Bringing together two albums from the dynamic DJ duo,
Chronic reissues in their entirety
Zungguzungguguzungguzeng and Divorced (Jamaican title, For Your Eyes Only). The former, released only in Britain by the Greensleeves label, bundled up a slew of recent Jamaican hits and blasted through the U.K. sound systems and clubs in 1983. Although credited only to
Yellowman, in fact more than half the album (seven out of ten tracks) features
Fathead as well. Produced by
Henry "Junjo" Lawes and boasting riddims laid down by
the Roots Radics and the High Times band, this set cemented
King Yellow's standing abroad, building on the success of the previous year's
Mister Yellowman set. That led to Burning Sound picking up the duo's For Your Eyes Only album, released in Jamaica in 1982, but arriving two years later in Britain as Divorced. It was a prescient retitling, for indeed, after five albums together (not including
Zunggu), the partnership was starting to falter, as
Fathead descended into the world of coke, leading to his fatal shooting two years after the release of Divorced. But there's no hint of what was to come on this set, as
Yellowman and
Fathead jubilantly trade off their toasts across nine sizzling tracks. Again,
Lawes was at the controls, with High Times providing the bulk of the backings. With or without
Fathead,
Yellowman released a flood of albums in the first half of the '80s, all of them top-notch. This is as good a pairing as any, and with such high-caliber material within, one really can't go wrong. ~ Jo-Ann Greene