Horseman – Dawn Of The Dread (Mr Bongo)

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Horseman

Don’t let the album cover fool you – this album is about as scary as Michael Jackson’s Thriller – which it arguably even owes a debt to – being essentially a meat and potatoes digidub/dancehall album covered in silly samples and goofy themes such as a zombie natty dread uprising. Hilarious.

It took a while for me to really sink into this album – initially I was disconcerted by some of it’s more dated stylistic elements, but the thing grew on me and I realized eventually that it offered one thing that is actually a valuable commodity – it consistently put me a good mood and made me want to order more drinks for my friends while swaying somewhat over-enthusiastically at the corner of the bar. Ie: this record brings the good times.

So let’s get into specifics. Horseman is a UK based artist with a background both as a drummer with impressive reggae credits under his belt but then who also brings serious game as an MC. He performs both duties on this album – although most tracks have electronic drum production – put together by Prince Fatty – a producer with a somewhat legendary pedigree having made jams as far back as the 1990s with people as diverse as Adrian Sherwood, Capleton, Lily Allen, Dub Syndicate and Blur.

So it’s hard to work out who is responsible for the somewhat weird stylistic direction of this record. The production might best be described as kind of flippant. Many of the tracks start off with a spoken vocal sample – often with English accents and immediately reminiscent of 1990’s early electronica and trip hop. And it plays to these weird conceptual elements with songs such as ‘Dawn of the Dead’ punctuated by spooky screams and sounds that sound ripped of old BBC sound effect records. Which may be kind of funny – but somehow comes across as daggy – and a bit dated.

As another example, on the track ‘Computer’ the initial sample is a vocoder line that riffs on the Beastie Boys ‘Intergalactic’. The song itself then goes on with great cheer to give a potted history of Computer games, paying ode to ‘…all my dancehall ravers – who used to play space invaders’. Which is, again, hilarious. But the sample? C’mon… Ripping B-boys was de-rigueur at the very beginning of the whole mash-up revolution in the late 2000s. But in 2014 – it’s starting to sound a little strained.

On the other hand the rhythms on the album are all passable and workmanlike digidub / dancehall. They hit the right frequencies and get your hips moving – but without ever surprising you or making you sit up and take notice of the production. It’s all passable… competent.

And they do better when they stick strictly to the cannon. For example: with ‘Take Charge’ – the slightly daggy oldy-timey-bugle-call sample at the head is attended to by an extremely pedestrian quasi-reggaeton rhythm, which does not instill confidence in what is to come – however 4 bars later- when they drop the prescribed digidub drums and a big rubbery baseline along with an irie vocal chorus – it all immediately comes together in a big bouncing, happy go lucky kind of way. It still aint nothing new – but it certainly gets your hips moving and motioning for the waiter to bring you another fluffy drink with little umbrellas in it.

Horseman’s vocals are really the feature of the album. A sonorous baritone – which at times can veer into somewhat eye-watering earnestness not entirely removed from Gary Clail but mostly nails it as a tight, clear, fluid, and punchy dancehall vocal auteur.

One thing that should be mentioned though is the relentless positivity of this record. While a lot of Dancehall is still steeped in both ‘Bad-man’ culture and an almost pathological gender-normativity – this album is just cheerfully goofy throughout – and as such is almost worth the price of admission for this alone.

There is definitely a place for this record in your collection – but you may need to set expectations a little bit – and it may just make you buy another round of drinks for your friends.

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