We are once again thrilled and regailed to bring you some more half baked ideas and muddy prose, typed straight from the malfunctioning Brother WP-80 of Preston G. Parallax. During the cold, grim winter of 1986 Preston’s controversial short story ‘Reggae Against Communism’ was deemed too dangerous for inclusion in his unreleased collection ‘Glaucoma of God and other stories’. The sinister shadow of the iron curtain hung too heavily, and would have put his life in grave danger (at least that’s what he told us).

A savage comment on the soviet regime that covered much of Eastern Europe at the time, ‘Reggae Against Communism’ pits a super-powered Rocksteady band against Communism’s head honcho – and the man who started it all – Joseph Stalin. We’ll spare you it’s turgid plot and get straight to the gripping finale – a symbolically complex idealogical battle to the death. This idea was entirely Preston’s work and should not be confused with the political movement of the same name.

Reggae Against Communism p36.

(Copyright Preston G Parallax 1986)

…..Commander Joseph Stalin sat chuckling upon his throne of red skulls. He was thinking about how we were all the same, and what he was going to do to those people who weren’t – when suddenly there was an explosion in his Kremlin throne room. Startled, the realisation that his evil scheme had been thwarted was thrust upon him like an ideology was thrust upon his people. Through the smoke he could make out the silouhette of King Tubby Rootsmon mercilessly slaying his Soviet henchmen. Somehow they’d managed to penetrate the virtually impenetrable sanctuary of his inner sanctum. But how? He’d once found that Desmond Dekker album in Luitenant Agafonov’s quarters, but it couldn’t have been him. Surely not.

It mattered not now how. Commander Stalin drew his weapons and turned to face his assassin. ”So King Tubby, we meet again. Nice of you to drop by”, “It ohhver Joseph” said King Tubby “Ye can come nice and irie or me can lick off ye head top, iz up to ye mon”. The commander let out a blood curdling laugh “You’ll never take me alive rastaman!!!” and with that he leapt 12 feet into the air and flew straight for King Tubby’s chest. Stalin pinned King Tubby to the ground with his sickle, and before he delivered his trademark deadly hammer blow direct to the King’s skull, he had a few words to say.

“Last chance for redemption King Tubby. Will you or will you not embrace Communism?” he asked. “Never mon! me got too much love for de Reggae music, das whas in me heart” said King Tubby. “Then, DIEEEEEEEEE!!!”, but just as the commander’s hammer of justice was about to deal its final blow, King Tubby dealt his secret weapon – a cloud of deadly Marijuana smoke breathed directly in Stalin’s face. “MMUAUUAAAAAH” yelled Stalin as he stumbled backwards “I CAN’T SEEEE”, as he stood up , King Tubby paralysed him further with the sweet chord progression from ‘No Woman No Cry’.

As Joseph’s vision began to clear he could now make out four men in front of him. It was all 4 members of Blood and Fire and Wine. All was still for a couple of seconds, until King Tubby gave them all an order. ‘BUN IIIIIIIIIM!’ he commanded and their collective power of redemptive fire came firing out of all of them until it burnt the commander to a crisp.

It was over. Reggae had won, and over time replaced communism as the dominant ideology of Europe and beyond. People sang Peter Tosh songs and all children learned Patois in school, eventually replacing English as the language of Europe. Everything was nice and irie.

THE END

This week yr 20 Jazz Funk Greats funkateers were lucky enough to spend an undisclosed period of time in the unapologetically psychedelic presence of Daniel Emmanuel

JD Emmanuel – Evening Devotional

Anyone who managed to pick up the reissue of Wizards on the equally heady Dolphin’s into the Future’s label  - Hometime Taped Sounds, or last year’s reissue on Important Records will know that JD is an infinite sage, able to show our aching conciseness the door to the next big movement in human perception. 20JFG longs for that day JD’s friendly face appears upon our conference room plasma screen and his mind-opening pulsations fill our daily meetings (which are mainly about world domination, the destruction of sub-continents etc…..but shhh don’t tell anyone, we’re supposed to be hippies). Taken from his non-reissued tape ‘Ancient Minimal Meditations’, ‘Evening Devotional’ is truly a pulse wave juggernaut rolling through the desert of mundanity, collecting all parched travellers in its wake. Let’s ‘ave it!

JD Emmanel we salute you. We wholeheartedly recommend digging in the crates for his back catalogue.

Also knocking around in the 20JFG psychotropic locker next to a blackening banana for some time, is this video by Ben Butler and Mousepad. Aside from being some seriously safe dudes, Ben Butler an Mousepad also produce the oddest shapes in music since Keith Emerson discovered he was quite good at the piano. ‘Design’ ups the Frank Zappa intake of Nik Kershaw’s youth to the point where he grows up into rabid prog mutoid topping the charts with his new single ‘uqnoeueonuwhuwibgiwebguebgiwb’. Watch all the way through and you will find a canny link to unearth the rest of their recent fine album, available now on Loaf recordings.

 

 

Epilogue -
This post is tagged with psychedelic