Ari Up - Dread More Dan Dead

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

There’s a lull in Ari Up’s usually boisterous voice that slides between German, British, and Jamaican accents; they reflect the countries she grew up in, and the one she now calls home. The lull marks a hesitancy, an admittance that is uttered a little lower, as if the smaller it sounds, the less of a truth it will be: that there is still a struggle for women in the music industry. Ari should know. In 1976, at the age of 14, she founded the first all-female punk band, the Slits, who strived to “be girls without any pre-conditioned way about how girls are supposed to be.”

Though Ari doesn’t feel much has changed for female artists since, the Slits did not totally fail in their mission. While the market might have more room for choreographed pop tarts than it does for the likes of Ari Up, the Slits left a legacy that hasn’t been forgotten by new generations. Even though it meant they didn’t get signed until 1979, the Slits held out for artistic control, which was unheard of at the time.

There were unforeseen repercussions to these accomplishments, which fans and critics rarely give any thought to today, but that Ari has been plagued by ever since. Her former band’s reputation as being “intimidating, frightening, shocking, and scary” stuck around in the industry, hindering Ari’s chances of getting a record deal. Even in the ’90s, A&R reps were so afraid to deal with her that they would get other people to talk to her instead of seeing her face to face.

“Yah, I’m difficult because I want my fucking free rights, my musical rights. I’m not 14 years old anymore and I’m not totally fucking out there crazy,” she says.

The Slits aren’t about to be forgotten any time soon. A new release is due out this summer and features original bassist Tessa Pollitt along with Ari. But she isn’t stopping at just one release after all this time. She is debuting her first solo album, Dread More Dan Dead, a massive exploration of reggae, dub, dancehall, and drum & bass, with nods to the heavier beats of the Slits. Ari says that reggae is like first nature to her, and considering the Slits were always influenced by a much heavier bass sound than other bands of that time, the route Ari has chosen seems inevitable.

It’s a continuation of the Slits, she says, yet is still a departure in all the right places. It even has Ari coming from a more personal level, but she says the songs are not so much autobiographical as they are “everybody’s songs.”

“Everything I see and smell and hear — I don’t even have to live it or experience something myself necessarily, because I’m so involved in the things of life. One way or another, I experience everything I sing about anyway, and it just melts into one pot.”

Typical of Ari’s style, the album wasn’t recorded conventionally. Its tracks were collected over the past few years after visits to various studios in Jamaica, New York, England, and Germany. Though this might seem ideal to a woman whose true definition of settling down means waking up somewhere different every day, it’s actually more of an irony — it wasn’t so much a personal choice as a lack of industry support.

“I’ve got tons of new music and tons of other stuff that I want to throw together and put on an album right now,” Ari says. “I have millions of songs and I would have an album every week, but nobody gives me an advance and says, ‘Here, make an album.’”

via - http://www.exclaim.ca/index.asp?layid=22&csid=1&csid1=4001

Want to know more about this! SOme quick googling reveals she didn't drop off the map completely at all after The Slits... shame I'm only finding out now about that.

There are a couple of online samples on which her voice sounds... ooh, gorgeously mellowed. I can imagine loving this when I get it (may just buy it blind. I can imagine digging it a lot).

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 20 August 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

I'm surprised this article doesn't mention the New Age Steppers, a band sorely in need of a reissue campaign that had Ari, various On-U Sound people, and ex-Pop Group folks if I'm not mistaken. They had at least two excellent albums that are well worth your time.

Was just listening to a fantastic Slits concert from 1977 on the train the other day that I got off Dimeadozen. Their Peel Sessions LP is an essential document of the era. Also check out The Punk Rock Movie for lots of Slits footage.

It'll be interesting to hear what the "new" Slits sound like. Unfortunately, I prefer their punky exuberance more than their spaced-out reggae, but we'll see.

― sleeve (sleeve), Saturday, 20 August 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

The New Age Steppers stuff is pretty readily available. I see the Massive Hits comp (or whatever it was called) all the time.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 20 August 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

there's a song on the stypod, halfway down the page:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/ipod/

― mulldozer (mulldozer), Saturday, 20 August 2005 17:38 (twenty years ago)

i booked ari up once. she cleared the room.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 20 August 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

I saw her open for the Damage Manual back in 2000. She was dreadfully embarassing.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 21 August 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

(not that the Damage Manual were anything to write home about either, mind).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 21 August 2005 12:57 (twenty years ago)

dreadfully embarassing.

indeed! haha.. re: the new album -- it's kinda crap

― ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Sunday, 21 August 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

i've seen ari up twice. and, to back up maria, she cleared the room both times.

― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Sunday, 21 August 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

re: clearing up -- not only did she clear the room, she refused to end her set. the electricity in the club had to be turned off in order to get her off the stage.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 21 August 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

i listened to about 7 tracks before giving up on this record...that might have been hasty, but ... i couldnt find anything to be much concerned with but legacy...err, legend

― b b, Monday, 22 August 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

a thumbs down it is!

I might still take a chance on it... can't trust those ILM nutters can you ;)

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:44 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone heard any of the stuff Ari's supposed to have recorded in Jamaica as Madussa?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

I saw Ari live once too, and she was terrible. She forced a kid (her kid?) onstage to dance with her and the kid so obviously did not want to be there. It was uncomfortable.

Also, I think her accent is ridiculous. Love the Slits, though, who doesn't?

― mcd (mcd), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

"(her kid?)"

Almost certainly.

"I think her accent is ridiculous."

What a bizarre thing to say. In what way "ridiculous"?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 22 August 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

well, her accent *is* a bit weird... Jamaican? British? German? what the hell is it?!

― ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Monday, 22 August 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

i saw her at a hella/deerhoof show in nyc a few years ago. she was wearing a leopard print suit and shouting manically at the bands. she was pretty awesome.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Monday, 22 August 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

did the suit have just one pant-leg, like a FloJo-type get-up?

― ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Monday, 22 August 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

Haven't heard the album, but seems like might be a descendant of promo EP floated through here a couple years ago: jammin jamacoid ppunkoid sure, but not cod, or so it seemed. (Nice live-in-the-apartment track on Love Songs For New York, Voice's post-9/11 comp: her kid running around in background, birdies, like the EP I think; I'll have to dig it up. Maybe she re-recorded some of that, overcooked it?)

― don, Monday, 22 August 2005 16:23 (twenty years ago)

Anybody heard that recent(forthcoming?) Ana de Silva EP??

― don, Monday, 22 August 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

do you mean the CD the Lighthouse that came out a few months back on Chicks on Speed? If you do, then yes, and it's totally awesome. If you don't, what are you talking about?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 22 August 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

"well, her accent *is* a bit weird... Jamaican? British? German? what the hell is it?!"

I'd imagine it's probably exactly what you'd expect anyone to sound like who was born in Germany to German parents, spent their formative years in London where they became part of the punk scene, lived in NYC for a while prior to spending several years living in the jungles of Borneo and Belize, then moving to Jamaica where they married, had kids, and began a career as a musician and saw their spouse shot, prior to returning to NYC to resume a career in music there.

Obviously, just as soon as we can find someone else who's done that, we'll be able to compare them, to confirm that's indeed the case.... ;~)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

well, stewart, after all your info provided, it does suddenly make a lot of sense

― ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

I saw her at Luxx back the the electroclash daze and she was jamming out to a boom box with some cheerleaders and fucking Dez Cadena on guitar. She's a trip.

― The King's English (sexyDancer), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

I just remember her endlessly chastising the crowd, demanding that there be "NO MORE CREW WAR!" I doubt any actual members of the crews in question were present, so her efforts seemed a bit moot. And shrill. And silly.

And her daughter was onstage with her then too.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

What a bizarre thing to say. In what way "ridiculous"?

The Jamaican part just seems very affected and put on to me. Most people who move around (esp to a country so late in life) tend to adopt certain words and phrases but Ari seems to fake the Jamaican thing in a big way. Who knows, I could be wrong.

― mcd (mcd), Monday, 22 August 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Agreed. She's a bit of a patois poseur.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

Tho' her accent is a bit more convicing than Sting's ever was.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

well, if shes an excuse to laugh at sting, she can't be all bad

― bb (bbrz), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

"The Jamaican part just seems very affected and put on to me. Most people who move around (esp to a country so late in life) tend to adopt certain words and phrases but Ari seems to fake the Jamaican thing in a big way."

