Dennis Brown & Al Campbell – The Exit/Hold Your Corner
Doctor Birds Records
CD/DL
Released 12 January 2024
Two albums produced by Prince (now King) Jammy, with Campbell’s being previously unreleased. Space is even found for four bonus cuts from Leroy Smart and The Mighty Rudo taken from the Jammy archive. Ian Canty writes…
By 1986 Lloyd “Prince Jammy” James was a fixture of the Kingston music scene. Jammy had successfully moved out from the shadow of his mentor and friend King Tubby in the late 1970s and since then had become one of Jamaica’s premier producers. A year earlier he had even spearheaded the digital revolution method with his Wayne Smith production Under Me Sleng Teng. Meanwhile, Dennis Brown had crossed over to the mainstream with A&M in the early part of the 80s. But it never seemed the right fit for him and as he always kept his ear to the ground in Kingston, he was well aware of the current trends and developments taking place in the capital.
The Dancehall sound attracted him back to his roots and subsequently he recorded for some of the island’s main producers including Joe Gibbs, before cutting a number of Jamaican hit singles for Jammy. Given these successes, an album was on the cards and nine track collection The Exit (retitled History for its US issue) soon emerged. Dennis is unsurprisingly in fine voice here, meeting the challenge of the new technology head-on by imbuing it with his own individual charm, busy brio and joyful performing style.
Too Late kicks things off with Den holding court upon a full and lively rhythmic mix. Jammy’s expert touch with the digital sound is immediately made clear too. We Should Make Love follows and drifts appealingly towards a more spiritual direction, firmly backing up Brown’s Rasta credentials. This number is proof that Roots and Dancehall could easily be squared in the right hands. The skipping beat of History gives it good momentum, with Dennis teasing out the lyric in a soulful way and a slightly more reflective Up Full One lilts away effectively as well.
Side two of the original vinyl opened with Tracks Of Life, where Den’s voice hovers above a strident electro rhythm pattern. Material Girl was a hit in Jamaica as a single, so it was a natural to be included on the album and although it does come over a bit gimmicky, you can’t deny the craft of Jammy with the modern sound. Title track The Exit comes next and the synth handclaps here are a bit on the heavy side. Even so, Brown’s excellent voice carries the tune. The odd pattern of Dance All Night is at least unique and a hugely likeable I’ll Be Waiting There finishes up a long player of thoroughly modern (at the time) Reggae which still comes across as a pleasing, listenable platter today.
Moving onto the second section of this disc, the prolific Al Campbell had emerged with vocal group The Thrillers, who recorded for Coxone Dodd during the Boss/Skinhead Reggae era. Between then and the unreleased Prince Jammy album Hold Your Corner, he had worked for a variety of Kingston producers like Phil Pratt and Striker Lee as a solo singer and provided backing vocals on many sessions.
Buss Them Shut, the opening cut of the projected Hold Your Corner collection, provides a suitably dread introduction to Al’s work with Jammy. Campbell’s relaxed delivery fits the song and instrumentation perfectly. Stop You Fussing And Fighting may be a bit “on the nose” where Reggae song titles are concerned, but the energy the performance is given forms it into something very agreeable, with an easy-going Equalise It following on.
Al thrives on the archetypal Dancehall of Hot Love, before Big Wheel veers far more towards commercial Pop Reggae. Can’t We Test We Again follows in a similar manner and Kiss Me, Kill Me takes the pace down further to a sedate but good-natured stomp. The exotic Power Struggle takes things up a notch though, a fine and sunny sound, with the jaunty Hold Your Corner setting forth next with real purpose. A cool item in the form of Carbon Copy signs off Al’s long player.
Hold Your Corner has some good moments and is very listenable. As to why it has remained in the can, well, whilst it is well performed and produced perhaps it is a little short on memorable material. It does sag a little in the middle after a strong start too. Still, a lot worse has made it to the shops and it certainly doesn’t really let the side down after Dennis’ album.
To round off the CD we have two tracks apiece from The Mighty Rudo and the rather better-known Leroy Smart. Smart’s velvety-voiced and exuberant Crucial Lover and She Only Want Something both pass muster. For his part Rudo offers a Dancehall masterclass in She Done With It and his second offering I Love You is a Synth/Reggae beaut.
What we have here is a Dennis Brown album that shows his mastery of Dancehall, plus a fair Al Campbell one and some wizard bonuses. Jammy was of course overseeing things and as he played a crucial part in the development of digital recording techniques in Reggae, he had the sound down to perfection. Overall this is a satisfying example of state of the art Reggae from the middle of the 1980s.
Get a copy of Dennis Brown & Al Campbell – The Exit/Hold Your Corner here
slicing through the static 