Heartbeat / Pgd
1986
Taxi Fare
About This Album
So big were Sly & Robbie that by the mid-'80s their rhythms were driving songs straight into the charts for a myriad of artists across the musical spectrum. Taxi Fare sums up this success via a killer compilation that is so focused on the duo that all else is heaved overboard. So devoted were the pair's fans that all that was required was their photo on the sleeve and their names on the cover. It was the first and only time in Western musical history that a drum and bass team took top billing. This album actually rounds up a baker's dozen of hits, but for whom? Apparently listeners were uninterested in such minutia; singers were simply extraneous and, as for the rest of the backing musicians, who cares? Well, at least the sleeve credits the music to Sly & Robbie and the Channel One All Stars, an aggregate of superb session men better known as the Revolutionaries. But all that's simply churlish when confronted with the fabulous music within. The instrumentals are all top-notch, and include seminal songs like the breezy "Taxi Connection," featuring Bobby Ellis on trumpet, the smoky dub of "Unmetered Taxi," the searing swing of "Red Hot," the urban militancy of "VLA Music," and the nod to Yazoo and the new wave of "Triplet.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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