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Steel Pulse's debut album set the band decisively apart from its British colleagues. This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, either pop-reggae or lovers rock. Nor was it the kind of dreamy, Rasta reggae or art-for-art's sake dub that was popular at the time. Though the subtly jazzy swing (that would later become explicit) was already commanding Steel Pulse's groove, the band's first record seemed not at all interested in generating any kind of party atmosphere. Handsworth Revolution is about politics, first and foremost, and religion second, with a quick nod to the dance ("Sound System") and another to the herb ("Macka Splaff") and yet not a single love lyric to be found anywhere. This gives the music a certain intellectual urgency, and the band's instrumental virtuosity is impressive given its youth and relative inexperience.
Tracklist
1 Handsworth Revolution
2 Bad Man
3 Soldiers
4 Sound Check
5 Prodigal Son
6 Ku Klux Klan
7 Prediction
8 Macka Splaff