Forty-four years after forming in the British Midlands, Steel Pulse are still raging against the system and championing black empowerment. Their music is still potent enough to impress judges at the Grammy Awards who named them as one of five nominees for Best Reggae Album at next year’s show.
The veteran band earn their seventh call for Mass Manipulation which was released in May by their Wiseman Doctrine label in association with Rootfire Cooperative. They are the only non-Jamaican act to win the Best Reggae Album category, doing so in 1987 with Babylon The Bandit.
Mass Manipulation is their first album in 15 years. Their previous effort, African Holocaust, was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005; Toots and The Maytals won that year for True Love.
David Hinds, Steel Pulse’s charismatic lead singer and rhythm guitarist, again wrote most of the songs. He spoke about getting another nomination as the band prepares to mark their 45th anniversary.
“In all honesty it means everything,” he said.
Hinds, whose parents are Jamaican, and keyboardist Selwyn Brown are the only survivors of Steel Pulse’s heyday of the 1970’s and 1980’s when they released outstanding albums like Handsworth Revolution, True Democracy and Steppin’ Out.
Those albums contain classic songs like Ku Klux Klan, Worth His Weight in Gold (Rally Round) and Steppin’ Out, Hinds admits Steel Pulse have been pressured over the years to replicate them.
“They (record companies) think that we will put out an album that will stand the test of time like a True Democracy. If you set a trend, people expect you to maintain a certain trend and though you want to do things differently, you still have to live up those standards,” he said.
While not packing the punch of their glory years, Mass Manipulation entered the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart on its release. It includes several songs saluting Rastafari including Stop You Coming and Come.
Steel Pulse’s rivals for the 2020 Best Reggae Album are Rapture by Koffee; More Work to be Done (Third World); As I Am (Julian Marley); and The Final Battle: Sly and Robbie versus The Roots Radics.
The 62nd Grammy Awards take place January 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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