Horace Andy - (2014) Get Wise CD

 Pressure Sounds ‎– 083

UK reissue specialist Pressure Sounds set the dubplates aside for one of their rare album unearthings in this 1975 Horace Andy LP with cult producer Phil Pratt. Pratt has been running a successful takeaway restaurant business in West London for years, so it made sense that he and Pressure Sounds would strike up a relationship that commenced with the compilation Phil Pratt Thing in 1999.

Phil Pratt was the singer of outstanding 60s singles such as the proto-roots rocksteady classic Reach Out. He then put down the mic for his Sunshot label, chairing of some of the early 70s most distinctive productions: often featuring the spiky guitars of Earl Chinna Smith and Tony Chin of Soul Syndicate band.

It is alleged that Horace Hinds – cousin of Justin – took the name “Andy” due to having songwriting abilities similar to Studio 1 penman Bob Andy. Session drummer Fil Callender recalls Andy auditioning and the musicians being taken aback at his high honey vibrato voice. Yet in a moment that illustrated his vision, impresario Coxsone Dodd was impressed by the unusual tone – one that would be imitated repeatedly in a crowded market of other singers in years to come.

Pratt met Andy at Studio 1 and they began to work together. Al Campbell, who supplies backing vocals for this set, and recorded his own massive pre-lovers rock hit Gee Baby at Sunshot, has claimed that Andy wrote Strange Things for John Holt and The Half for Dennis Brown. Pratt corroborates this in the informative liner notes by Pressure Sounds owner Pete Holdsworth.

Two of the most famous tunes included here – Zion Gate and Money The Roots of All Evil - are better known for the versions voiced for Bunny Lee. But these less exposed cuts have their own subtle power. As well as deep roots we hear brooding lovers in a cover of Ken Boothe’s Let Your Teardrops Fall (which may also have inspired the melody to the Abyssinians’ Good Lord) and culture/romance fusions in the title track (a topical precursor to Andy’s Tappa Zukie smash Natty Dread A Weh She Want). The original record’s ordering has been juggled and embellished with some dub versions and Jah Stitch’s celebrated deejay cut to Roots of All Evil - Evilous Things.

Music-wise there isn’t much to say beyond asking: what would you expect of Horace Andy singing with Phil Pratt producing and Sly and Robbie, Dougie Bryan, Earl Chinna Smith, Fully Fullwood and Santa Davis playing the rhythms? That said, the reissue is a little rough ‘round the edges soundwise. Though it captures the high fidelity sound of vinyl nicely there’s a slight hiss behind many of the songs. But given the time and money involved in locating a mint first press, the majority of collectors will accept this as a fair deal.

The ‘Get Wise’ album was built around a series of singles recorded mostly between 1972 and 1974, as finances permitted. Eventually, a 10-track album was released in 1975. The CD version contains two additional bonus tracks not found on the 14-track album reissues (tracks 15 & 16).