Search - Pato Banton, Mad Professor :: Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton

Great Reggae and Dub

Anax | 03/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When Pato Banton recorded this album, his career was just beginning. It was full of promise. After releasing "Hello Tosh Gotta Toshiba" (a novelty song) and "Pato and Roger A-Go Talk" (a rub-a-dub duet with Ranking Roger), he was primed. This CD eclipses the promise of those early songs. The challenge for Pato Banton is to be convincing as a non-Jamaican reggae DJ. As far as slackness and toughness go, his image and style will never match Yellowman's or Josey Wales's. Pato Banton does not have ghetto credence, but procuring the Mad Professor as producer gives Pato Banton the touch and ambiance to compete with any of the great Jamaican DJs. What can you say about the Mad Professor's early dubs? Before the digital effects became predominate, the Mad Professor was a master tape-manipulator, and his dubs here are great. This is the stuff that built Ariwa Studios. "Gwarn!" and "Nuff Kind of Dread" stand out as a great back-to-back combination, and "Give Me Oil" is a good roots-style toast. Later in Pato's career, his message becomes a bit generic and trite ("Wize Up"). He sometimes loses the sense of humor that makes him great on this CD. I recommend The Mad Professor Captures Pato Banton CD to anyone who likes early-80s DJs. If you like Pato Banton but only know his later CDs, this CD may surprise you. (Don't expect "Baby Come Back"!) If you like Mad Professor dubs, you'll probably appreciate this CD a lot."