Various Artists
Downbeat the Ruler:
Killer Instrumentals
from Studio One

Heartbeat 2006

These eighteen cuts are done in the style known as “rocksteady,” the evolutionary step in Jamaican music that came right before reggae. Although the reggae rhythm is present in this era, groups were still trying to emulate the American rhythm & blues sound, so these instrumentals feature funky horn fills or warbling organ melodies where the vocals would normally go. Checking in with several tunes are the Soul Vendors, who were for a long time the house band at Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s legendary Studio One. Their extended track “Death in the Arena” has a vaguely Latin feel to it, like Herb Alpert gone Rasta, but their “Darker Shade of Black,” instead of playing off “Whiter Shade of Pale” as you might expect, inexplicably appropriates the melody from the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood.” Jackie and the Invaders get loose with “Love Again” as extra percussion mixes with the drums while a toy sounding keyboard squeaks between Jackie’s shouts and squeals—undoubtedly there was plenty of smoke in the air before this track was laid down. They don’t carry a lot of name recognition, but the Soul Vendors and other multiple track contributors here like Sound Dimension and the Brentford Road All Stars are historically considered very important acts, because the grooves they came up with went on to be worked into dozens of reggae hit singles (a standard practice for Jamaican pop music). Downbeat the Ruler is the third volume in the Best of Studio One series.

—Kevin Wierzbicki