Sinsemilla (1980)
8 tracks, 36 minutes
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Sinsemilla is a classic album of roots reggae, from when the genre itself was achieving more and more mainstream attention around the world. That leaves this album, Black Uhuru’s international debut, with a really interesting edge to it. It’s undeniably roots: the music itself is dark and dubby, its lyrics a mix of hard-hitting politics, social issues, Rasta chants and good old cannabis songs (the ultra-catchy title track is a great example). It’s not extravagant, there’s no horn section, and the musical tone is for the most part rather serious. But on the other hand, there is something a bit pop about it too. Most obvious to my own ears is that most of the tracks are really rather fast. It’s not music for sitting back and letting the cavity-vibrating bass and infinitely recurring snare drum hits wash over you, this is get-up-and-dance music. There’s even some very of-its-time synth drums in there, which slot into the sound perfectly. It’s basically a great record to introduce the wider world to roots reggae: obviously on a different plane to the happy sunshine music of Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ or ‘One Love’, but it can lead on from that very nicely.
Even without that context, it’s a hell of an album. Written and fronted by Michael Rose, with the legendary rhythm and production section of Sly and Robbie on drums and bass respectively, as well as Ansell Collins on piano and keys and all of it recorded at Channel One Studios, could it ever have really gone wrong? With so much reggae genius and history going into these eight tracks, it’s little wonder they’re permeated with vibe. There’s even some lovely blues harp here and there from Jimmy Becker, which helps to bring out roots reggaes inherent bluesiness (always a win in my book).
Black Uhuru helped to bring the intense, Jah-filled not-quite-dub of roots reggae to a world that had been primed by fun, soulful Caribbean lilts, and Sinsemilla was their way of opening the door. And even 40 years later, it is just an excellent listen.
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