I was at London Paddington during the evening rush-hour. Freezing rain was falling in the darkness outside. For an unknown reason I had the YT tune 'England Story' buzzing around in my head. The station was packed with a jostling crowd of homeward bound travellers and somehow I had to find Kris Kemist.

He'd spent the afternoon mixing a tune at Conscious Sounds and I was taking the opportunity to intercept him on his way home to Reading. Luckily his phone blinked into life as he emerged from the underground, because I would never have identified him as the Reggae producer amongst the crowd. You don't need to know much about our ageing UK scene to understand that he looks surprisingly young. When YT said "This is my England Story, My true Reggae story" he was talking about past glories. With Kris Kemist it's still a uniquely British narrative, but it's the chapter that hasn't been written yet. The future.

 

At twenty five, Kris is hardly a baby. But with two albums and some well received singles under his belt already, you realise that he must have started early. We're often told that a generation of young people in England just weren't checking for Reggae. So I'm fascinated, how did he get into it?

"I caught the Reggae bug, you know how it sucks you in. I was a teenager still, like fourteen. My friend's cousin had a big soundsystem, he'd buy all the latest records from Jamaica and give us soundtapes every week or two. This is like nineties, I didn't even start producing until after 2000. I liked all the Jamaican Roots artists, but I was also listening to the UK stuff; Jah Warrior, Disciples, Jah Tubbys. I was just feeling everything. Definitely a mixture of Jamaican and UK. Junior Kelly and Jah Mason when they were the upcoming singjay style. Jah Warrior was a big influence."

It's still a mighty big leap from that initial introduction to where he is now. Reality Shock is an artists stable, a record label, a dubplate service and a booking agency. Kris has built all this in double quick time without bragging, swaggering or taking himself too seriously. He carried on with the story,

"From day one I wanted to learn how to make music. My family is quite musical and I've always played guitar. I was listening to stuff like Jah Warrior productions and thinking "wow, imagine if I could make something as good as that one day". I started to meet people just through making Reggae music and I was enthusiastic about it, you know what I mean. Reading is a small place. Eventually you're going to bump into people who move in the musical circles. People just started coming round basically; started working. Originally not for anything serious, just for the vibes. Just a computer, a standard mike and a mixer to plug it into. Still at my Mum's house. My Mum was happy, she saw these big artists coming in and doing their thing and she thought it sounded really good."

This last thought, like a lot of his answers, was accompanied by a naturally self deprecating chuckle. It's all part of the package with Kris, he's a decidedly different proposition from other UK Reggae producers. He's not trying to emulate anyone and he totally speaks the same language as his contemporaries who're into Hip-Hop, Grime and Dubstep.

 

Back to YT again "...Unity from North London a run the place hot!"

The new album from Reality Shock features a number of artists from the legendary soundsystem Unity Hi-fi. I wondered how this connection came about.

"I met Mikey Murka through a friend who said "I know this singer if you wanna work with him". I was like OK, I'll meet the singer. We started doing some tunes. I didn't really know anything about Unity Sound or any of that. He'd completely vanished from the scene for years. I dunno, it's like life gets in the way sometimes. Family and some little troubles here and there, you know what I mean. And the Reggae scene being dead as well. It can get so you don't even know that people remember you. It was amazing when we started putting little tune on the internet. The amount of feedback. It was like "wow, Mikey Murka from back in the Unity days! Rah!" The feedback from the people that did remember him was kind of encouraging. It felt like we needed to start trying to put some tunes out. To set up a label basically."

Mikey Murka had been out of sight for a long time and it could have stayed that way had he not met someone from the internet generation.

"I used to be on the internet a lot. I met Reuben Addis that way and he showed me Yahoo Messenger. I started going on these Roots & Culture web mail groups with lots of Reggae people from all over, not just England. I started linking people really, we'd pass each other our tunes. Just learning. The website Versionist was a really nice community of people back in the day. It's not the same anymore. It was people from all over the world making Reggae music for the love of it, helping each other out and collaborating. Nice vibes. The feedback got more and more. Eventually I wanted to put a record out. I didn't know what to do, but I found out. DJ Ras Lion linked me up with David Dubwise. So then I was like, OK I can sell music, that's good!"

