Further new music from Hostile Environment is out now. 'Creation Rebel - Under Pressure' is the latest single from Hostile Environment → https://youtu.be/iBsomSx0jYw
“Under Pressure” highlights a powerful vocal by drummer “Eskimo” Fox aka Charlie Mus’Come, an original member of the On-U Sound crew and alumni of the legendary Alpha Boys School: a vocational residential school run by nuns in Kingston, Jamaica that produced some of the instrumental greats to come from the island, including Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Rico Rodriguez, “Deadly” Headley Bennett, as well as vocalists such as Johnny Osbourne, Trinity and Yellowman.
It’s important to emphasise this lineage when it comes to the story of the On-U Sound label, a unique coming together of JA and UK talent. When Eskimo moved to London in the mid-1970s he originally played in the bands The Dove Rocks and The Freedom Fighters, providing backing to many touring Jamaican stars of the period, before meeting Adrian Sherwood and becoming a key part of his rotating cast of singers and players.
On the song itself, the band tackle the realities of the prison system, in classic reggae fashion wielding socially conscious lyrics to a dancefloor friendly heavy skanking rhythm. The lyrical theme is in keeping with the new album’s political outlook: Hostile Environment refers to former British Prime Minister Theresa May’s controversial policy towards asylum seekers, and the recent Windrush scandal, all too relevant to a group of musicians of Jamaican origin who have spent their whole lives operating in the darkening shadow of a former colonial power with a staggeringly short memory for historic wrongs.
On-U Sound
Further new music from Hostile Environment is out now. 'Creation Rebel - Under Pressure' is the latest single from Hostile Environment → https://youtu.be/iBsomSx0jYw
Listen now on YouTube, and pre-order now directly from On-U Sound → on-u-sound.ffm.to/hostileenvironment
“Under Pressure” highlights a powerful vocal by drummer “Eskimo” Fox aka Charlie Mus’Come, an original member of the On-U Sound crew and alumni of the legendary Alpha Boys School: a vocational residential school run by nuns in Kingston, Jamaica that produced some of the instrumental greats to come from the island, including Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Rico Rodriguez, “Deadly” Headley Bennett, as well as vocalists such as Johnny Osbourne, Trinity and Yellowman.
It’s important to emphasise this lineage when it comes to the story of the On-U Sound label, a unique coming together of JA and UK talent. When Eskimo moved to London in the mid-1970s he originally played in the bands The Dove Rocks and The Freedom Fighters, providing backing to many touring Jamaican stars of the period, before meeting Adrian Sherwood and becoming a key part of his rotating cast of singers and players.
On the song itself, the band tackle the realities of the prison system, in classic reggae fashion wielding socially conscious lyrics to a dancefloor friendly heavy skanking rhythm. The lyrical theme is in keeping with the new album’s political outlook: Hostile Environment refers to former British Prime Minister Theresa May’s controversial policy towards asylum seekers, and the recent Windrush scandal, all too relevant to a group of musicians of Jamaican origin who have spent their whole lives operating in the darkening shadow of a former colonial power with a staggeringly short memory for historic wrongs.
2 years ago | [YT] | 21