featuring Ranking Roger and Ranking Jrâ¦.itâs almost done and comes out on Thursday december 1rstâ¦its a slammin psychedelic dancehall, drum, trippy vibe with punk attitudeâ¦like a mix of The Policeâs âOutlandos Dâ Amourâ meets Yellowmanâs âMister Yellowmanâ

7 MP3 Songs in this album (40:29) !
Related styles: Reggae: Dancehall, Reggae: Pop-Reggae, Mood: Dreamy

People who are interested in Ranking Roger The English Beat Thievery Corporation should consider this download.


Details:
Interview with Mr. Anonymous about "Champion Sound""


HOW IS THIS NEW ALBUM DIFFERENT
...ok so my plan for this album was first and foremost to be a live
drumming inspired composition. I wanted to put some muscle into the
beats and serve up some raw energetic dancehall reggae with all live
instruments and a minimal punk vibe production. I'm an avid listener
of reggae and dancehall vinyl from the '70's and early '80's along
with bands like The Clash, early Police, Minor Threat, etc...I'm also
WAY into jazz bebop from the '50's and '60's. I wanted this new album
to incorporate all those sounds and have that same lively analog vibe
and life.

IS THERE A REASON WHY YOU TOOK ON A NEW APPROACH
In a weird way it was kind of a reaction to the electronic music scene
which I've been immersed in for a while. I really enjoy electronic
music and have huge respect for the musicians who create it. But
sometimes I also feel like its a bit too perfect and planned out with
16 bars here, then a new sample, then 8 bars and a drop out, etc...and
I can hear it when I listen to some of it because its too slick and
seamless and formulated...I'm definitely a fan of the dj scene, so
don't get me wrong, but lately I guess I've been missing the slop and
life from the older records....or maybe just too much Minor Threat and
Bad Brains on my boombox.

TELL ME ABOUT THE PROCESS...WHAT DID YOU DO DIFFERENT IN MAKING THE MUSIC
Well first off, my goal was to have consistency of sound on the whole
thing...In other words, the same drum sound and bass tone and guitar
sound for the whole album, kind of like The Police's "Outlandos
Damour". So I recorded all the drum tracks in one day, some with no
click track so the tempos would ebb and flow with my personal
feel...and the tempos really do fluctuate...I played my Fender Jazz
bass through a vintage Ampeg with an sm57mic in front and sometimes
used a pick rather than my fingers to give more of a ballsy tone and
drive. I dropped the pick at one point but kept the mistake because
the performance had sweat and muscle vibing on it. I used my Epiphone
hollow-body guitar to track all the part through a vintage fender twin
amp. I kept all the guitars completely clean with no effects or
delays. I also brought some slammin horn players for a couple tracks
as well as a local jazz king on upright bass for a tune. I used a
vintage "Space Echo" tape delay unit to dub the drums and vocals out
in just a few key spots....and last but not least, I tracked AND mixed
the entire record at Skytrail Productions on a vintage SSL analog
board.

TELL ME ABOUT THE SINGERS
I flew out to Birmingham England and tracked with Ranking Roger from
The English beat and his son Ranking Jr. a.k.a. Mini Murphy. I really
wanted to showcase this father/son duo because I feel like Ranking
Roger is such a vintage reggae/ska icon with an awesome signature
voice...and his son's voice is like Roger's mixed with a machine
spaceship from the future....so the sound is kind of a melding of the
past and the future. I worked with both on Mr. Anonymous 2, and I felt
like this album would be a great way to explode their talents in a
different context. We recorded at Ranking Roger's house. The first day
was with Ranking Jr.(Ranking Roger's son), and the next day was with
his dad.The vocal performances were again completely spontaneous which
has been a consistent with all the Mr. Anonymous albums. However, what
was especially cool about these performances was that neither one of
them rehearsed with eachother or knew what the other sang. So for each
track of music, I essentially had 2 completely different songs. This
made it a fun challenge to combine both of their voicings into one
composition.

WAS IT HARD TO CHOOSE WHICH SINGER FOR EACH SONG
Some songs leaned more toward Ranking Roger and some leaned more
towards Ranking Jr...I feel like the songs really created themselves
and chose the vocal performance that best fit the vibe. When I go into
music projects, I like to have a rough idea at the start, but
ultimately I like to leave room for a song to develope in its own way.
That can be tough at times to abandon your plan, but I think getting
that plan out of the way, so to speak can really let a song explode
into something magical. And that philosphy probably can apply to life
as well ..lol...the best things can happen when you just let things
flow and get out of your headspace.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST HAPPY ABOUT
I feel like the album is almost like a soundtrack to a movie. Each
song flows into the next and paints a whole new picture with a great
variety of vibes...the sounds of an african morning into a tribal
minimal dancehall jungle into a psychedelic jazz space journey to a
Nigerian market with a chaotic soca explosion then drum solo into
trippy jazz atmosphere...all in 35 minutes. ..so I'm happy that it
turned out to be such a visual experience. And I'm also really proud
of the performances from everybody. Ranking Roger and Ranking Jr.'s
vocals are SLAMMIN, it's the first record I've ever put a drum solo on
as well as a bebop groove, the horn players and Upright bassist
SLAMMED their parts so well, and the whole spaceship ended up to be
Blast-off ready :) ...5-4-3-2-1 boom vibes for sure!!!