The Originatah Be Back. Irie.

I created this blog so that I would be able to write smaller pieces more frequently than I could on the main site at estrogenius dot net.

yyyyyeah... OK, so it hasn't exactly worked out that way. But it's not MY fault that I keep finding interesting subjects that require in-depth analysis, or whatever it is that I do.

And dammit, here's another one!

Ari-Up is still best known as the frontwoman of the legendary all-girl Punk band, The Slits. If you don't know anything about Ari-Up or The Slits, you can check out the tribute I wrote here. It's pretty comprehensive, so maybe this won't have to be a huge post after all. Suffice it to say that Ari-Up started a groundbreaking band (which was largely ignored), then dropped out of society and went hardcore native -- literally living naked in the jungle of Belize -- before she regrouped and restarted her career in Jamaica, where she did for Dancehall what she had previously done for Rock.

During her Jamaican career, she performed under the name Medusa (or Madusa -- I've seen it reported both ways), a name that playfully referenced her remarkable, serpentine dreadlocks. Yeah, you heard me: A British-born white girl with dreads managed to make a name for herself in Jamaica. If you didn't already think that this chick had major huevos, then that should change your mind.

Apparently that wasn't a big enough challenge, because in the 90's she packed up and moved her family to Brooklyn, USA. There, she started a new band, Ari-Up and the True Warriors (a 9 on the "cool name" scale), and toured for a few years until finally, in the summer of 2005, she released a new album as Ari-Up called Dread More Dan Dead.




Since I never lived in Jamaica, Dread More Dan Dead was the first time I was able to hear and see (the CD has a bonus video) Ari-Up since her circa-1980's work with The Slits. And the verdict? Remarkable. I'm not just throwing that word out there, either. As soon as the first track, "Baby Mother", started spinning, there was Ari-Up's familiar voice, completely unchanged tonally, but all the better for the intervening years of experience. And if you've seen the pictures on the website and doubted whether they were of recent vintage, the music video for "Me Done" proves it: The woman is ageless. After thirty years of making music, with brief time-outs to have three children, Ari-Up still throws down as hard as she has ever done, and looks incredible doing it.

She has gone through some changes, of course. Ari-Up calls her genre "Punky Reggae", and indeed, she sings almost all of the songs in a completely authentic-sounding patois. I like Reggae music a lot, and there have been many female Reggae stars, but one thing you could never call the music was "progressive". Well, Ari-Up has smashed that door open with her feminist take on Reggae themes, and good for her, I say.

Ari-Up also produced the album, and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall sound. If you're at all comfortable with Reggae or Dancehall, then you will find this album very accessible; but I'm happy to report there is one harder Punk track on the album ("Allergic"), proof that Ari-Up can't abandon her roots completely.

Dread More Dan Deadwas a treat for a sentimental bastard like me, who was missing Ari-Up's sound and attitude in music. It was like a long-lost childhood friend who showed up at my door, and turned out to be Lara Croft. It turns out that not only has Ari-Up been keeping busy, she's positively thriving.