Normally, the artist creates their performance persona, writes an LP (or works with a writer) and releases singles off it prior to the LP release that fans know is coming. That’s not what happened with this though is it? No, it isn’t, because what happened here (as with everything on Original Gravity Records) is that label supremo and multi-instrumentalist Neil Anderson, wrote a song and then sought a singer with the chops to fulfil the persona that he imagined performing said single. And then repeated that trick several times and then toured with a live band. Also the punters didn’t know an album was coming because one wasn’t – even after several singles by Junior Dell & The D-Lites. In fact, neither did Anderson, because the runaway success of the Junior Dell juggernaut meant it was the punters that demanded an LP. Sounds like there’s a story to tell here – maybe the label should get someone they know well to write the sleeve notes for this bad boy?
(LP SLEEVE NOTES: Words – Stone Monkey)
Let’s see now – you just love that hugely fertile foundation period of Jamaican pop music from the birth of ska, through the spectacularly brief two year heyday of rocksteady up to and including the arrival of the first incarnation of reggae a.k.a. early or ‘boss’ reggae. But you’re also aware that the pioneers of these sounds (including The Pioneers!) won’t be creating music in these styles or touring forever – so what do you do?
Well, if you’re Neil Anderson, owner of Original Gravity Records, the creation bit isn’t a problem. You put forth period-authentic style material from a ‘roster’ of acts – such as Junior Dell & The D-Lites – that in reality consist mostly of yourself (you are a multi-instrumentalist and lyricist after all!) and whichever extra musicians and session singer you rope in for a given track. In the case of Junior Dell & The D-Lites that singer was Adrian Dell – soon to be dubbed (no pun intended) ‘Junior’ – first appearing on 2021’s uptempo ska tribute to Salvadoran retro-dancing internet sensation Aranivah, entitled Miss Aranivah. And you keep putting out stuff so profusely and effectively that there are clamours for you to tour ‘the band’ which – er – doesn’t really exist. What a botheration! Still, maybe your session singer could become – well – a permanent singer? Maybe you can rustle up assorted bredren to become the rest of the band and…you know what? That might just work!
And so, in the blink of an eye, Junior Dell & The D-Lites becomes a bona fide actual live band fronted by a young Jamaican singer playing fresh 60s/70s-style Jamaican music with an energy last seen and heard in, well, the 1960s and 70s. And it tours so effectively that there are clamours for ‘the band’ – or more accurately, now – the band – to release an album. Wait…what now? And, by the way, you’ve got a European tour coming up in April wouldn’t it be great if the album was ready to tour by then? Pressure drop? Pressure rise more like!
Then again, Junior Dell & The D-Lites have done so many sure-shot singles to date that assembling them along with a new cut, an extended version of one of the singles and re-recordings of two of the label’s previous singles that were originally by ‘label mates’ The Regulators should be a cinch. So expect all the hits: bluebeat banger 20 Flight Ska, the euphoric ska bounce of the aforementioned Miss Aranivah and the title track, a de rigueur smattering of covers (opener Jump Around, midway markers Praise You and Just Can’t Get Enough, and one of the re-recordings, closer Don’t Look Back In Anger), early reggae groovers Cool Right Down, Last Night Reggay, Can’t Stop The Reggae (in a new extended form) and crowd-pleasing new one Mi Try along with the other Junior Dell re-recording – the gorgeous Why Why Why which nods to the period of reggae between the sound of ’69 and the arrival of roots.
Don’t you brag and don’t you boast but that’s a Whole Lotta Skankin’ going on! Do the ska, do the rocksteady, do the reggay, why – it’s another scorcher!
(Pre-order now/ Ships on/around 15 April on Original Gravity Records)