Reggae Rarities? Reggae? Big Boss Man? What – Latin-boogaloo, mod-funk, mod-fuzz grooving Big Boss Man? Yes! Didn’t you catch 0069, the appropriately ‘boss’ reggae closer to last BBM LP Bossin’ Around comin’ on like a late sixties Lee Perry cut for Trojan Records? It’s really not that surprising, given that BBM’s Nass & Trev were the rhythm section for 80s Two Tone late-comers The Loafers, once played in a backing band for Laurel Aitken and were the original incarnation of Prince Fatty, er – except we don’t talk about that last bit. Oh alright then, the original incarnation of Prince Fatty – yes, that Prince Fatty – was BBM’s Nass and Trev (again) who came up with the name and concept and composed and played the first album’s-worth of material. And then came the bit we really don’t talk about. Anyway, enough about that – we don’t talk about it.
Back in Big Boss Man-land however, so the story goes, just prior to the 2001 release of the first BBM LP Humanize on Blow Up Records (for which a decision was made to focus exclusively on their bongo/ Hammond sound), the 1998 Big Boss Man ‘reggae sessions’ took place. This was at the band’s lo-fi Ramshackle Studios – studios so ramshackle, in fact, that the master tapes were subsequently lost. Story became legend, legend (the evidence having disappeared) passed into myth and even myth had begin to fade a bit until now when, would you Adam and Eve it? – the lost BBM reggae sessions master tapes showed up! Excited? You should be! The recorded tracks include three early reggae style covers, two BBM originals and six fresh dubs. One cover is an instrumental re-imagining of Peter Tosh’s ’77 hit Stepping Razor in the Trojan reggae style of eight years previously while one of the other two re-imagines The Small Faces ’69 cut Afterglow done in the sound of ’69. Both are excellent but even better is another Small Faces cover (another instrumental) of Here Come The Nice which might be described as sublime. And then there’s the two originals. Catamaran Skank Off takes the reggae sound into a more experimental and heavy-hitting early 70s Lee Perry direction but I think even Jackie Mittoo would be jealous of Mittoo’s Chocolate Teapot which again channels the sound of ’69 perfectly. Legend has it that Here Come The Nice at least was all set to be a 45 until it got shelved when BBM signed to Blow Up. Still, do hold your breath, because after this extremely limited cassette release…there are rumours of something coming on vinyl! And I think if that were a 45 with Here Come The Nice on one side and Mittoo’s Chocolate Teapot on the other, I might just think all my Christmases had come at once. But forgive the digression – it’s the excitement. Oh – did I mention that Side B of the cassette features six brand new dubs – one apiece of all five tracks from the ’98 reggae sessions and one of 0069 off the last BBM LP which channels exactly the vibes of lost material.
Back to now though and Reggae Rarities is going to come out on just forty (!) numbered cassettes available directly from Big Boss Man via Facebook and other social media and possibly live shows. You can reserve a copy by DM-ing Big Boss Man on social media – it already went out to Facebook ‘top fans’ first yesterday and a quarter of the forty have already been nabbed! What no audio? Sorry, for this one the band is going strictly old school so no Spotify, no digital, no nothing – you know – like back in the day when one of your favourite bands had new stuff out and you trusted that it would be good because it was one of your favourite bands and the ‘zines were raving about it. If you have any love for Trojan Records, early/ boss reggae, the sound of ’69 you will want this. And the monkey is raving about it to any who will listen. Don’t sleep.
(Pre-order now/ Out 15 May direct from BBM FB/ IG)