Junior Byles: Beat Down Babylon - 1972


Junior Byles, from Lee Perry's Black Ark studios, was one of the first reggae artists to plough a new furrow - expressing conscious themes along with embryonic Rastafarian ideologies against a mid-pace, deeply bassy, horn-augmented skanking beat. 

Tracks like the much-sampled and covered There Is A Place Called Africa and Beat Down Babylon were perfect examples of this. Other highlights were Demonstration, Joshua's Desire, Da Da and I've Got A Feeling. 

As it was still 1972, however, there is still an intrinsic melodiousness to Byles' delivery and to the backing. It is not yet full-on deep roots. It was definitely a ground-breaker, though, really pointing the way to the sound that would dominate reggae from 1975-1979.


Byles only released two more studio albums, it seems, Jordan, in 1976 and Rasta No Pickpocket in 1986. 

The former includes A Place Called Africa and Beat Down Babylon re-recorded in a lighter, presumably more accessible style. While they are enjoyable, I prefer the rawness of the 1972 originals. The album is a sort of watered down roots album, which was somewhat unusual for the time (1976) when most other artists were at their most deep, dubby and righteous. This light style is continued on Rasta No Pickpocket (the album) as well. The track of the same name is probably the heaviest of the cuts. Along with the winning melodies, Byles' appealing voice is the notable thing on all these albums.

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