Born towards the end of the fifties as JA was set to gain its independence, Erroll Scorcher, for a time at least, must have grown up surrounded by a great deal of celebratory feelings and situations. And while the life that JA residents had guessed at didn’t necessarily materialize, what resulted was a few decades of some of the most immediate and appropriate social criticism in music’s recorded history. Scorcher can’t necessarily be said to have begun the reportorial nature of the roots movement, but as he arrived on the music scene amidst the ‘70s, the deejay was more than satisfied to continue on where his forbearers had left off.

If one was to scour the internet for signs of Scorcher’s impact on the genre, it wouldn’t be the easiest thing to locate. He didn’t innovate or change the way that people toasted, but he was, for a time, one of the more adroit folks working in that mold. He only released a few full lengths – most notably Rasta Fire on which he was backed by the Revolutionaries. But on the proper follow up to that 1978 disc, Scorcher turns in an album that is able to maintain an approach to music that was at the time becoming antiquated while still discussing social issues that would continue to be important well past the 1980 release date of Roach in de Corner.

Easily the most well known offering from the disc, the title track is featured in a showcase style, with Scorcher’s vocal taking up a good portion of the first half of the track while the version pads out the nine minutes of the song. While that track impacted the charts, “Frog In A Water” didn’t do too poorly by the public either. With the song’s odd inclusion of what sounds like water bubbling – and you know what that means – it might be difficult to decipher what the deejay is talking about, guesses though might be right. If nothing else, it functions as simple entertainment. And by 1980, what the island of JA needed was a way by which to relax amidst the problems that seemed to envelop the nation.

“Nineteen Eighty” finds Scorcher in a similar territory as Linton Kwesi Johnson – even utilizing what sounds like almost plain speech for a bit of the track. The song makes its way through the decade detailing disparate and vague events that may or may not have had any chance of becoming reality. The song, though, might represent some sound business thinking on the part of the toaster. After all, at the dawning of a new era, people want their entertainment to reflect their world. So, while it’s pretty much all just conjecture, the track works as a sound piece of minimalistic entertainment.

There’s not too much here to separate this work from other’s of the period. Scorcher is without question competent in the setting he finds himself. Unfortunately, though, if that’s all that can be said about a disc after a few listens, Roach in de Corner probably won’t find a second life anytime soon.