Noel Phillips vs. Echo Minott

Being tagged as a sing-jay might be a troublesome thing at this point. The term points back at a deejay style while still attempting to incorporate a bit of the whole dancehall thing that ended up taking over JA music during the ‘80s. Either way, Noel Phillips (bka Echo Minott) is one of the folks who this tag has been applied. But considering the fact that his catalog is pretty varied, any singular word to describe the singer seems like a fallacy.

Beginning on the talent circuit during the late ‘70s, Phillips made a name for himself as he took home some of the spoils from contests. And as a result of the positive results that Phillips was finding at these talent shows, he soon became associated with Prince Jammy (or King, or whatever he was by 1980). Sporting such a well respected producer for his initial effort found Phillips in a position to sit atop the JA music scene for a while – and he should have by every account. It’s difficult to explain why Youth Man Vibrations didn’t impact reggae music too much. But even beyond that, the fact that soon after recording and releasing that album at the age of 17, Phillips began performing under than name of Echo Minott.

In taking a listen to Youth Man Vibrations, the disc sounds a bit older than it actually is. That’s probably due to the fact that not only Sly and Robbie, but Ansel Collins had a hand in crafting the music that Phillips works over. “Living in the Ghetto” comes off as a rather poignant track, even as it’s touching upon a subject that gets alotta time on reggae records. The song might not be any more urgent than other offerings here, but the backing track is more than ample.

“Jah No Dead” sports a bit of nyabinghi drumming that buoys the track better than Jammy’s production in other spots. And in repeatedly mentioning the producer, it seems that he takes a rather hands-off approach on this effort. There are plays in which that Jammy’s presence is felt, but the disc does really come off as a mid to late ‘70s roots offering. That doesn’t qualify Philips’ first effort as anachronistic – he got on the tail end of it all – but it does explain the decided shift in sound in the coming years.

Working again with Sly and Robbie, Phillips moves further towards the dancehall thing, eventually immersing himself in the genre by the middle of the ‘80s. By the time the transformation is complete, the singer is known by the Minott tag. It’s worth mentioning that even as he’s associated with this ‘80s movement in JA music, the production that he goes in over doesn’t ever really get too offensive. An organic feeling is omnipresent even if the drums seem to become ever more mechanized on his later work. Of course, Echo Minott/Noel Phillips is still recording today. I can’t vouch for that stuff, but Youth Man Vibrations is a solid addition to latter day roots catalog.