Bass Culture

Linton Kwesi Johnson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 1989)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mango
• ASIN: B000003QHM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,603 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Bass Culture

2. Street 66

3. Regga Fi Peach

4. Di Black Petty Booshwah

5. Inglan Is A Bitch

6. Loraine

7. Reggae Sounds

8. Two Sides of Silence

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Linton Kwesi Johnson's aptly titled sophomore Island release finds the poet typically terse in expression and taut in flow. With his poetic skills honed by experience, he wisely invites the listener to draw on his empathy and fill in his own antiromantic details in this sonic portrait of displaced black lives "inna foreign." Less a scream of rage and more a stew of simmering resentment, poems like "Inglan is a Bitch" extract humor from what is, after all, "noh funny." LKJ's savaging of "Di Black Petty Booshwah" is balanced by the love moment in "Loraine," a delicately wistful anecdote of missed opportunity. In "Reggae Sounds" and the title track, Bovell and LKJ celebrate riddim culture's "word plus sound equals power" formula, elucidating the links between core-of-the-earth bass lines and a people's grinding struggle. --Elena Oumano

Product Description

1980 album for politically charged reggae artist & dub poet. Includes the songs 'Street 66', 'Bass Culture' and 'Regga Fi Peach'. Universal. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, November 8, 2007

By 

Ian R. Bruce "Ian B" (Natick, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bass Culture (Audio CD)

Johnson is a "dub poet", so don't expect the lilting sweetness of much popular reggae - his songs come with a message, and his lyrics transcend the genre.
That said, this is a wonderful album filled with great songs that still sound fresh and relevant 25 years later. Buy it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sublime moments of dub poetry, February 8, 2002

By 

Mitch Bernstein (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bass Culture (Audio CD)

yeah, this is some nice *$#! with Linton mixing up a more mellow tone throughout the album.

its definitely not as militant as his first two discs, but that doesn't make it better/worse. As always, the lyrics/poems are top-nahtch... Street 66 has a couple of dreads fixing for a fight with the fuzz, and the final tune moves beyond the dub roots to embrace free jazz... definitely a winner.

If you already know LKJ, you'll love this disc...if you don't start with the anthology double disc which has all of these tracks + 2 other albums, dub cuts and great liner notes.

5.0 out of 5 stars SLOWEST,HEAVIEST,RAWEST,BEST reggae poetry I ever heard., December 12, 2010

By 

dom r. "dom dome" (canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bass Culture (Audio CD)

I only like my reggae very slow and heavy and Bass Culture and his other album Dread Beat An'Blood are the slowest, heaviest reggae albums I ever heard. And his sad-like and very oppressed slow poetry talking-vocals go perfectly well with the slow and very low bass frequencies,drumming and raw guitar rhythmns. It really can't get better or more hardcore then these 2 releases in reggae music although early Lee Scratch Perry with The Upsetters or early I Roy may be similar but Bass Culture and Dread Beat An'Blood sounds more sad,slow and heavy with the slowest type of vocals I ever heard. Really, over the many years I never found 2 other reggae albums as hardcore,slow,oppressed and heavy as these 2 masterpieces. In fact I am so much into the slow and heavy sounds I actually play these 2 cds at negative 12% pitch with maximun bass played on a 500 watt reciever to make them even sound more slower and heavier then they already are. NOW where are the other reggae artists who sound as heavy and slow or even heavier and slower than these 2 albums since 1978 and 1980? I don't know of any other, WHAT A SHAME. It seems these 2 reggae albums are quite ahead of their time as I still see no other releases from other reggae artists that can greatly compare to them even at 2010. Maby by year 2020?