Black Uhuru - Tear It Up Live (8 tracks) +Album Reviews

Decent live disc

Tim Weber | Iowa | 08/22/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Tear It Up" doesn't completely do what its title promises, but it's a worthwhile purchase for the Black Uhuru completist. The band plays for an enthusiastic crowd at London's Rainbow Theatre in 1981, and seems to give the fans what they want. While good, it's not completely what I want. For one thing, the sound is mediocre, particularly Michael Rose's vocals. A cleaner sound what undoubtedly help. And since this is pre- "Red" and "Chill Out" the song selection is limited. In fact, six of the eight songs here are on the studio disc, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Really, unless you want a lot of Black Uhuru, stick with that fine album, which has better sound, better performances and the long versions of each song, featuring dub versions. The total time on this live disc is pretty scimpy, too."

Best live reggae album ever

Mitch Bernstein | New York, NY United States | 07/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Crucial! This belongs in every reggae collection.Killer set of music from London with the band hitting on all cylinders...Sly and Robbie lay down serious dub riddim and the vocal harmonies are very clean for a live session.All the songs come from the guess who's coming to dinner album, but there is much more energy on the live album. Take this raw energy over the studio effects and you'll be rewarded Irie stylee"

Prime Uhuru

Mitch Bernstein | 09/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This live set from 1982 features VERY heavy dub-style reggae performed by what is generally regarded as the "classic" Uhuru line-up. Michael Rose and Puma Jones join mainstay Duckie Simpson on vocals, and the rhythm section consists of the incomparable Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (who are at or near the absolute peak of their powers here.) By the standards of its era, the live mix and recording quality are quite good, particularly the HUGE-sounding bass and drums. The set list is well-chosen and played with admirable tightness and passion. My only complaint would be with regards to playtime -- at just over a half hour, the disc clocks in a bit lean. Nonetheless, this is IMHO one of the finest BU releases (along with "Red" and "Sinsemila") -- which is to say, some of the very best reggae you can buy."

Prophets of gloom, with a sly smile

Garbageman | the other side of California | 06/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back in the day, it wasn't unusual for reggae, punk, hip-hop, and other types of music to all cross-germinate each other. Think about James Chance, Fela, Talking Heads, PiL, Clash, all that stuff - it incorporated all sorts of influences, there were blurry boundaries, and everything sort of avoided categorizations. So it's not surprising that this live set by Black Uhuru - recorded around 1981 or thereabouts - sounds like Joy Division playing dub beats. Or Public Image Ltd. if they played a set at Sunsplash. Never have I heard music seem so floaty and uplifting, yet at the same time be so blasted full of confusion and chaos.

This is easily the darkest, deepest, most profoundly un-reggae reggae album you've ever heard. There won't be any dreadlocked kokopelli-type cartoonish drawings with white yuppies sipping margaritas by the pool and Jimmy Buffett acoustic covers of "No Woman No Cry" going on when you play this album. Instead, you get extremely reverbed heavy guitar riffs that sound like dive bombs, the insanely tripped-out machinistic Sly & Robbie beats (previewing trip-hop about 20 years early), the almost ghostly vocal harmonies that sound like the cries of wailing children, the HEAVY, HEAVY song topics (abortion, prison, death, the afterlife - this isn't your dad's reggae collection), and a sickly blanket of heavy echo that turns the entire recording into PiL's "Second Edition" on thorazine. There just isn't anything like this out there anywhere. The closest approximation would be a reggae version of PiL's own "Paris Au Printemps", a live album that also evokes a similar musical gloom. Or Joy Division's own "Preston" live set. But this is not pre-packaged gloom-on-demand, like some bands who "manufacture" gloom when they play long, droning chords and growl into the microphone in an attempt to scare you. Black Uhuru is supposed to be uplifting - loving - almost devotional in its spirit. This is all of those things, yet it seems so apocalyptic.

I cannot imagine what it would have been like to see this concert live. Given the fact that probably the entire crowd was wasted out of their minds and there was more than enough ganja to go around, I can believe this would have been one of the most intense concert experiences ever. Live albums as a whole are generally pretty weird, either they are fan souvenirs or they are out to make some sort of artistic "statement". The statement made here is one of weird contradictions: it's reggae, but you can't move; it's spiritual, yet very forlorn; and the liberation that comes with this music feels like you're drowning in sadness. Intense stuff."

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CD Reviews

	Black Uhuru Tear It Up - Live Genres: International Music, Pop Track Listings (8) - Disc #1 Shine Eye Gal Plastic Smile Abortion General Penitentiary Guess Who's Coming To Dinner I Love King Selassie Sinsemila Leaving For Zion
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