Talisman ADD

Review

Album Review: Talisman - I-Surrection

09/30/2013

by Angus Taylor

Talisman, formed in Bristol, England, were a reggae band active from the late 1970s until the 1990s. They were multiracial in their make-up, as per Birmingham’s UB40, yet played a more orthodox kind of Jamaican music than the 80s burgeoning Two Tone movement. In a sense, they represented an early example of their city’s cultural melting pot which would later make a worldwide impact via the likes of Massive Attack.
 
Like their Bristol contemporaries Black Roots, the group has re-united following renewed interest in their catalogue through reissues by Mike Darby of Bristol Archive Records (a subsidiary of Sugar Shack Records). Talisman are a similarly accomplished live act - who once supported the Rolling Stones in 1981 – and in the last two years they have been back on the road writing and getting tight. The result is this comeback mini-album, released on Sugar Shack, consisting of six vocals and six dubs produced by Dave Hill of London’s Rootikal label and night.
 
For their 2012 album On The Ground, Black Roots did not attempt to update their sound to a modern audience. If anything Talisman have returned with a slower, harder roots approach than in their recording heyday. The rhythms are tough, stripped down and live instrument based. Their only extravagance beyond the core line-up (Dehvan Othieno’s guitar, Dennison Joseph’s rather rock toned bass, Dennis Hutchinson’s keyboards, Pete Fletcher’s guitar and Reggie Chambers’ drums) is some occasional horns and a little melodica on the dub to Hey Yout’.

Both Black Roots and Talisman have re-emerged to a Britain where Margaret Thatcher is lionised by the current British government. I-Surrection’s messages of Rasta defiance in the face of Babylon would be right at home in the 80s. However, Season For Freeman’s list of important black historical figures is brought up to date – starting with freedom fighters Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King and ending with victims Stephen Lawrence, Trayvon Martin and Smiley Culture.

You can hear the distinctive hallmarks of the 70s UK roots scene Talisman came from in the complexity of the songwriting and in Othieno and Joseph’s sombre harmonies. But there is lots of Jamaican influence: the Ras Michael era scratching guitars and groundation percussion on Praise Jah; Othieno’s Marley-ish yodel on Help Yourself. Othieno’s vocals also have a sufferers’ rawness akin to Earl Zero’s (a reminder to the reggae critic “singing police” that the quirky “every spoil is a style" feel of throwback roots reggae shouldn’t always be judged against the pitch perfect schooled sanitisation of Tarrus Riley).

The dubs are also fairly paired down – bar the odd bout of delay or clang of reverbed snare – they could almost be called instrumentals. The band and not the producer are at the fore.

Small yet flawlessly made, I-Surrection deserves a slice of the acclaim heaped on Black Roots’ On the Ground. Neither group want to reinvent the wheel but when you helped build that particular wheel, why should you?

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