Lustre Kings' article in Natty Dread Mag.

Lutan Fyah storms in. A hurricane with a bandana in his hair, and a true chatterbox, he greets everyone, obviously happy. Here, at King Corrin’s crib, a small house close to Highway 80 in Oakland, in the turbulent suburbs of the new-bourgeois San Francisco, the singers feels a little bit home. What more normal? Corin and his partner Moon assistant, the tenants of the Lustre Kings label, gave him last year Time And Place, his best album so far. Doing so, they contributed to turning Lutan from the “upcoming sing-jay” status to “big” one. It’s here as well that he spent a few weeks in 2001, along Jah Mason and Norris Man, taking his time to record, creating a true confidence and building up a true friendship. It shows in the music, and marks a real difference with most non-jamaican labels. "My home away from home”, hilarious Lutan sums up. This is the LK way : diaspora-style, the label often accomodates its distant members. At this very moment, for a mini-tour, the “house-artist’ Jah Dan, of new Yorkean musicians crew Noble Society fame, is crashing in a couch. Moon, the Lustre Kings riddim buider, also from Brooklyn and guitarist in the group which accompanies Lutan, is staying somewhere else in Oakland. It can be for instance at Rankin' Scroo’s, a veteran jamaican singer popular in the “Midnight Rock years” who runs a studio here, or at Child’s, another usual shelterer, a XXXL-dressed DJ with cigars blocked in his cap, pure East Coast speech, who got known for his “Project Groundation” mix Cds... Depending. That family is tight, welded almost, and got fed with multiple influences - Moon also produces from hip-hop to folk, and occasionnally drops solo albums on which he plays flute other instruments. This side also shows in the LK productions. Originality. This is what made the small label leave the strict circle of 7’’ collectors to reach a wider audience, thanks to the Culture Dem, compilations, illustrated by an exiled Cuban friend, Jah Terms. Versatility, as well, is the key to the LK sound. From a series to the next, the range covered has gone from pure roots – “Credential”, a version to Don Carlos’ tune- to percussive dancehall – “African Charm”- via recent, sweet One drop style as heard on the recent “New day”. Between the two extremes, always some intriguing, efficient, musical finds, perfectly produced. As exemples, the insolite environment of the Talking Drum or the dramatic effects on Turbulence’s Bun Dem Again can illustrate. To add up to the musical skills, the two buddies do have a talent to spot the future talents in Jamaica (Turbulence, Lutan Fyah, Al Pancho...) before they become "big artists". This is how the Lustre Kings’ credential grows... Why this name, by the way ? Corrin Haskell, a piercing glance and turban always matching his shirt, also a kids teacher in a city school, details the process: "Moon and me grew up together in Seattle, we’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We were a whole group of kids and we started to call ourselves The Lustre Kings because there was this parking space downtown, on which we wanted to park, that read : ' Reserved to Lustre Kings'.” That’s it. This fantastic name found, what to make with it ? In the beginning, nothing. Adolescence occurs, the two pals just collect music. The revelation came from Moon, who decided once to take off to Jamaica, "with a backpack and just the clothes I had on me”, staying at people’s places. Soul searching. And discovering Garnett Silk, Capleton in full redemption mode and the bubbling conscious dancehall scene building up after the 'punaany years'. Enthusiastic, he convinces childhood friend Corrin to go check it out on the spot. Not needing to be asked twice, Corrin leaves in 1995 in order to go teach at halfway Tree for 5 months. "I lived in Papine and I had a one hour walk down Hope Road to join my school, he recalls. On the way, I stopped sometimes at the house of Bob Marley and passed around the occasionnal mix-tape, that’s how I met Mister T ". Mister T, not a big singer, brings nevertheless the young teacher to Nannyville, "it was pure bobos in there, there were even Sizzla with his mini-locks, and also Jah Marcus or Mabrak. We’d burned the chalice, I recorded a few a cappellas because everyone was singing all the time. I also brought back actually a full Mister T tune, recorded at Anchor studio, called Jah All The While. It was to become our first official single. Returning to the USA, I linked up straight with Moon, who was already making a lot of beats : yo Moon, if you give me 5 riddims, I have all the artists we need ". Moon listened and agreed. He smiles today : "I had my MPC and I said myself: I can do better than that ". Not even bragging. The pair goes back to Jamaica a few months later, their five instrumentals under the arm, and voice three unknown artists: I-Call, Mister T and Shadroch. If the result is in their own words anecdotic, the label is at least launched. More importantly, both "rookies" learn certain strings from the trade while mixing in Dynamic. "We had to negociate with Sylvan Morris", Moon laughs. The engineer, when he saw the freshly-landed Americans, sort of tried to “adapt” his rates : "All of a sudden, from 500 dollars for the three tunes, he wanted 500 for each one". Mmh. Sylvan ends up doing the job for the initial price, the series drops anyway, with a limited success. "No big names", Corrin says; "Honestly, the tunes weren’t that great ", Moon admits. Still, they stuck their foot in the door. It won’t close ; the only missing now being amazing vocalists. Enters Al Pancho. “The true beginning", Moon states. It