Rhythm Killers is the second studio album by Jamaican musical duo Sly
and Robbie (pictured), released in May 1987 on Island Records. First
known as a reggae band, the duo experimented in the 1980s with
electronic sounds and contemporary recording technology, while branching
out into international, cross-genre music. A funk and dance album,
Rhythm Killers has a dense sound that incorporates reggae, hip hop, hard
rock, worldbeat, and downtown music. Along with their live instruments,
Sly and Robbie used electronic recording equipment such as the Fairlight
CMI synthesizer and electronic drums. The album has been cited by music
writers for its electronic rhythms, its treatment of African-American
music elements, and Laswell's densely layered production. It peaked at
number 35 on the British Albums Chart, and also charted in the
Netherlands, Sweden, and New Zealand. The critic Robert Christgau named
it the seventh-best album of 1987. Two promotional singles were issued,
including the UK hit "Boops (Here to Go)". Sly and Robbie continued
their digital direction on subsequent albums. The album has since been
out of print.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_Killers>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1227:
High Duke of Poland Leszek the White was assassinated during a
diet of the Piast dukes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_the_White>
1642:
A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached present-day
Tasmania, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman>
1877:
Anna Sewell's influential animal welfare novel Black Beauty,
one of the best-selling books of all time, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty>
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine
Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a
semi-automatic pistol.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers>
1963:
Businessman Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey
Oswald, the alleged assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, during a
live television broadcast, fueling conspiracy theories on the matter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby>
2012:
A fire at a clothing factory in the Ashulia district on the
outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed at least 117 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Dhaka_fire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
debacchate:
(rare) To rant as if drunk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/debacchate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hatred can never be good. … Here, and in what follows, I mean
by hatred only hatred towards men. … Envy, derision, contempt, anger,
revenge, and other emotions attributable to hatred, or arising
therefrom, are bad … Whatsoever we desire from motives of hatred is
base, and in a State unjust.
--Baruch Spinoza
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza>