Album dossier / 1982

True Democracy

Steel Pulse · Reggae/Roots Reggae

With no record deal in hand, Steel Pulse met producer Karl Pitterson on tour in New York in 1981 and cut five demos that failed to land a major-label offer -- until a small Danish label stepped in with studio time. The album was tracked over 25 days at Feedback Studios in Aarhus, Denmark, and released on the Birmingham band's own newly formed Wise Man Doctrine label before Elektra picked it up for US distribution, peaking at No. 120 on the Billboard 200 and No. 14 on the UK Independent chart. Made amid heightened racial and social tension in Thatcher-era Britain, its hardline Rastafarian themes on tracks like 'Chant a Psalm' and 'Worth His Weight in Gold (Rally Round)' earned it a four-star AllMusic rating and a B from Robert Christgau, and it remains one of the band's most fully realized roots-reggae statements.