all starts in Seattle, when Norris Man and Anthony B stop during a 1999 tour. Backstage, Corrin passes around some LK flyers when Norris, a colourful charcater to say the least, gets all wired up : on the LK promo piece is a picture of his long-lost school buddy Mister T ! Back to Jamaica a few months later, the Lustre Kings put both friends in contact again. Norris Man is so happy that he records the US label’s first anthem : Culture Dem, which is to become the title of the 2 LK’s hit-compilations. In the studio on the same day, an unknown youth that never stops singing is roaming around "he had a really different voice tone", Corrin remembers. His name is Al Pancho and he’s going to become a staple in the LK’ classic singers’ team. Plus he knows virtually every singer, from Luciano to Natty King… More than this encouraging start, the Americans now need some big names. It all changed in the summer of 2001, right before September 11. “those were powerful times, ”Corrin sums up. Living now in California, he goes to Seattle where Jah Mason and Lutan Fyah are staying at a friend’s house. “That gave us time to discuss and really work”. They record some major tunes in the history of the label, in a hip hop basement studio : among them is No More War by Lutan Fyah, on the Fortune Teller riddim popularized by Turbulence with Burn Dem Again or Yami Bolo with War And Revolution, their biggest sale to date. Probably more fond of the Bay Area’s weather than Seattle’s too, both singers follow Corrin and set camp in his place for the entire summer. This is when the “Lustre King method to real link up” officially starts. Based on a real relationship, not business-only driven. This is one of the reasons Lutan Fyah’s album Time and Place sounds so perfect : no secret, eight weeks of tight bonds and works always pay. NorrisMan, also cruisin by, is invited as well, along one of Moon’s friends : Jah Dan, a Guyanese-NY eclectic conscious rapper/singer who used to work with DJ Premier and was part of the Buckshot Lefonque project. He’s also a member of the collective of musicians and producers called Noble Society, that count in its ranks Nick Fantastic, who produced the Hard Times riddim. Strenghtened by this kind of successful collaboration, the Lustre Kings fly again to Jamaica in December 2001. "Two or three most memorable sessions at Anchor studios”, Corrin notes. This is when they get Sizzla, "He was more of an enigma, cool but mystical, more laid-back than that one time Nannyville,” Moon remembers. “He got his tune in 15 minutes". They also record the then-relatively unknown Turbulence –they stay at his place- and Anthony B, Yami Bolo. Capleton, as well, one of the artists they love to see work the most. “He has his feet well on the ground”, Moon explains. “It was exciting to go to the David House, everybody came down to the studio, four cars were packed up with people, they were shooting gunshots in the air ! It was insane. Once inside, the ambiance was even crazier.” Just before those sessions, they even took Al Pancho and Natty King to Cuba, “he sang No Guns To town over there before he recorded it when he came back"... Now everything is in place for LK. Their most successful series come from those times : Fortune Teller, Alarm Clock, or the tune Woman Of Principles (Lutan Fyah, still) which even gets some air play on the radio in Jamaica. A real recognition, if you bear in mind that they don’t do the Payola thing. “Payola?” The term is American and comes from the 50s, when a series of scandals destroyed the careers of rock’n’roll DJs Alan Freed and Dick Clark, because it got proved they accepted money to play tunes from such or such producer. In Jamaica, this form of payment is more than accepted : it’s more of a general, accepted phenomenon. Anyway. Selling little on the island due to non-Payolaship partly, the Lustre Kings owners distribute nevertheless from Jamaica their discs stamped with "Made In Jamaica" on the label, since they are recorded and pressed on the spot. The two only series which were not got actually saved by this printing on their label : "we managed to go through customs because with the label, we managed to let them believe we were bringing back unsold copies”, they laugh. Besides the endless trips, this is the kind of mind gymnastics they have to play when living 5000 km away from Kingston, They don’t regret it, though. "Here in the US, it’s our backyard,” Corrin explains. “When artists come here, we can have a quality time to record, with no distraction like in Kingston, when every guy is like : ‘Yo King, listen to my tune, number one'!" The LK take their time. It’s the simple recipe that they apply. In the future, that should’nt change. Moon and Corrin would like from now on even less artists on each series, three or four of them, and maybe release 10’’ or 12’’, just to make sure proper promotion is made for each tune. And no, they won’t stop trying to find new talents. From the Boo Studio in Rhode Island, Moon works tightly Vaughn Benjamin, the singer of the Virgin Islands based group Midnite, whom he’s known since 1997. The LK instrumentalist is also very close to Zion High label. All that should lead to really interesting things, amongst others "the Zion High first singles made in Jamaica", Moon smiles. In his corner, talented Jah Dan’s huge talent is also ready to unleash some great songs… And there are still so many more to discover… This summer, the two LK accomplices will be in the field again. Their future sure sounds creative. Or just like the spot in that Seattle parking lot : “Reserved to Lustre Kings”.

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