bob soul & the united stars / king tubby & bill hutchinson all stars: message from the congo / ten long years

Message from the Congo finds Bob Soul & The United Stars chanting a message of rastafari over the propulsive uptempo rhythm driven by the late Carly Barrett's masterful drumming. The harmonizers in the 'United Stars' as they are dubbed on this record, were actually members of both the Righteous Flames and Rocking Horses vocal groups. In hindsight Digikiller finds in this track King Tubby prefiguring not only the remix and the 'edit,' but also the frantic yet orchestrated chaos of a lot of the complex electronic dance music that would begin to come into its own a full decade later. To try and describe the magic herein would be pointless, you must simply listen to Tubby deconstruct and reconstruct the rhythm using a melange of his now famous tools and techniques to devastating effect. Indeed, it is tracks like this one which made the man himself and those very techniques now so famous. These two tracks were originally released in Jamaica on both the Gemini and Danger Zone labels (in identical mixes). On the flip side of this first 12" is Billy Hutch's little known vocal on the rhythm, entitled 'Ten Long Years.' The soulful vocal finds Bill in top form, and this track was originally released on Bill's very first album Reggae Showcase, released only in NYC and extremely tough to track down. Rounding out the 12" is a real treat, a previously unreleased different take of 'Message from the Congo,' with different harmonies, and a background voice telling you 'this is a message...,' bringing the title of the song sharply into focus.