Offmessage

I recently heard rumours that Black Star Liner (or perhaps a new incarnation of) are about to sign to EMI… In honour of that wonderful rumour today’s deleted masterpiece is Killam Connection from their first (and now deleted) album, Yemen Cutta Connection….

Water Ride by 16B. Just listen to that bass.

Tribute to King Tubby by Beats International (from Let Them Eat Bingo) shows what Norman Cook was about to become… His first outing after the Housemartins, and well before the ecstasy (and cheese) soaked Pianoman or the LSD fried Freakpower. Like his Fatboy Slim persona Beats International is a lesson in what you can do with a sampler and sense of humour. This has dated appallingly, but pretty much every sample in this particular track was booming across teenage dancefloors in the UK in some guise or other for most of the late 80s.

Today’s deleted masterpiece really should never have been deleted… Misty in Roots were (in fact, still are) one of the few UK roots reggae acts to really produce consistent conscious output - never swayed by possibilities of chart success into lovers rock or bland nonsense (yes, UB40, I’m talking to you!). In the late 70s they appeared at festivals and gigs alongside many punk acts and picked up a real following amongst the burgeoning crossover audience, as well as within the UK rastafarian community. In ‘79 they recorded their debut album, Live at the Counter Eurovision, and released it on their own label. Since then it’s had a single reissue on the Castle label and, despite being cited as one of the most important UK reggae albums of all time it’s never seen another release. Seriously this is perhaps the only live roots album ever worth owning. For your delectation Ghetto of the City from Live at the Counter Eurovision.

Looking through my referer logs (as sadly I do every now and again) I noticed that someone had hit this site looking for dr phibes and the house of wax equations mp3 downloads….

Now. What do you do about that? This is someone probably who is unlikely to ever find what he’s after (given that the band split up long ago and the label never really supported them in the first place). I’ve therefore decided to instate a new feature, that I will run irregularly and until I get bored… Namely: offmessage daily deleted masterpiece. Today, in honour of that searcher it’s Dr Phibes’ cover of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer. Future tracks will all be from albums currently unavailable on CD. If anyone can tell me that I’m doing a wrong thing, please do and I’ll stop. Probably.