Smith and Mighty, Bristol's legendary sound system come production team, began life in the early-mid Eighties, way back when the Bristol scene first began to emerge.
The musical culture they helped to establish went on to spawn Massive Attack, Tricky and, later, Roni Size (amongst others). But somehow Smith and Mighty have never quite received their due.
To-be-sure their name is one of the often repeated mantra's of UK dance, dub and roots music, but, apart from 'Wishing On A Star', which they produced for Fresh Four, success has fallen short of just deserves.
According to Smith and Mighty the reason for this is pretty simple.
After the success of 'Wishing On A Star' in 1989 Smith and Mighty were hungrily signed by London records who then, in a period of up tempo post-acid house, refused to release any of M&S's downtempo dub fuelled material - thus leaving Massive Attack to reap the rewards alone.
Hence it was only after their contract finished in 1996 that Smith and Mighty managed to unleash their debut long player, 'Bass Is Maternal', on their own record label.
Although still obviously influenced by their dub reggae roots, the crew were quick to embrace drum 'n' bass scene, so it's not surprising that 'Life IS..', which was two years in the making, sees them dishing out a sophisticated take the dub breaks-garage scene with the first single, 'B-Line Flow'.
But their roots stay equally in evidence. The hauntingly powerful 'Rise' harkens back to the breezy production values of 'Wishing On A Star', albeit with a lot of welly booted into its midriff, while dub music with contemporary edge is seldom better than 'Try'.
'Sea' counterbalances dangerously low bass lines with fragile vocals and African chord and rhythm patterns, while the Hazel Jayne sung 'You Said Always' sees the addition of Herbert/ Cornelius liquid effects. The bass line on 'I Saw You' is simply art in motion.
Whether Smith and Mighty can ever follow Massive Attack into coffee table music history is dubious. Their sound is perhaps too true to its source to make that kind of leap.
But given the choice of having another Massive Attack, Portishead, or, for that matter, Roni Size, you'd be mad not to pick Smith and Mighty every time.
Mighty fine. Mighty fine.
