Horace Andy
A floating, wounded tenor that can make warning sound weightless. Horace Andy carried Studio One roots into dub, dancehall and Massive Attack without ever losing the grain of Jamaica in his voice.
Horace Andy broke through at Studio One in the early 1970s with “Skylarking,” a song whose relaxed surface carried a warning about idle youth. His high, tremulous voice made him instantly recognizable across sessions with Coxsone Dodd, Bunny Lee, Phil Pratt and other producers, while songs such as “Mr Bassie,” “Money Money” and “Government Land” kept returning in new versions and mixes. From the 1990s onward, his recurring work with Massive Attack introduced that voice to another generation without turning him into a guest from somebody else’s story. Later collaborations with Adrian Sherwood returned him to deep dub production. Andy’s career is a clean bridge between Studio One, roots reggae, version culture and electronic bass music.