Howie B - Strip To The Bone (CD 1999)

Though most listeners identify Jamaica's legendary "riddim twins" with seminal reggae artists like Peter Tosh and Black Uhuru, the pair of mutating chameleons has also arranged, produced, and laid down nonpareil rhythm foundations for, among many others, James Brown, Bob Dylan, KRS-1, the Rolling Stones, and Carly Simon. The musically adventurous duo stopped counting their collaborations over the decades they've worked together at 500 tunes. Still looking for new territory to conquer, they join forces this time out with U.K. producer-remixer-deejay Howie B, who's worked with the likes of Brian Eno and Ry Cooder, and has released solo albums for Mo'Wax/Island/Polydor and his own Pussyfoot label. With Howie B at the helm, Sly and Robbie enter today's dance world, and, as usual, they show the youngsters a thing or ten. In fact, Howie B's trippy edits--most of the knob-twiddling was done on the spot, as the musicians played--bring a fresh kind of central-nervous-system stimulation and pair a European keyboard feel to Sly and Robbie's solid-gold reggae syncopations. As premillennium reggae flounders in the doldrums and drum 'n' bass turns into one long yawn, this set offers a new musical environment, charged with Howie B's nuanced techno oddities and grounded in the organic appeal of Shakespeare's smart-bomb bass--phat and on-target--and Dunbar's drum programming--impossible to distinguish from his legendary hands-on technique. In fact, the set has such broad potential appeal that Palm Pictures has also released a long-form, 35-minute DVD video Strip to the Bone (after the album's title single), featuring a bevy of L.A. strippers and proving that the only thing that won't bounce to Sly and Robbie is silicone.