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Culture VibeZ

Seventeen tracks from one of the great roots reggae vocal groups, built around a singer whose voice was as distinctive as any in Jamaican music.

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Culture

Culture were Joseph Hill, Albert Walker and Kenneth Dayes, and their 1977 debut Two Sevens Clash is one of the essential roots reggae albums — a record built around a prophecy attributed to Marcus Garvey that chaos would come when the sevens clashed on 7 July 1977. Reports at the time described parts of Kingston shutting down that day in anticipation.

Hill's voice is the reason the group endures. It is rough, high and slightly cracked, entirely without polish, and it carries a conviction that smoother singers could not manage. He wrote almost everything and led the group for nearly thirty years until his death in Berlin in 2006, during a European tour; his son Kenyatta has continued the name since.

The album also had an unexpected second life: it was widely cited as an influence by the British punk generation, and The Clash in particular took a great deal from it.

What to listen for

"Two Sevens Clash" is the essential track and one of the most atmospheric records reggae has produced — an apocalyptic lyric delivered over a groove that sounds almost cheerful.

"Stop The Fussing And Fighting" is the best-known song after it, and "The International Herb" is the most-played.

"Behold I Come" and "Addis Ababa" are the most explicitly Rastafarian, and the second is about the Ethiopian capital that sits at the centre of the faith's geography.

"Poor People Hungry" with Tony Rebel is the most direct political statement here.

"Play Skillfully" and "Humble African" are the deep cuts, and "Heart and Soul" is the prettiest melody in the catalogue.

The Mighty Two's "Fulfillment" is the producers' credit — Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson, who made the early records and whose mixing is a considerable part of why they sound the way they do.

Go deeper

Two Sevens Clash (1977) is the album, and Harder Than the Rest (1978) and International Herb (1979) complete the essential run.

For the wider roots tradition: The Abyssinians' Satta Massagana, Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey and The Mighty Diamonds' Right Time are the three other albums from that moment that belong beside it.

Listening note: the roughness in the lead voice is the whole point. Smoother singers were available in Jamaica in 1977 and none of them could have delivered an apocalyptic lyric with that degree of conviction. Hear the cracks as evidence rather than as limitation and the catalogue opens up immediately.

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