I'm in absolutely no position to judge (the closest I've ever been or am ever likely to get to Jamaica was seeing Black Uhuru at the Brixton Academy in 1982!) but I'd have thought that if her accent was fake, the first people to detect (and resent) that would have been the Jamaicans she's spent most of the last 10+ years living with.

Jamaican and German was always going to be an odd-sounding mix anyway, without everything else thrown in.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

"well, if shes an excuse to laugh at sting, she can't be all bad"

There is not now, nor has there ever been, any excuse necessary to laugh at Sting.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

err...

http://www.limbermen.com/Rick_c/Sting.jpg

― bb (bbrz), Monday, 22 August 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

>>the Lighthouse

― don, Monday, 22 August 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

then yes, don, by all means, get it, it's a beautiful and cool record.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 22 August 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

That didn't post my whole post. the press release didn't give titles or dates, just artists. Thanks for the tip!

― don, Tuesday, 23 August 2005 02:40 (twenty years ago)

"err..."

My point exactly.

Dan, what does that Ana Da Silva album sound like? The Raincoats?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 07:37 (twenty years ago)

five years pass...

As noted via J.D.'s thread revive, Ari Up has passed on.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 October 2010 02:03 (fifteen years ago)

Loved her. Rest in peace.

― (♥_♥) (roxymuzak), Thursday, 21 October 2010 03:13 (fifteen years ago)

fuck.

roxy puts it perfectly.

― The Boondog Taints II: All Taints Day (stevie), Thursday, 21 October 2010 06:45 (fifteen years ago)

Oh my. So young. :(

― Remember the Dayne! (u s steel), Thursday, 21 October 2010 08:34 (fifteen years ago)

wiki:

Ariane Forster (1 January 1962 – 20 October 2010), better known by her stage name Ari Up

oh no fucking way. goddam i did love you. RIP.

― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Thursday, 21 October 2010 08:43 (fifteen years ago)

RI fucking P

'Cut' was a gamechanging album for me and even though I only got to see her around the time of the album this thread is about, and the show was 'technically' ragged as heck, it was 100% compelling to watch her do her Ari Up thing

― rmde cat and the dweebs (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 21 October 2010 08:49 (fifteen years ago)

I had no idea she was ill. RIP.

― a fucking stove just fell on my foot. (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 21 October 2010 09:10 (fifteen years ago)

RIP. I love the Slits etc, but somethign she did in recent times that really impressed me was her work with Dubblestandart. I will be listening to Cut and Return To Planet Dub today.

― village idiot (dog latin), Thursday, 21 October 2010 09:14 (fifteen years ago)

should i go and track down the new age steppers' stuff? i think i should...

― The Boondog Taints II: All Taints Day (stevie), Thursday, 21 October 2010 12:55 (fifteen years ago)

I can't believe she's only a year older than me. So she was 16/17 when she recorded Cut? Amazing.
RIP.

― on the cusp of eligibility (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 21 October 2010 13:22 (fifteen years ago)

should i go and track down the new age steppers' stuff? i think i should...

yes! it's great.

― stirmonster, Thursday, 21 October 2010 15:15 (fifteen years ago)

No way. RIP.

― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 21 October 2010 15:28 (fifteen years ago)

Damn! RIP

― A Reclaimer Hewn With (Michael White), Thursday, 21 October 2010 15:59 (fifteen years ago)

So she was 16/17 when she recorded Cut? Amazing.

yeah i think she was 14 when the band started. RIP.

― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 21 October 2010 17:46 (fifteen years ago)

(oh it says that in the very post in this thread.)

― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 21 October 2010 17:46 (fifteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

I just read that Ari Up had died, I must have missed it when it got announced the other week.
When i was first getting into rock music when I was a kid one of the pieces I remember hearing on John Peel show was "New Town", I have a real strong memory of how it affected me and made me excited and can remember talking about it w/other nascent musichead kids at school the next day. I was 13yo I think. Kind of a formative influence. RIP Ari, you were great.

― Pashmina, Friday, 5 November 2010 00:27 (fifteen years ago)

I love that version of "New Town".

― sleeve, Friday, 5 November 2010 00:37 (fifteen years ago)

five years pass...

This album is straight up fun. Not in the same league as "Cut" or even the best of New Age Steppers but I'm really glad I have it. I've got a bootleg of a NYC show with an absolutely killer version of "Kill Them With Love", a sentiment that rings true for me.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 26 October 2016 02:29 (nine years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.