funny preset sounds of old. Expect a line of dynamite floor killahs,
starring one top vocalist
after the next, produced by the MAFFI crew outta Copenhagen,
Denmark, and finished off for
maximum niceness by disrupt.
JTR 05 
