The Return - Baby Cham (Mad House)
For this recording, Dave Kelly seems to have relocated his Madhouse label to a Tunisian bazaar. A bagpipe swirls up from the teeming souk around the studio and pattering drums chat with each other among the carpet sellers and snake charmers. When the wicked one drop bass line cuts in, your speaker boxes will start to heave and undulate like a pair of Middle Eastern belly dancers.
Baby Cham has two different cuts to this rhythm, The Return
and Middle Fingers In The Air. As its title might suggest,
Middle Fingers In The Air is the less interesting lyric,
although Baby Cham's repeated exhortations to his audience to
raise their hands conjures up appropriate dance floor mayhem.
The Return, on the other hand, is Baby Cham's blistering
verdict on what he feels is the mediocre state of current music
in Jamaica: "When I drop the lyrics certain boy a paraphrase
me, how they get so lazy...no wonder things a run so cos the entertainer
dem a snoring." A gruff un named voice also cuts in, referring
darkly at one point to a mysterious incident at Dave Kelly's recording
studio "Dave Kelly the producer mash up, recording studio
lock up, all kind of ting." Baby Cham's trademark DJ style
is to declaim each line as a stand alone, stiletto-sharp statement
and his fans will not be disappointed here.
Last year's Man A Man on Xtra Large was massive for Baby
Cham but he still records less frequently than other big name
Jamaican DJs, so don't miss these two. Other cuts to this rhythm
are Brian & Tony Gold's My Life and Frankie Sly's Mi
See It, both well worth a purchase.