Creation Rebel
High Above Harlesden 1978 – 2023
On-U Sound
In the 1980s, the local award-winning college radio station in my town was known for playing reggae on Sundays. WFIT has ebbed and flowed in the award-worthiness department over the years, but Sundays are still built for reggae.
How fortunate then, that Creation Rebel, Adrian Sherwood’s UK dub and reggae band with Prince Far I, Bigga Morrison, Crucial Tony Phillips, Charlie Eskimo Fox, Ranking Magoo, and Lizard Logan re-released its recordings from the late ’70s and ’80s earlier this year. The re-releases, Psychotic Jonkanoo (1981), Starship Africa (1980), Rebel Vibrations (1979), Dub From Creation (1978), and Close Encounters Of the Third World (1978), plus last year’s Hostile Environment, all told make 60 tracks — about four hours of dub and reggae from an astounding set of musicians.
Lincoln “Style” Scott and more members of Roots Radics, Eric “Fish” Clarke (Black Roots Players), and Prince Jammy (a.k.a. King Jammy) all appear either behind-the-scenes or in them, making this set a pretty sweet vibe, and solid as hell. Backing vocals by John Lydon (Sex Pistols) on the Psychotic Jonkanoo tracks are a nice complement — they’d be a surprise, if not for liner notes.
The six-disc collection follows Creation Rebel’s extended “exile in outer space” and subsequent release of Hostile Environment in 2023, its first new release in 40 years. The whole collection is available to stream everywhere or purchase from the band’s site.
