One Step Forward Riddim – Upsetter

Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Upsetter camp set the tone here, and you can hear why the 1975 cut kept hanging around in reggae memory. This package pivots around Max Romeo’s “One Step Forward, ” with the original vocal sitting alongside the Upsetters’ “One Step Dub, ” so the emphasis is just as much on Perry’s studio craft as on the song itself. The riddim has that lean, shadowy Black Ark feel, with a deep bass line and a stern, insistent pull underneath Romeo’s voice. Santogold’s “Prince Jazzbo Ital Corner” and Tiken Jah Fakoly’s later version with Max Romeo both nod back to the same foundation, while the dub version stretches the groove out further. The track first appeared in 1975 and was later folded into Romeo’s War Ina Babylon era.