Peter Metro – The D.J. Don

1985, Black Solidarity

The A side of this set is super early digital style, one of the few 1985 deejay LPs with digital riddims, brought to you by the same folks that would soon build Papa San’s Animal Party LP (Ossie Thomas & Phillip Morgan). And upon these riddims is a real shouter of a deejay by the name of Metro Peter – occasionally known as Peter Metro, though you wouldn’t know from listening to his music. The D.J. Don opens with Frontline, a police encounter story, but it really should open with The Don, which is a hundred-decibel anthem tune over Sleng Teng pushed so far it favors heavy metal! No tune could give you a better impression of how different Sleng Teng must have been at the time. Put it on immediately after General Trees’ Heart, Mind And Soul and see the difference. Dance In A Africa replicates the same intensity with the UK fast style upon excellent lyrics. “Who a cook inna the kitchen, now Margaret Thatcher, and the queen round a back now she a peel banana, when Margaret cook, Raegan lick him finger, she cook dead cow, dead goat, dead iguana…” And on the B side, it’s back to basics with some old human riddims, which he rides well, but unsurprisingly with less impact. One of which is a re-imagination of Early B’s Join The Army over the exact same cut as Errol Scorcher’s Roach In A De Corner.

My picks: The Don, Dance In A Africa, Seven Jamaican Heroes
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