System Echo – Back to Bristol

Sassa’le was born in St Paul’s, Bristol on the southwest coast of England.  St. Paul’s is a place many West Indians settled after emigrating from the Caribbean to the UK in the 50’s and 60’s.  Growing up, Sassa’le remembers his parents, like many others, didn’t allow their English born children to speak Patois in hopes they would integrate into the English culture and education system.  However, this didn’t seem to stop the youth from speaking Patois as a way of connecting themselves to their Jamaican heritage.  Without many activities for young people, Sassa’le remembers how he and his friends would gather at the Black & White Café; also known as the frontline in St. Paul’s. Groups of people from the neighbourhood would hangout in this spot from early hours into the night.  From there most would continue on to the local ‘blues’ (after hours) where, seven days a week, they could hear reggae music being played on a sound system. The youth grew up listening to Jamaican sound system tapes and tried to mimic the MCs from these parties and sound clash events.  
The ‘blues’ and house parties became very popular which led to the warehouse parties of the late 80’s and early 90’s.  At this same time the city was developing its own unique music scene.  There was a new wave of music and socializing emerging in Bristol that reflected a growth in the sense of community between blacks and whites. Today, when you speak of Bristol music people name artists like Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead and Roni Size.  But Sassa’le remembers Smith & Mighty as the first collective to make the connection between hip-hop and dub. And, this was truly the essence of St. Paul’s.  After hearing Smith & Mighty’s version of ‘Walk on By’ Sassa’le knew he wanted to make music. 
 radio show, and a DJ outfit.  In all modes it remained a platform for Sassa’le to explore music connected to his heritage, a method of staying tied to Bristol, and acted as a site to play with how he imagined things might progress back home in the midst of his own displacement in Canada.  
After the ending of his longtime radio show and taking a break from djing Sassa’le felt a shift in his relation to the music industry and a return of past feelings of dislocation. He started listening to his vinyl collection (one he hadn’t played in years) and found himself paying close attention to the downtempo music, which was clearly connected to his past. Sassa’le felt the need to re-introduce himself to the public through his relationship with this particular music. He decided to record a series of DJ mixes.  The first mix Az it Waz included rare tracks from the early TripHop days and the second mix called SoulHeadz explored UK soul from the mid 90’s to early 2000’s.  This album, System Echo, is the finale in this part of the journey and is the second official VX release.  It took three years from its inception to the final finished product. Inspired by reconnecting to his early love of music and the essence of St. Paul’s, Sassa’le went into the studio to experiment with sounds without the pressure of fitting the tracks into any particular genre.  An important aspect of this album was to stay committed to Version Xcursion’s mission of finding fresh vocalists and integrating their sound with heavy bass tunes. This led to the featured vocalists: Sonny B, Aay Cee, Josiah, RaLion, Rosina Kazi & Bristol’s Alice Perera. 
This album is a musical representation of Sassa’le’s journey from his home of St. Paul’s Bristol to Toronto, Canada.  In Toronto, Sassa’le has continued to explore Bristol music through his own lens of immigration, growth and imagination. The pieces on this album place unlikely sounds and voices together in hopes they communicate a sense of displacement and the potential for creativity.  The unique partnerships of voice, beats, and melodies reflect a history, but also generate new relationships to sound that may inspire future musical ideas.

Frontline (ft Ralion)

Version Xcursion hq