Super Jerry – Sweet Universe

1987, Roots Force

Fig. 1 – Tyler1’s skull in profile view

In the latest blogpost on bimkillhim.com I will describe what you will hear if you listen to the debut album of Tyler1’s precursor. Low fidelity digital hi-hats click away in perfect straight-eighths, the snare sounds like it is sneezing, and a distorted electric guitar solos away absent-mindedly over just two chords. Super Jerry, as the producer for his own debut, has crafted this platform for him to chant his lyrics upon, with a voice that sounds entirely not sober. And here is what he has to say:

Sweet universe
I love you… universally
We a go skanky, skanky
We a go jammy, jammy
We a go slidey, slidey

‘Not sober’ is a very apt description for this digi dancehall showcase record. Super Jerry is one of the first singers to be wholly a product of the dancehall era – he approaches singing much in the way that a deejay approaches deejaying, which is not to say that he’s a singjay, although he is. Much like a deejay, or other entirely ‘dancehall’ singers like Courtney Melody, his tunes are ostensibly not written with a structure from start to finish, but a handful of ideas in his mind that are turned into a recorded work on the fly. Guidance Jah Man has the Guidance, Jah man part, the Irie daughter part, the Cool runnings part, and the One truth, one love destiny part. Any of these parts could be performed at any given time, and so it goes. No rhyme, reason, order, or direction. The riddims, on the other hand, are entirely structurally sound, and are usually endless loops of no more than ten seconds. Plus solos, sometimes.

So the music is repetitive, hypnotic, and disorganised, and Super Jerry is evidently not sober in the literal sense as well. Of course this is a compelling listen. And actually enjoyable, too! On Time To Burn, Super Jerry’s voice is just short of cracking the whole time. For any readers who are not professional vocalists – have you ever been to karaoke and felt your voice give up about a dozen songs in? This phenomenon is on a commercial record. And the people love it!

Fig. 2 – Comments on ‘Sweet Universe‘ uploaded to YT by Twelve Inch Addict

Anything with a comment from Papa Jeriko reading ‘biiiim’ is good music in my books. And see also this:

Fig. 3 – Comments on ‘Sweet Universe‘ uploaded to YT by digistylee

The mastermind behind the aforementioned ‘absent-minded’ solos makes his appearance! And now, as per tradition, here is my up of the whole album.

In other BKH news, we now have our FIRST SUBSCRIBER TO THE MAILING LIST! I hope this reader has seen this post. Thank you kindly for your patronage.