Original 1989 UK pressing in beautiful condition.

Kotch drummer Steven Lee’s other job, at his father’s Sonic Sounds record distribution company in Kingston, gave Kotch an important connection. Upstairs at Sonic Sounds was a tiny computerized studio, Megabyte, that Sly Dunbar rented. Kotch’s keyboard player, Herbie Harris, became resident programmer and, with reggae changing in 1986 to a fully digital sound, Sly was looking for his Taxi label to follow suit.

In 1988 it arrived: a rocking, woodblock snare, a subsonic, growling bass, and a simple keyboard and guitar arrangement that owed something to rocksteady. When Dunbar needed a voice, he simply called on the band downstairs, but Kotch’s first new hit, ‘Cruising’, caused confusion. Many believed that it was the work of a girl group, as Espuet’s baritone had been sidelined for a falsetto worthy of the Stylistics. An appearance at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in 1988 confirmed that it was Espuet with the high-rise larynx. ‘Cruising’ hit number 1 in Jamaica, and it was quickly followed by ‘Tears’ (a Top 10 hit) and a cover version of Smokey Robinson’s ‘Ooh Baby Baby’, which Mango issued in England to considerable reggae chart success. ‘Heartbreak’, a cover version of Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’, and ‘Tracks Of My Tears’ have all since sold well.