Aswad, meaning black in Arabic is also the name of the UK's finest Reggae outfit. No strangers to national chart success they achieved their first number one in the British Charts with "Don't Turn Around" in March 1988. Their success was testimony to Aswad's enduring qualities: for the past decade they have been one of the world's finest reggae bands. Twenty years on Aswad have released some of the finest reggae material of our time and now come fresh for '97 with a brand new album, 'BIG UP', released this month on the Mesa label part of the Atlantic Record Group.
The band's formation in 1975 and their full emergence in 1976, when they were snapped up by Island Records, marked a significant point in Reggae history because they were the first UK band to be signed by a major company. Not only was Aswad's sound authentic and militant but positively original, unlike many of their Jamaican counterparts.
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