Words by Justin Turford
The eccentric dub-infused world of Elijah Minnelli has long been a favourite of ours. An alter-ego from a made up place (‘the ongoing artist-in-residence and de facto Night Czar of Breadminster County Council’), he may not take himself too seriously but he certainly gives a hoot about the music that he creates.
A member of doom-dub provocateurs Damos Room and a producer of a slew of essential 7” releases that knitted together sludgy cumbia rejada, Augustus Pablo-esque dub reggae, outsider folk and levantine melodies into a truly one-off brew, Elijah is both very English in his humour and global in attitude. His ‘Don’t Touch The Chives’ show on Radio Alhara combined his various passions into hilarious, unsettling and curious sound stories, his deadpan spoken word madness filtered through reggae sound system stylings amidst drops of rare folk and traditional Middle Eastern songs; a weird educational broadcast from the depths of Breadminster.
One thing that Elijah has never done on his solo productions up to now is collaborate with vocalists. On his new album,‘Perpetual Musket’, for FatCat Records, that omission has been remedied in some style with bona fide reggae legends Earl Sixteen and Little Roy sharing microphone duties with London hotshot Shumba Youth and the excellent Bristol-based singer and composer Joe Yorke on four uncommonly evocative covers of folk standards.
“Elijah Minnelli’s rendition of ‘Lifeboat Mona’ is truly excellent. It is a moving mixture of percussion, harmony and vocals that knows how to tell a story. Vocalist Earl Sixteen does it JUST RIGHT. All the elements of the song, as I wrote it back in December 1959, are still there. Thanks to all for doing it so well." – Peggy Seeger
You know you’ve done something right when folk royalty like Peggy Seeger praise your version of her song! Each of the reinterpretations are equally sublime in their delivery and emotional punch, a sweet combination of tough reggae riddims, bottom-wobbling bass lines and traditional melodies expertly interweaved into another shapeshifting chapter of the winding stories that traditional songs inhabit. Trying to get to the source of the songs and melodies here (excepting Peggy Seeger’s ‘Lifeboat Mona’) is a complicated business - “archaic nonsense” in Elijah’s words. As he explained to me, ‘Vine & Fig Tree’ is from the Old Testament, ‘Soulcake’ is traditional, ‘Wind & The Rain’ is from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the vocal melodies “pinched” from versions such as this.
Four folk songs hardly maketh an album but in true reggae style, Elijah has included four superb dub ‘versions’ on the record, allowing the instrumental melodies and clattering percussion to breathe and stretch out. The harmonium / hurdy gurdy on the ‘Vine & Fig Tree’ dub ‘Ploughshare Dub’ wheezes like Pablo’s melodica as key lyrics are given a ghost-over of echoes and reverbs. The original’s message of honest work leading to peace and harmony is beautifully delivered by Little Roy, a masterful singer with a back catalogue of immense weight: the song’s Biblical lyrics no stranger to a veteran of roots reggae’s 70s’heyday.
Featuring the youthful Mr. Vegas-y voice of Shumba Youth, the clanging dancehall swinger ‘Soulcake’ is an astonishingly fresh and heavyweight interpretation of the traditional ballad ‘A’ Soulin’, a song once sung by children as they begged for 'soul cakes' on All Souls Day, a tradition very likely to have influenced Christmas carolling and ‘trick or treating’.
“Hey ho, nobody home, meat nor drink nor money have I none
Yet shall we be merry, Hey ho, nobody home.
Hey ho, nobody home, Meat nor drink nor money have I none
Yet shall we be merry, Hey ho, nobody home.
Hey Ho, nobody home.
Soal, a soal, a soal cake, please good missus a soul cake.
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
any good thing to make us all merry,
One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all.”
‘Ha’Penny Dub’ breaks ‘Soulcake’ down to its core, the bass line to the fore, a flanging metallic percussion line zinging as echoes swerve and abstract, Shumba Youth sliced and diced, the barest of melodies keeping it recognisable.
A song about the true and tragic tale of the sinking of the ‘Lifeboat Mona’ and her eight crew in 1959 should surely be a moment of deep sadness but Earl Sixteen’s honey-dipped voice softens the tale without losing any of its gravitas. Suspended drones and a spooky ‘horn’ section add harmony, the chorus demanding a group sing-a-long.
“Remember December of fifty-nine
The howling wind and driving rain
Remember the gallant men who drowned
On the lifeboat, 'Mona' was her name.”
‘Gallant Dub’ drops into a filtered space as aqueous and foreboding as the North Sea that claimed the lifeboatmen. Congas and guiro float on the surface like debris as endless reverbs envelop the song, the chiming bells at the end, a poignant touch.
Surely a Shakespearean tale has never sounded quite so pumping as on the digital dub bump of ‘Wind & The Rain’. Originating from the 17th Century, the originally titled ‘The Two Sisters’, has seen the song’s lyrics paired with an extraordinary array of different melodies as it has travelled through the years, and I’m assuming this most yearning of melodies belongs to Elijah and Joe Yorke, their version a tough Shaka style groove, Joe’s piercing falsetto a perfect fit for the subsonic bass and prominent ‘bubble’ piano chords. A digital sounding Arabic midjweh (or trumpet? Who knows) swirls as twitchy drum machine hats machine gun away. ‘Swaggering Dub’ absolutely kills it with cavernous bass pressure, treated high ends and massive reverbs.
A ridiculously good release that manages to decant centuries of English folk traditions into the Jamaican folk tradition; the countryman and the hurdy-gurdy man sharing tales of hope, death and redemption. In dub. 10/10
Released on June 21st 2024 on FatCat Records
BUY! https://breadminster.bandcamp.com/album/perpetual-musket