VARIOUS ARTISTS – Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story 1980-1986
Posted by AlMachine on Friday, April 11, 2008

If it’s a history lesson you’ve come for, then you’re in the right place.

Compass Point recording studio was set up in the late seventies by Island Records head honcho Chris Blackwell; a Bahamas-based hideaway that gave him the opportunity to work with (and ultimately achieve legendary status) producers like Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, two pivotal characters whose tempestuous fusion of funk, hip hop and new wave rock music created a whole new outlook on clubland dancefloors the world over.

Although steeped in hedonism back then, there is no denying the creative rather than chemical spark flowing through many of the songs here, even if some of the records included on this compilation were the results of too many late nights fuelled by a combination of home-grown and homebrew, Will Powers’ closing ‘Adventures In Success’ being the most obvious culprit, if that’s the right word to use.

The term “groundbreaking” is something that tends to get bandied about these days like free bus passes to the elderly or unemployment benefits to the socially inept, but among the thirteen tracks spread across ‘Funky Nassau…’ are some of the most truly unique slabs of vinyl to emerge in the history of music, whether it be dance or rock orientated. What’s more, at least three quarters of the songs here sound as fresh and inspirational today as they no doubt would have done 25 years ago, which is not only a testament to the people behind the process, but also fuels the fact that Blackwell, Dunbar and Shakespeare were simply light years ahead of their time.

Visit any half decent club night anywhere and you’re bound to hear Tom Tom Club’s (essentially Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) ‘Genius Of Love’ even today, while Grace Jones’ early avant garde reggae smash ‘My Jamaican Guy’ was the sole reason she was hyped beyond belief culminating in her often derided appearances on both the big and small screen.

Those two, and also Talking Heads’ peerless ‘Born Under Punches’ you should already be aware of. However, this is worth purchasing for the more obscure tracks too. Bits & Pieces’ ‘Don’t Stop The Music’ and Lizzy Mercier Descloux’s ‘Sun Is Shining’ may be slightly familiar either as reworkings or samples used on more recent records, but here they take on a new lease of life in their full glory.

Likewise ‘Spasticus Autisticus’, one of Ian Dury’s lesser known and more controversial pieces which was initially released in 1981 to commemorate the Year Of The Disabled and subsequently banned by the BBC for its allegedly inappropriate lyrical content, which mixes Dury’s unmistakeable North London slur with brassy horns and a jazz-fuelled beat creating an unlikely floorfiller in underground clubland.

If the music itself isn’t quite up your street – and unless you suffer from some kind of delusional hearing disorder it should be – then the 7000 word accompanying booklet still makes this collection a must-own for any serious music fan.

Priceless.

9/10

Dom Gourlay



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