style scott or sly dunbar

[arize_rootsman]

well sly has more of a early 70's style of reggae, when he was around doing it big u would hear artists like: dean frazer, gregory issacs, dennis brown, freddy mckay and producers like dodd, bunny lee, and lee perry. but all their early work which to me didnt sound as good i didnt really like the early 70's style of reggae. as when "style scott" came out to form roots radics they changed the sound of roots music when the 80's came because u would hear artists like: wailing souls, meditations, barrington levy, don carlos, hugh mundell, freddie mcgregor, viceroys with producers like sugar minott, linval thomnpson, junjo, and so on and so forth. see the difference in artists and music style cause if it wasnt for roots radics i should say these artists and these producers would of never hooked and made what we have now. but my point is i think "style scott is better"

just my opinion respect all

[fadel diagne]

hi
and of course the music became lihjter and lighter to give today what muta baruka alludes today as"toilet paper music"
no i really think that the radics have got something to do with the artistic(i don't mean financial for i guess they made some dough out of it)downfall of reaggae.there was no creativity in reggae during that era,which wqaas one of the most simplicist period in reggae
fadel

[arize_rootsman]

yeah also when radics came out they put the revolutionairies and other local bnads on the hush or on the low because everyone wanted to work with the roots radics they took over in the early 80's and they still holding strong till this day

[DUDLEY 1NE]

to me sly had that creative sound, upstepping the 2 carlton's barrett and davis protaining to the flying cymbals and the one drop riddims too. but the revolutionaries were the late 70's [roots radics] as before them it was the soul syndicate who were the earlier version of the agrovattors. so again i say sly was a creative innovator in drum sound in african style in reggae.

[MatejkoFarI]

hi roddy
when sly and the revolutionnaries at channel one in the mid 70's were gracing most of the reggae trios lps,as well as the aggravators(under different aliases) had a residency at bunny lee's,when the upsetters(with michael richards,boris gardner,winston wright,vin gordon ,glen dacosta)were pumping the rythms at black ark,nobody got fed up.what's more a rythm track can be sung by a singer,versioned by a dj, played by an instrumentist(saxophonist in most case),dubbed and ultimately versioned by lee perry himself,without annoying whosoever.can we say such a thing with what happened in the 80's with the radics:you hear linvall thompson,barrington levy,freddie mc gregor and the meditations on a same flat rythm,produced by either junjo or linvall thompson and distributed by greesleeves,and you easily get fed up.i mean it somewhat has to do with the snare drum and the drum pattern used by style scott.
if you see today,the most in-demand re-issues in ja music are related to these periods,the 70's exclusively and you cannot find 10 lps like that without coming across these line-ups aforementioned.a little of the roods radics goes a long way with me.so dfinetely saying that other bands didn't step in to create their own sound is really an overstatement to me.i even consider that when gregory isaacs stepped in with his massive selling"night nurse"he was really at the end of his artistic career(for who knows gregory isaacs repertoire between 1972 and 1980).listen again to "extra classics" and you will have an insight of his singing talent,his song themes,and the versatility and multi-faceted talent of the various backing bands there
so much for that.but anyway,there is no accounting for taste.that is just my humble point of view
fadel

I couldn't disagree more. I think what Roots Radics did was some kind of Platonic idea of reggae. Everything is as deep as it gets. Also the chemistry between Flabba and Style is unbelievable. At first, their sound was also kind of dull to me (because of listening to all those Sly&Robbies, ...), but when I finally got it, there was no turning back. I mean, could it be more tribal than that?
And regarding Gregory Isaacs. Night Nurse has one of the biggest riddims of all time. I don't think that thjis was an artistic end for him. For me it was his peak.

[Congo Bunny]

fadel diagne wrote can we say such a thing with what happened in the 80's with the radics:you hear linvall thompson,barrington levy,freddie mc gregor and the meditations on a same flat rythm,produced by either junjo or linvall thompson and distributed by greesleeves,and you easily get fed up.

To me the Radics distilled reggae to its perfect form, it was like pure reggae combined with improved audio quality and sparse instrumentation, it other words by the time we got to the 80's the Island's musicians were so good at playing reggae that the records sounded perfect

When you compare that to the rougher edges of Roots music it can sound boring, but I don't think it's boring I think it's musical perfection.

Personally I much prefer that boring/perfect sound to say Sly and Robbie's Snyth drum cheesy 80's pop synth sounds

[gbougard]

Style has one style (no pun intended).
Sly has many different styles.

Style is technically limited to one thing and would be a disaster backing Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru, Grace Jones, Bitty McLean. His drum programming is whack.

Sly does everyday things that Style can't even dream of.

Trust me, Ive used them both and Sly is 1000 times better and 1000 times nicer and easier to work with, no ego, unlike Style who is unbearable. Even Flabba cant work with him any more.

[mourdub]

Love what the Roots Radics have done, a noticeably dry sound that had depth but most importantly, it was a fresh.
There have been times i have listened so intently to the drumming of Style, that i recognised he could have been more innovative/creative.
Can anyone wonder who was doing most of the work in the production of Al Campbell's Working Man LP?

Here is what Sly Dunbar thniks...

http://goingthruvinyl.com/wp/tag/roots-radics/

[Robbie]

I tend to agree on the basis that Sly is one of the greats of any style, perhaps the only drummer from the island in class with the great US funk and soul drummers. Sly has ncredible versatility, perfect timing and great technique. The only Reggae drummer who I have never heard make a mistake on a recording or live. Style is good, but in a reductionistic way, much like Flabba, who excelled at the one style the Roots Radics are renowned for playing. That said, the Radics laid some incredible riddims, backed some great artists, and appeared on classic tunes. A check of the history books tells us that it was partially the Wailers (pka Upsetters) and Sly & Robbie taking off for world superstardom, the former backing Bob Marley and the latter Black Uhuru and others including their own productions, in the late 1970's that opened up the space for Flabba et al. Most of the domestic recordings from like '79 on were backed by some variant of Roots Radics and Soul Syndicate; Santa Davis played on many recordings as a member of Roots Radics. By the mid-late eighties the Roots Radics had fled to the UK to do extensive work with Adrian Sherwood; the lack of good session musicians, in my opinion part of the reason for the rise of the digital sound.

That said, I an see why some people are not so enthusiastic about Sly's drumming; it's almost too technically precise. I rarely draw for the late 70's steppers stuff that became his calling card - the Thompson productions like Green Bay Dub and such.

Peace

[Appie]

wow that really makes me sad:( when i hear and read mush more sad storys about the roots radics: about style and winston wright .

i wonder what the reason was why gladdy left

sad to hear that