Horace Andy

One of the most distinctive singers in reggae, Horace Andy has used his high, keening tenor to capture feelings of mystery and longing. Over his decades-long career, he’s adapted his haunting croon to changing trends in Jamaican music, and in the ’90s he contributed to the rise of UK trip-hop as a frequent collaborator with Bristol group Massive Attack. Andy was born Horace Hinds in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1951. Raised in a sprawling family, he started singing in church and was still a teenager when he signed to Coxsone Dodd’s renowned Studio One label. He took on the surname Andy in part to invite associations with popular singer Bob Andy, but his breakout 1972 album, Skylarking, features his own eerie take on breezy lovers rock. He spent the next decade working with iconic producers like Bunny Lee and Everton Da Silva, and in 1982 he made an early contribution to dancehall with the icy textures and paranoid lyrics of his dubbed-out masterpiece, Dance Hall Style. Andy has stayed busy into the 2020s, working as a touring member of Massive Attack while continuing to release his own solo material (and dub versions thereof).