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As Horace Andy freely admits he’s never too keen to leave his homeland of Jamaica but after spending five days in North London with Ashley Beedle recording this album, I can imagine he wouldn’t mind staying. Andy is best known for the all-time classic ‘Skylarkin’ and a huge back catalogue including ‘Airbag’ on Easy Star All Stars’ Radiodread and his work with Massive Attack at their peak. Whilst Beedle made his name as part of X-Press 2 (notably with the hit ‘Lazy’ that featured David Byrne) but also with the Ballistic Brothers, Black Science Orchestra and in the early years, head honcho of Afro Arts without mentioning the countless remixes (OK, lets mention our favourites like Femi Kuti’s ‘Beng, Beng, Beng’, Amadou & Mariam’s ‘Coulibaly’, Dr. Rubberfunk’s ‘Taking Over’ and The Rolling Stones’ ‘Rain Fall Down’ from 2005 but there are loads more).

So you can take it for granted that Andy’s lyrics and vocal performances are a powerful and poignant as ever; you don’t have to be a dreadlock Rasta to relate to ‘Seek It’, ‘Watch We’ or the opener ‘When It Rains’. ‘Rasta Don’t’ is genuine anthem and as a veggie myself, I love the line “Rasta don’t want no finger lickin’” (we’re talking KFC as opposed to anything on the Finger Lickin’ label of course); “Rasta don’t want big belly” well ital stew sounds good.

Getting back to Beedle, so we know he likes the Rolling Stones and we know they’ve dabbled with reggae way back. There was a time when their Goats Head Soup would be neck and neck with Steve Wonder Innervisions on the streets of Small Heath. Of course, no competition really but if I have to own up to Jagger/Richard guilty pleasure, ‘Angie’ would be it so it makes, the Andy/Beedle cover a brave choice which they just about pull off; especially in comparison to their version of ‘Hypocrites’ which is obviously a happy affair as the original is another DJ box classic.

But neither of these two are going to give up a chance to be inspirational and ‘The Light’ is an unfamiliar Rasta hymn dub (needs a few listens this one) and ‘Hot, Hot, Hot’ is another odd mix of socca and go-go. That said they can switch easily between any aspect of reggae with ‘2 Way Traffic’ being a bit dubby and ‘Babylon You Lose’ as in your face roots and how old guys do dancehall skank.

Horace’s vocal inflections aren’t to everyone’s taste but more fool them (“all the wicked men shall burn in hell”) and there are a couple of misses (not keen on ‘Festival Song’) but the good stuff more than makes up for this, especially ‘Angie’, ‘Rasta Don’t and ‘Babylon You Lose’.

There are hints that the Inspiration Information bar is going to be raised even higher with Vol. 3 on its way so definitely a series to follow.

Reviewed: Horace Andy / Ashley Beedle - Inspiration Information Vol. 2 (Strut) Cat. No. STRUT041CD Release date: 2nd March 2009
Tracklisting
1. When The Rain Falls (4:28)
2. Watch We (4:42)
3. Seek It (5:08)
4. Rasta Don’t (4:09)
5. Hypocrite Dog (3:48)
6. The Light (5:06)
7. Angie (5:14)
8. Two Way Traffic (4:37)
9. Babylon You Lose (4:52)
10. Hot Hot Hot (3:56)
11. Festival Song (3:37)

Links:
www.ashleybeedle.co.uk
www.myspace.com/xpress2
www.strut-records.com/inspirationinformation_two
www.myspace.com/strutrecords