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former member of the vocal group The
Paragons in the 1960's, John Holt was
commonly known as a skillful vocalist when
it comes to soulful Reggae love songs.
Police in Helicopters completely breaks
with that tradition, and introduces John
Holt as a Rootsman who has some things to
say that could also be seen as interesting
for more people than just his girlfriend.
The music is recorded in the Channel One
Studio's by the Roots Radics in a time
wherein Rub a Dub style was going on strong
with heroes such as Barrington Levy and
Yellowman.
The title track is a very hard Rub a Dub
style tune: this means a monotonous
baseline, with some pumping drums and excellent
mixing to serve as musical background
for an extremely militant vocal part.
The topic deals directly with the fact
that the police and soldiers burned down the
ganja fields as part of Ronald Reagan's
"War on Drugs" that changed the
face of Jamaica significantly.
This was a time wherein cokane and
violence seemed to run things in the
Dancehall, and so some Righteous Roots was
definitely a necessity. This album is such
an necessity.
It's not just the title track, even
though that would definitely be the hardest
tune on the album. As said, John Holt was
known for his lovers' tunes but in this
album he also deals with consciousness on a
much broader scale.
That's not to say that there are no
lovers' tunes on this album, though. A John
Holt album without lovers tunes is simply an
impossibility. But the style of music that
usually came with these lover's tunes (a
sort of laidback easy listening) was
completely deserted for this heavyweight rub
a Dub classic.
The music is strong material, Rub a Dub
played by the Roots Radics who practically
played most of the genre's music in that
time, being the house band of Channel One
Studio. Even the lover's tunes come in Rub a
Dub style.
Maybe this is not an essential album, but
when you are into some serious drum and bass
driven music and you like a little bit of
rebel lyrics, this one could very well be a
nice addition to your collection.
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