 |
|
THE LOW DOWN:
Queen
of the punky reggae party scene, the outernational superstar known as
Ari-Up is an extraordinary and provocative artist. Her commanding stage
presence and agile steppers dance moves are as unique as her
distinctive crown of tumbling dreadlocks and the sexy, flamboyant
fashions she designs and rocks on and off stage. Memorable and
original, Ari's sound is as fresh and futuristic as her style.
"My music is extreme stuff," clarifies Ari. "It's the offspring of
reggae, which was rebellious outlaw music, mixed up together with dub,
dancehall, drum'n'bass and hip-hop and . . .the attitude of the Slits."
- London's pioneering wild girl punk band that she fronted in the 1970s
at the age of fourteen.
The concept of Ari's delicate pan-urban brew evolved between Jamaica
and the extremes of New York's progressive music spectrum, in dives on
the Lower East Side, Brooklyn and Williamsburg.
All the remarkable life experience and idiosyncratic phases of Ari's
colorful existence are captured in her forceful solo material, like the
sharply autobiographical tunes Baby Father and True Warrior, the
anthemic Kill Them With Love and the eternal innocence of The World Of
Grown-Ups. Each song has the colorful clarity and catchiness of a
nursery rhyme or folk song, embedded in a truly contemporary fusion of
dub steppers and the rhythms of today's global urbanism.
Ari has earned the authenticity to manufacture and own such an
eclectic, edgy sound. Her remarkable life is an unpredictable saga that
flows from the basement punk clubs of London, to the bashment dancehall
sound system sessions of downtown Kingston, where she's a regular on
local TV shows, known as Madussa, the sinuous deejay-dancer with the
legendary Stone Love sound.
Ari has always been an original since she helped kick-start the Slits.
"Punk was like rock, with that guitar, and we didn't fit into it. Even
our early punk stuff was very tribal sounding," she recalls. "It had
the bass and drum thing strong in there. We were many decades ahead of
our time, and we had an influence; we put heavy bass and drums and the
dub vibe into the so-called white world." The Slits' flavorful,
sardonic, brutally real songs like Typical Girls and Shoplifting, still
stand as classics of their era. Ari's distinctive, urgent vocals were
also a feature of producer Adrian Sherwood's experimental reggae
project, New Age Steppers.
|
|
Label: Collision
Catalog #: CCT3002-2 / CCT3002-6
Formats: CD/12”
File Under: Dancehall/Reggae
CD UPC Barcode: 673795000229
12" Vinyl-
UPC Barcode: 673795000267
Release Date: 23.06.2005
CD Box Lot: 25
KEY SELLING POINTS:
• First studio/solo album by the legendary
Ari Up from The Slits.
• CD includes Bonus VIDEO
• Liner notes by Vivien Goldmann
TRACKLISTING:
CD
01. Baby Mother #
02. True Warrior
03. Exterminator #
04. Me Done
05. Young Boy
06. Bashment feat. LA Lewis #
07. Kill Em With love
08. Allergic feat. Terranova
09. Can't Share
10. Can’t Trust The Majority Mass
11. Baby Mother (instrumental) … clash
contest… #
12. Me Done (vocal only version) …clash
contest…
13. Bonus: CD Video – Me Done
# = Vinyl Tracks
Pure
artistic impulse and individuality have always guided Ari's choices.
"In the 1980s yuppie years, I went retiring, living naked in real heavy
jungle in Belize," Ari recalls. "There wasn't any money to spend in the
jungle." The excitement of Jamaica's dancehall scene drew Ari back to
her old Kingston haunts in the early 1990s, where she started
developing the music that has now
found fruition. Truly a rebel soul, Ari is always in the forefront of
global sound system creativity, melding the sounds of today's different
cities into her own wicked riddims.
"Dancehall
is really a continuation of punk without them knowing it," she observes
of the scenes that have shaped her and that she helped shape.
"They
both go crazy with clothes and hairstyles and that same attitude: we
don't give a damn, leave us alone, we do what the hell we wanna do. We
run our own world."
-- Vivien Goldman (New York City 2005)
|