 

When Kris and I started our discussion we were lucky to find an empty table overlooking the bustle of Paddington's main concourse. During peak times London's mainline stations burst into life. Travellers equal in number to whole city populations beetle through to work and home again each day. Every corner of Paddington Station is utilised during this frenetic period. London's commuters want to travel, eat, drink, shop, text, e-mail and read the latest news simultaneously. A recent modernisation means that West London's biggest station is pretty good at giving them what they want. We'd been deep in conversation and by the time we looked around again the rush-hour was over. Without us noticing the commuters were gone, leaving only their litter. Imperceptibly the station had gone from feeling like the centre of the world to the wrong place at the wrong time. We were like British Reggae stars of the eighties who suddenly noticed at the end of the decade that the youth all preferred Hip-Hop or Drum 'n' Bass, that gun violence had closed down the dancehalls and the soundsystems had all parked. As YT put it "Dem time England have we own industry, used to have we own label coulda bust we, we need to bring back dem old times trust me."

Every English city with a black population used to have it's Reggae scene, with soundsystems and artists galore. Changing times were particularly hard on artists from provincial cities like Reading where the scene could be reliant on just one important venue. As Kris explained,

"Central Club in Reading was famous! Everyone came there. Every big sound and every big Jamaican artist."

When it finally closed in 1995, amid the usual sorry tales of guns and drugs, it marked the end of an era for Reggae in the city.

"There's so many artists around, a whole generation who grew up in the thick of it in the seventies and eighties when everything was really happening. All these talented artists who don't have enough going on for them. A lot of the artists I originally met were living around Reading. Aqua Livi is Reading's answer to Bob Marley. To me he's a legend. Deadley Hunta and Solo Banton are from Reading and Prince Livijah is in Wycombe which is just down the road. I know a lot of other artists who are amazingly talented and they're stacking shelves in Tesco's, working in a warehouse or on a building site. Nobody's ever going to hear about them because they haven't got the right people around them to keep them motivated and make them feel like there's a purpose. There's so many aspects of being an artist. Not just making the music. There's the promotional side, the live shows, organising bookings ... it's impossible for one person to do everything. So once Reality Shock got going, the idea was to create a family or a unit so we all move forward together."

This has got to be the positive aspect of the on-going 'England Story'. Because we used to "have we own industry" we've still got the talent; artists who developed their skills when the UK was the only place outside JA that mattered Reggae-wise. Enthusiastic young producers like Kris have plenty wise old heads around. Tough times have meant that only the true soldiers are still standing. As Kris points out,

"The artists I work with are there for the love of doing it. If they had any other reason for being an artist they would have quit a long time ago."

 

The new album is a showcase for the talents of the Reality Shock stable. Its a mix of artists from both the core and the fringes of the camp. The artists lend more than just their voices.

" I produced about half the riddims and they were mixed by Russ D. The other tracks I took from here and there. Afrikan Simba, Prince Livijah and Solo Banton have all got labels and they've done a lot of work with different producers. So I took whatever riddim tracks we had the right to use."

The result is a very pleasing and totally unique mix of styles. Featuring the work of some of the UK's very best, including Gussie P and Stingray. It could only happen in England. Two songs that appeared on successful 10" releases are also featured. One is the magnificent soundsystem smash 'War' by Mikey Murka and the other is 'Free Up The Herbs' by Afrikan Simba, that sold out of it's thousand copies in a month.

 

Kris admits that he had no idea what he was doing when he started Reality Shock. However, he's a fast learner. He's already developed a viable formula. 10" singles for the UK Dub market, albums to re-establish the artists and dubplates to help pay the bills.

"The Mikey Murka album was the original project, but it took a long time to manifest itself, it was three or four years before we had a final product that we were happy with. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time with regard to promoting and marketing a CD album, but Mikey's been getting a lot of work in Europe. Everything we've done together has re-established him, people know that he's back and ready to work again. That's basically what our intention was. I'm making an album with Aqua Livi that will be out at the end of this year or the beginning of next. We're trying to do the same as we did with Mikey. With the 10" I'm getting sucked into this Dub market 'cos they're the people still buying records. But I enjoy it because I really feel that kind of music. I'm happy to keep making UK Dub for the soundsystems and the crowds in Europe."

Before he strolls off to his westbound train, Kris excitedly mentions that Reality Shock have got a live outfit called the Upper Cut Band that are in his words "good to go" and has some news about Errol Bellot.

"I'm making an album with him that's coming out this year. He's working on three at the moment. My one's supposed to come out first, and if it does it'll be his first ever solo album. He's had about a million singles - he couldn't even write his own discography; but his first album is almost ready."

 

Maybe it's because it looks like the 'England Story' might have a happy ending after all; but I've got a new song in my head now. Track 1 off the Reality Shock album. Errol Bellot singing "Reality Shock moves heartical".

 

 

February 2009

 

Reality Shock website: www.realityshock.com

Myspace: www.myspace.com/realityshockrecords