Dance Hall Style

In 1982 Horace Andy temporarily relocated to New York City to record with Lloyd “Bullwackie” Barnes, an expatriate Jamaican who ran a studio and label operation out of the Bronx. Andy was in many ways the perfect match for Bullwackie’s vision of wintry dub. These aren’t cute reggae songs, and unlike some of Andy’s most experimental ‘70s dubs, they aren’t even intended for the dancehall. There are only six songs here, but each is extremely long, letting listeners get lost in the mood, which evokes late-night subway rides and trash-barrel fires. Andy has a voice that seems to not fully belong to a human body. Instead, it manifests between the elements of an environment, which is why he was perfect for Bullwackie. The rhythm tracks portray the expatriate’s lonely cityscape: cold New York City, worlds away from sunny Jamaica. In the songs’ scenarios, Andy isn’t so much a vocalist as he is the steam a voice creates when breathed into icy night air.

By modern standards, a six-song set barely qualifies as a single, never mind as a full-length album, but with each stellar song featured in its extended form, Dance Hall Style doesn't merely pass muster as an album, but as a masterpiece.