The Techniques Little Did You Know

The Techniques – Little Did Y'all Know

Physician Bird

CD/DL

Released 13th March 2020

The outset official reissue of central vocal group the Techniques' rare 1968 album, which collected some of their biggest hits during the ska and rocksteady eras. This edition comes with 21 bonus tracks which covers all of the band's Treasure Isle recordings for Duke Reid….LTW'south Ian Canty hears an outfit with singing talent to burn….

The pivotal figure in the Techniques' story was 1 Winston Delano Riley. He started the band and oversaw an almost complete line up modify over the years, merely he still kept the diverse aggregations at the forefront of the Kingston music scene in the 1960s. Being a local boy he got his first early, forming a band with swain Kingston High School pupils Franklyn White, Frederick Waite and Keith (soon to exist Slim) Smith. When known every bit the Victors the youngsters learnt instruments to add to their obvious vocal talents, in effect presenting one of the beginning "complete" Jamaican groups that could sing, play and write their own fabric.

Their get-go recording as the Techniques was No One (Like You lot Exercise), cut for The Existent Jamaican Ska compilation album in 1964. They so made a marker with a couple of singles for Sonia Pottinger's Gay Feet characterization, Heartaches and What Dearest Can Do, but an introduction from Stranger Cole to Duke Reid really set the Techniques on the road to success. Going through the later period of ska and into rocksteady, the Techniques' were a hit machine that just did not terminate.

The Treasure Isle prepare was primed for success during the rocksteady era and fifty-fifty though the original members of the band bar Riley had flown the coop past 1967, the smashes kept on coming. Their pre-eminence as the island's peak vocal group fifty-fifty incurred the wrath of Bob Marley And The Wailers, which well-nigh became physical when the leader of that band pulled of knife on Slim Smith subsequently some other show-stopping Techniques' live operation.

Slim Smith opted for a solo career in 1966 before eventually forming some other high quality song team the Uniques with Franklyn White and Roy Shirley. Riley brought in Bruce Ruffin and Inferior Menz, with the latter being replaced by Pat Kelly amid some more personnel shuffles. This version of the band ruled the roost during rocksteady with hits such as My Daughter and Queen Majesty, a cool reworking of the Impressions' Minstrel And Queen.

By the time that the Techniques left Treasure Isle in 1968 a few more talented folk had passed through their ranks, including Dave Barker who would go on to have a U.k. number ane hit in 1970 with Riley'southward production of Double Barrel. The band themselves had split up the previous year, with Winston Riley'due south fourth dimension now taken upwardly past his studio work. That was that for the Techniques, bar a cursory reformation in the early 80s. Riley himself though would have success through the years, always adapting smoothly to the changing trends on the Kingston music scene. He died in Jan 2011 afterward being shot – a tragic end for a key figure in Jamaican music across five decades.

One matter I exercise have to accept issue with is the cutting downward of the original Little Did You Know album to a paltry vii tracks. What has happened is that the compliers have taken out four Baba Brooks instrumental offerings that rounded out the 1968 release of the LP and also Please Say You Are Mine, a chip of a mystery song that. Which just leaves the remainder of the Techniques efforts. They accept done and so with the best interests at heart, every bit the Baba Brooks efforts don't really accept relevance to the Techniques. Medico Bird'southward generally exemplary reissues have loped tracks off on the odd occasion, some times for valid copyright reasons, at others (like here) considering they aren't relevant. I can understand the reasoning, but I'grand sure I don't just speak for myself in maxim I just wish they left the original record intact here and in nearly other cases likewise. After all it's not really a re-release of the anthology if only one-half the tracks remain.

Anyway rant over, because the bodily music included is superb. The anthology itself is broadly split into late entries into the ska canon and a couple of sound rocksteady tunes. The title track is one of their greats and leads off the set in fine mode, with a driving rhythm and some shine as silk vocals, simply gorgeous. My Whole Life Depends On You has that classic jazz-inflected ska sound and if the audio quality is a wee flake more muffled and the singing earthier, it all the same has a very sweetness groove indeed. Abroad from the LP Travelling Human being is a swell example of what the Techniques excelled at, tedious-ish just still dance-friendly, with those articulate as a bong harmonies.

The organ riff of Wat'cha Gonna Do seems to pre-empt the skinhead/dominate reggae sound of a year later and the take of r&b standard I Wish It Would Rain appears even further ahead, it would have fit in the mid-1970s with its beguiling summer reggae experience. 1967's Bad Minded People chimes in with the "don't be a rude boy" sentiments of that time well, showing that the ring weren't bullheaded to social issues and at the other end of the calibration 'til My Dying Die is a real fresh blast, a devotional love vocal with a affect of gospel influence. Love Is Not A Gamble, a riff on the Imperials' doo wop archetype Tears On My Pillow, is a fine example of the band at their all-time. The skanking rhythm was and so infectious that it was reused many times in reggae circles over the years.

Coxsone Dodd credited the Techniques with being the near popular group in the state before the Wailers started to brand headway and that's adept enough for me. They were ideally suited to rocksteady where the vocal prowess of their lead singers Slim Smith, Pat Kelly and Bruce Ruffin could take middle stage. Treasure Island, with its crevice band of musicians on hand, provided the perfect bankroll for them to thrive and thrive they certainly did. Everything here is beautifully sung and still an open invitation to the dancefloor even in 2020. Despite a few misgivings about how the original is presented here, this collection all adds up to a bright selection of rocksteady from the Techniques, the masters at their craft.

All words by Ian Canty – see his author profile here

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Source: https://louderthanwar.com/the-techniques-little-did-you-know-album-review/

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