I first heard of WordSound I Powa in the mid-nineties when I received one of their tracks as part of a sampler CD in a CMJ magazine. I picked up the retail CMJ mag every month for the varied reviews and articles as well as the great CDs included in every issue. I can’t tell you which issue this was but it featured a short review of the WordSound I Powa album, Live From The Planet Crooklyn, where they said it was very odd. That, and the track featured on the sampler, were enough to get me very interested in WordSound, but when you’re a teenager in a small town and there aren’t many decent record shops nearby, you’re kinda stuck.
A few years later when I went to college I finally had the oportunity to familiarize myself with the WordSound label, but that didn’t mean I got to hold onto any of the discs. I did manage to get a few of their releases but I eventually had to settle for a tape of Live From Planet Crooklyn that a friend mailed me. Since then, I purchased a very good quality download from Amazon.com (where it is still available!) which gave me the oportunity to truly enjoy the album in superior quality, but I wanted MORE! I never learned much about who was really behind this album of dubbed-out, hip-hop weirdness until I contacted Skiz, proprietor of WordSound Records, who was nice enough to give me the scoop and send me an original copy of the CD!
So, with the blessing of Skiz, I wanted to do a post on this really awesome album that is unfortunately slept-on. If you dig this, please visit the official WordSound website and see about grabbing something there or, at the least, buying an official download of this album. It’s totally worth it and you are supporting truly independent artists. WordSound is truly some of the greatest music you've never heard!
Skiz, best known as Spectre The Ill Saint, was known as The Eye for this album where he worked with his partner Megabyte. Skiz said this was more of a compilation than an album, and that WordSound I Powa, the group, was meant to be the soundsystem for the label. As they’re not included in the any available downloads of the album, and Skiz noted their importance to the album, I’m including a transcription of the liner notes for you here. Enjoy!
WordSound I Powa – Live From Planet Crooklyn
01 Intro
02 6,000 Dub Plates
03 Dungeon Of Dub
04 Puro Malo (featuring Likkle Jer + Rankin’ Boopsman)
05 Bass Flight
06 Wickedness Increase (7 Deadly Sins Version – Spectre)
07 Theme From Dread Western (Magnificent 7 Mix)
08 Poetry (Roots Control with Lillian Allen)
09 Bury Dem (featuring Likkle Jer)
10 WordSound Meets Conscious Sounds At Stamford Hill (with Disco Dread)
11 Saidisyabruklinmon Nobwoycyantess (Jungle Remix – Dr. Israel)
12 WordSound Come Again
13 The Dub-Hop Experience
Rising from the rubble of post-industrial Crooklyn, WordSound emerges from the submerged with a message to the people. In these times you gotta move, dread. Step it up, youthman. Do right, in spite of what you see around you. Let the inner vision guide you. And when time a go ruff, cry tuff!
WordSound come fe conquer the dragon, wherever it may dwell – outside or within. Remember, any man can be babylon, so it’s not about black and white, but truth and right. Focus your mind and steel your spirit because the war’s on right now, and an army with harmony’s no good unless you got the beats to back ‘em up….
As Jah Army assembles on the Planet Crooklyn and points around the earth, WordSound I Powa, the flagship station of the WordSound fleet, beams out the message to the people on the front line. We make the wax these tired soundbwoys lack, pressing up tracks by Dubadelic, Roots Control, Spectre, and Scarab. Thick as a brick and, believe, these roots run deep.
This transmission jams your airwaves with the certified dope, featuring singers and players both new and known. Megabyte and The Eye, your hosts, spin the scorchers straight out the red zone, whenever they’re not dabbling in the lab (in a secret location on the other side). The man of a thousand faces, Rankin’ Boopsman does his dirt on “Puro Malo”, as Canadian dub poet Lillian Allen nices up the verse on “Poetry”. Meanwhile, with his new joint, The Illness, spreading like a virus, Spectre, the Ill St., sets his blade to Unitone Hi-Fi’s “Wickedness Increase”. Faith is your only salvation. As long as the game is rolling, WordSound I Powa rocks strictly sevens, with a ruder version of the “Theme From Dread Western” (from Roots Control’s recent Radical Roots Revival, Dread Western.) and while you hold tight for Dr. Israel’s debut Seven Tales Of Israel (soon come) this jungle remix of “Saidisyabruklinmon (Nobwoycyantess)” from the Crooklyn Dub Consortium should let you knows that it’s all good in the hood.
Yes, I. Strap in and prepare for blast-off. WordSound shake the town from the underground, everytime. Dub is the frequency, and WordSound is Powa!
Tracks 2, 7, 9, 13 written, produced + mixed by Megabyte + The Eye
Tracks 3, 5, 12 written, produced + mixed by The Eye
Track 4 written, produced + mixed by The Dub Posse
Track 6 written, produced + mixed by The Ill St. (Original Version by Unitone Hi-Fi)
Track 8 written, produced + mixed by Roots Control and Lillian Allen
Track 10 written, produced + mixed by Dougie Wardrop + Skiz
Track 11 written, produced + mixed by Dr. Israel
Recorded + Mixed At: The Other Side, Crooklyn (Science: Megabyte); Greenpoint Studios, Crooklyn (Science: Crucial JP); Bass Mind, Crooklyn (Science: Dr. Israel); Uneeda Studio, NY, NY (Science: Dave Lee); and The Place, NY, NY (Science: Crucial JP)
Art and Design by Sneak Attack
UPDATE: Just re-upped the file. Let me know if there are any problems with this one.
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