Shinehead — Unity

Edmund "Shinehead" Aiken starts by performing for several reggae dancehall sound systems — a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, emcees and engineers playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music; it's an important part of Jamaican popular culture and history, nda — in The Bronx, New York, in the eighties. Born in Kent, England, in 1986 he releases his first studio album, "Rough & Rugged" with the independent label African Love Records, then after two season Shinehead signs with Elektra Records, publishing a second LP.

Shinehead pulls out bars on the rhythms of Davy D, Claude Evans and Jam Master Jay, the latter provides three musical carpets, of these "Chain Gang (Rap)" is chosen as single along with "Gimme No Crack", that becomes a favorite between radio hosts. Shinehead plays bass along with Flabba Holt, Style Scott at the drums, Davy D, Bingle Bunny and Mikey Chung at the guitar, Wycliffe Johnson and Shinehead at the keyboards, English Babbler at the piano, scratches are courtesy of Cut Master Quick.

It begins as a hip hop album with a pretty extravagant track that presents a fresh and bouncy rhythm, a cheerful and minimal drum machine, and a hook that parodies the Beatles "Come Together" for no valid reason; rhythmic and pop bridge, then drum machine that changes into a skeletal and heavy sound after the first hook, then a final dance pop bridge for a sung verse. Shinehead delivers cheerful and easy-going throughout the cut, follows "Chain Gang Rap" which it reveals the real nature of this record: fresh and bouncy rhythm, cheerful and minimal drum machine, decent and light-hearted delivery, reggae hook, samples of the homonymous song of Sam Cooke and of Duke Ellingont's "Take the A Train".

From the third cut ("The Truth") Shinehead cheerfully delivers an entire reggae / dancehall album with appropriate rhythms, sometimes easier than necessary, sometimes with an unsolicited accelerated delivery. Track nine returns to a hip hop rhythm with a simple and light drum machine and a mafia, tense and dark jazzy rhythm, with the MC creating a contrast always delivering in reggae style. Closes the usual ballad that has nothing to do with the rest of the record, here's no exception.

It must be admitted that it's a curious debut album with a major that you might not often find elsewhere, and with good reason. The critics don't understand it and don't know how to deal with it, and how could they? Is it a rap album, reggae, comedy? The mainstream don't support it and despite the obstacles, the album breaks into the charts, even the pop one, allowing Shinehead to continue his artistic career for several years with Elektra, until arriving at "Jamaican in New York" in 1993, a cover of the famous "Englishman in New York" sung by Sting. Nothing that's truly savable or quotable from here, not recommended.

Rating: 5/10.