Bleep

Having plugged away at their heady melding of dub reggae with post-punk’s open minded experimentalism and penchant for collie weed for the best part of three years, producing some the UK’s strangest and most fascinating popular records of the early 1980s, New Age Steppers came a very long way in a remarkably short amount of time. 1983’s Foundation Steppers would be their last proper album until 2012’s Love Forever, but it’s quite a magnificent way to draw a line under things for the time-being.

The avant-garde flourishes are still present in Adrian Sherwood’s dub-minded production, crackling reggae percussion bouncing all around the mix with every snare hit — and a host of otherworldly audio flourishes otherwise where ‘5 Dog Race’ is concerned — but the immediacy of the collective’s last album Action Battlefield seeps into Ari-Up and Big Sherman’s vocal deliveries, by turns unruly and mellow. The fact’s bolstered by the LP’s most striking element; its expanded line-up and instrumentation. Buoyant horns, synthesisers and organ punctuate the rhythms of opening track ‘Some Love’, accompanied by the presence of slap bass on ‘Misplaced Love’.

Expertly produced with a playful and experimental approach toward both genres, Foundation Steppers is a perfect entry point for the uninitiated exploring the punky reggae party.