Virgin, 1976: the label of Mike Oldfield and Tangerine Dream discovers Jamaica. With the Front Line series, it brings Jamaican artists to the British market. Crisis Time by I-Roy documents this collision: toasting as a mode of expression, voice as instrument, on equal footing with the dub rhythms beneath it. Yowls, bays, screams. An anticipation of dancehall. Fifty years later, reissued on Charly, remastered, with liner notes by reggae writer John Masouri. I-Roy died in 1999, homeless and impoverished, in Kingston.
I-Roy – Crisus Time
