Survival of the Fattest

Prince Fatty is a precocious young British producer with a truly uncanny knack for re-creating the bubbling rhythms and warm analog textures of vintage roots reggae. Though he’s lent his talents as a recording engineer and producer to some of Britain’s biggest stars (including Graham Coxon and Lily Allen), he never sounds more comfortable than on his solo albums, where he channels the psychic energy and studio wizardry of giants like King Tubby, Scientist, and Keith Hudson. Survival of the Fattest is Fatty’s first proper solo effort, which finds the producer’s considerable talents augmented by guest spots from instrumental and vocal heavyweights. These include Stylie Scott, drummer for the legendary Roots Radics; Little Roy, who cut a series of earth-shatteringly profound roots tunes for the tiny Tafari label in the mid-‘70s; and Hollie Cook, a promising young singer who can deliver a lyric with the offhand assurance of the greatest of the rocksteady divas. The result is a remarkably consistent debut that sounds fresh and assured while paying respectful tribute to the golden age of Jamaican music.