Customer Reviews

Archives

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great album, killer rhythms by roots radics and mixing by the great scientist, jammy, and philip smart. Tappa Zukie's laid back toasting glides over the dubby beats as horn lines and organ pulses float by. Many solid tracks here, and a few decent ones, nothing you want to skip over. This is some of the best DJing I've ever heard

It was new wave singer Patti Smith that "discovered" Tappa Zukie for the western world and used him as support act for her own Patti Smith Group. This is the main reason, Tappa is so popular in punk and new wave circles of the 70's and 80's. Still his music was not really available for the big public. From the Archives is not a release of an older album, but rather a "best-of Tappa Zukie". Killer tracks like MPLA, one of my all time favorite riddims, Peace & Love and Tappa Roots are my favorite selections of this album. The three tracks I've mentioned are all school examples of Rockers from the 1970's.
Interesting to read in the information that comes along with the CD, is that Tappa states part of the reason why he stopped his career as a toaster (reggae rapper) was that he was becoming too "slack", as it is called in Jamaica. Slackness, or ...... style lyrics, is very popular especially in the toasting scene. You can unfortunately also hear some slack tracks on this album, of which Tappa now says he was doing it too much.
Fortunately he has made some real classic conscious tracks as well, some of which I have already mentioned. These are the tracks you really need to hear, because the riddims are so very hard! It is a shame that some slackness is on the CD, but it gives an impression of the double-ness in so many deejays and singers: they combine conscious lyrics with slack lyrics as if they are not ashamed over it.