(This text has been machine translated.) How nice to hear “African Beat” again in a really official reggae version. The melody of this instrumental - originally composed by Bert Kaempfert - is one of my absolute favorites. Anyway, I could hear the classic (mostly from Studio One) riddims all the time. Let's not kid ourselves: The basslines from "Heavenless", "Real Rock", "Bobby Babylon", "Full Up", "Drum Song", "Rockfort Rock", "Swing Easy", "My Conversation" and the small, accompanying organ melodies or brass sections are unsurpassed to this day (if we exclude Sleng Teng). Anyone who, like me, has so much fun with the old stuff can now cheer, because the legendary Fatman Riddim Section has presented an extremely charming EP in collaboration with the Lickshots, which is made up of five classic hit riddims inna Dub-Style: "Big man sound". We still know the Fatman Riddim Section from countless productions from the 1970s - but above all as part of the Inner Circle Band. Of the former trio, however, only guitarist Roger Lewis seems to be active now. The Lickshots, on the other hand, is a former ska band that has found it's way to reggae since their superb album "The Lickshots“Found the way to reggae. An unusual, but obviously congenial combination. In any case, the Big Man Sound EP is a very successful homage to the golden era of reggae - albeit with the five tracks unfortunately in miniature format. Cleanly produced, orchestrated and played in and very classic in dancehall style Dub-mixed. There is even a bit of minimal toasting like in the days of King Stitt - but here Micro Don (from the New York Rice and Peas collective) is responsible for the announcements. Niceness all around!
Categories
Fatman Riddim Section Meets the Lickshots: Big Man Sound

5 replies to "Fatman Riddim Section Meets the Lickshots: Big Man Sound"
As much as I admire that the Fatman Riddim Section (nomen est omen) - or at least one of them - has survived to this day and is actually still making music: The album (like the newer Inner Circle albums & singles) is too lightweight for me , too cheesy, too very beach bar. The programmed beats, the weak bass and the overemphasized mids and highs also contribute to this.
I didn't know about Bert Kaempfert ... classic fun fact, thanks for the info!
This record is fire.
Hello Everyone!
So I find myself in both statements. On the one hand, I feel like René. These riddims - BassLines - have a half-life, whereas the atomic decay of uranium atoms, viewed in relative terms, does not exist much longer than a “Higg particle” in the LHC. I can hear these riddims again and again or to put it like good old Nosliv, “I want to hear it again and again” !!!
At the same time, I feel a little like gtkriz. The bass sounds pretty decent here with me, but I can't even cope with the drum sound over the length (shortness) of this EP. Very bad with "Rock with you"! “Classically in dancehall style Dub - mixed “Unfortunately exactly like that! Doesn't work! If I may say so. No magic! And otherwise I often have serious problems with the sometimes quite "overemphasized mids and highs". This is no different here than, unfortunately, often with Mad Professor. But that mainly affects the heights, I would say. The keyboard also repels me and reminds me of the sound, of fair music at the time when people like the Elephantman were still on display at fair. I always feel that this is an exclusion criterion for Inner Circle and Third World new releases.
So yes, the riddims are the best but I've heard them much better in several other remakes. Only the "Heavenless Riddim" was featured on this Vin Gordon disc,
of the same name - which I have already left in the narrower circle of the holy grails - implemented many times better. Pay attention to the drums! The accents that the drummer sets are pure energy for me! And Vin Gordon does the rest!
"Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" …………………. lemmi
I just got the following information from the lickshots:
"Thank you for the review of our latest release on dubblog.de! We had a great time organizing this record with Roger and re-imagining these riddims. One quick note - even though we do love Ska music, the The Lickshots are not in any way affiliated with any former Ska bands as suggested in the review. We have been confused with an act called "Rude and The Lickshots" in the past, and we had to disassociate our music catalog from theirs on both Apple and Spotify because of the similar name. But to be clear, The Lickshots are an original crew assembled in 2015 and our first release was the self-titled EP in 2016. "
My favorite album will always be Reggae Sax and Sun Vol 1, 1985 by Fatman Riddim Section! Thankful my dad exposed me to this treasure as a child. Sorry I'm unable to provide feedback on their more recent endeavors.