Holy shit! We've reached the end of the road and here it is... the final track of the Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular 2008! This one is called "Vampire Initiative" by Scientist, with the Roots Radics providing the drum and bass of course, and comes from the excellent 1983 Greensleeves LP Scientist Encounters Pac-Man that you see pictured on the right.
Now this cover may not be as Halloween appropriate as Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires but if you look behind the glass you see all of Scientist's vanquished foes from previous albums; Prince Jammy, the Space Invaders and a few of the monsters from the Rids the World album as well laughing with fiendish glee as Pac-Man proceeds to devour our hero. I'm not usually one to discuss album covers in detail but Tony McDermott's illustration for this one is absolutely killer!
Music wise, there's very little to say... I'll put it to you in the form of an equation - Scientist+Roots Radics= F*%^ing Wicked!!!
Again I used the audio from "The Vampire Speaks" throughout "Vampire Initiative" because it's just too good to only use the opening snippet in yesterday track!
Track 23
And on that note... I'll close the creaking door to the vault of haunted Jamaican music for another year. I hoped you've enjoyed the mix and as always I've appreciated the comments along the way. Happy Halloween!
although i might have missed seeing it, and comes a day late and a dollar short anyway.... i think you might have missed an obvious Halloween tune - Ernie Smith's "Duppy Or A Gunman", on Federal's Wildflower label - it was a pretty massive tune in Jamaica back in about 1974 (think it was then, even a little white kid like me knew it), he had a bunch of humorous hits until he released "Power And De Glory" in '76 which did not sit too well with the Manley/PNP crowd or the times ("heavy manners" were in effect!), and he emigrated like so many people did....
ReplyDeleteanyways, great blog!
I did "Duppy Or A Gunman" in a mini mix I put together celebrating Halloween in March a couple years ago. Since that was in such limited circulation and probably forgotten by now I'm going to use that one again next October! Thanks for your input regarding Ernie Smith that'll come in handy.
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