The Aggrovators were one of the crack Jamaican session bands in the mid-'70s, working mainly out of Channel One with producer
Bunny Lee. Essentially a spin-off of
the Soul Syndicate,
the Aggrovators were an extremely loose and flexible (not to mention versatile) confederation, sharing much of the personnel of
the Revolutionaries, with
Tommy McCook,
Lester Sterling,
Sly Dunbar,
Robbie Shakespeare,
Ansel Collins,
Bernard Harvey,
Bobby Ellis,
Roland Alphonso, and
the Barrett Brothers, among others, tracking under the
Aggrovators banner. The group invented and perfected the so-called "flying cymbals" sound, spiking rhythms with a distinctive open and closed hi-hat effect that became omnipresent in the reggae productions of the time.
Bunny Lee was one of the first Jamaican producers to recognize the possibilities present in reusing backing tracks over and over, and the cuts included here on
Instrumental Reggae are recycled and remixed into a sort of light dub jazz, with veteran horn men
Bobby Ellis and
Tommy McCook each taking turns soloing over the rhythms. The effect is both soothing and subliminally trippy, with sax and trumpet lines echoing forever over dubbed-out drum and bass tracks, sort of MOR dub, if there is such a thing. The album has a consistent, unified tone, and would be perfect to listen to while doing light housework on a lazy, hazy summer afternoon.
–
Steve Leggett, Rovi