Black Star Liner

Black Star Liner emerge in 1994 in Leeds on Chris Madden's Soundclash label with a remix of The Rootsman's Soundclashcityrockers EP. Black Star Liner put out their first EP on Soundclash in 1994 to media acclaim, grabbing NME single of the week with their debut 'Smoke the Prophets'.

The Rootsman features prominently on Black Star Liner's first Soundclash release, Smoke the Prophets, remixing Soft Sitar to brilliant effect with emphasis on the driving percussion, reluctant bass line and swirling chimes. Black Star Liner have repaid the remix duties with versions of Rougher Than a Lion and Pass the Chalice.

Black Star Liner's second Soundclash outing, High Turkish Influence, includes versions of Yemen Cutta Connection, to be reworked and renamed Killah Connection for appearance on the debut album Yemen Cutta Connection on EXP. The release also includes a coarser version of Ga Ga than appears later on the album and the track Distoten, perhaps Black Star Liner at their very finest in combining traditional eastern instrumentation and dub bass in a revived form. Distoten, unlike other early tracks, does not get reworked or re-released with the move to EXP.

Black Star Liner's move to Feargal Sharkey's EXP label produces a series of releases (Harmon Session Special EP, Jawz EP, Halaal Rock EP, Spanish Omega and Yemen Cutta Connection) and considerable promotion, only for EXP to later dissolve. The EXP recordings and reworkings add refined production to the Black Star Liner sound, sometimes complementing the tracks and at other times smoothing over welcome discordance, notably in the rougher Big Feet Bunker-produced Ga Ga. The first EXP release includes Yeboah's Jawz, a musical monument to ex-Leeds football player Tony Yeboah, and later to appear on the Halaal Rock EP. The track is deceptively simple, hiding detailed percussive treatment which adds to the fury and energy of the song. The Jawz EP also includes remixed versions of Harmon Session Special as Harmon Bomb Drop (one of Black Star Liner's finest moments!) and Anna Drone, in addition to the short loop edit Tuniasitol! The short dub edit style is revisited in Jazaad Rodeo!, a dismembered rumbling of vocal samples, percussion and bass. The debut album on EXP, Yemen Cutta Connection includes a number of reworked tracks, plus material previously unreleased - among these, Ottoman Empire Strikes Back, Hooba Hooba!, Inverse and None Stop to the Border. The album displays each of the darker, beautiful and humorous components of Black Star Liner's music and has found its way in to many journalists' recommendations of best albums of 1996. Black Star Liner's connections with EXP end with the Halaal Rock EP, notable for its beautifully-long and excellent remix by Dave Ball and Ingo Vaux of Duggie Dhol, a track co-written and featuring vocals by Cornershop's Tjinder Singh.

Signing to WEA in 1997, Black Star Liner release the Rock Freak EP, a collection of relatively short tracks signalling a progression in their music. Rock Freak is Hindu-Kraftwerk at its most perfect, with heavy beats, distorted guitar and vocoder. Inder Automatic beautifully crafts together indian percussion, dub bass and effect-laden guitar, with the later version to appear on Bengali Bantam Youth Experience! with added indian vocals. The country'n'eastern Low BMW and the percussive frenzy of Shoona round off a long-awaited return and first release on WEA.

Black Star Liner declare Halaal and Rock Freak dead in 1999 and re-emerge once again to bring us the Bengali Bantam Youth Experience! direct from the Ebonic Beat Bunker...

Stolen from the official Black Star Liner Web Site.