In the mid 1980’s a collective formed in the United Kingdom around the Bristol St. Paul’s area, based around DJs such as Nellee Hooper (later of Soul II Soul) and others who became known as “The Wild Bunch”. This collective, it has been argued, went on to form the basis of the “Bristol Sound” of the time, and was characterised by bass heavy reggae, dub, soul and hip hop. This street sound system culture soon developed into self produced titles such as Wild Bunch’s “Look of Love”, which was co-produced by a another DJ collective active in the area comprised of Rob Smith and Ray Mighty.
Smith and Mighty had already established their own sound system known as “Three Stripe”. In 1987 the duos record label, also dubbed “Three Stripe”, released two covers of well known tunes by songwriter Burt Bacharach, “Anyone (Who Had a Heart)” and “Walk On (By)”, which are the first two tracks on this recent collection of Three Strip tunes from that era. Interest in Smith and Mighty escalated in 1989 when they produced “Wishing on a Star” for Fresh Four, which instigated an offer of a deal from Richard Branson and Virgin records, which was then refused on political grounds. The pair produced the first single for the Bristol based Massive Attack “Any Love”. Their first album, in its own right, did not appear until 1995 with, the now legendary, “Bass Is Maternal”....
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