So might have done, using the Flexatone, other Reggae artists (Dennis Brown, Ijahman Levi, Black Uhuru, Bunny Wailer, Alton Ellis, Twinkle Brothers, the Congos a. In these examples, the Flexatone plays a kind of “counter-rhythm” in the African tradition, though not without atmospheric aspects. The flexatone, also known as fleximetal, is a percussion instrument that consists of a flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire. I mention in my list a later Gladiators song, but maybe the Gladiators used it before in earlier recordings, as might have done Israel Vibration, Burning Spear, the Wailing Souls, Abyssinians and others in also earlier recordings, perhaps even already in the earlier 1970s. The same applies to the Wailing Souls songs I mention from the 1984 Stranded album: to detect its use one almost needs a high-quality headphone, though its nice “chorus introducing” role in Sunrise Till Sunset is audible.

It cannot be pretended that its scope or range are wide, but such as it is, it is quite irreplaceable. Notable musicians who associated the flexatone in their classical music were Gyorgy Ligeti, Hans Werner Henze, and Arnold Schoenberg. Additionally, Aram Khachaturian also used the flexatone in his Piano Concerto in D flat major in 1936. Ich wollte dieses Percussion-Element unbedingt in meinen Musikproduktionen einsetzen und war ganz glücklich, als mir endlich jemand bei Thomann den Namen verriet, nachdem ich ihm eine Aufnahme vorspielte. The Flexatone is heard here and there too and not so rare, more or less as frequent as, say, the cuíca friction drum, I discussed elsewhere on my blog.

Because of the size, it may be easier when using with children if an adult holds the Flexatone while the child applies the pressure to the blade as their hand will be too small to hold it and play it. A live-band focus, often including a percussion set, was never fully abandoned within reggae (with veteran artists like Burning Spear, Congos, Mighty Diamonds, Abyssinians a. Digitalization is also found in relatively later Reggae since the 1980s, when the synth got used more, in Early Dancehall, but even in some Roots Reggae, alongside drum, bass, guitar, or horns.

Yet as time progressed, inventive humans with more means, started in more modern times to come up with “new” percussion instruments, albeit derived from existing ones. Like on Burning Spear albums from roughly the same period, a wide variety of percussion (drums and idiophones) tends to be used on several songs, but softer in the mix than in Burning Spear albums: a bit more emphasis on the “driving bass and drum” – somewhat understandable - , requiring therefore closer inspection to distinguish percussion sounds.

o.): when they perform live there is often – not always - a percussion set as part of the musicians. The 1920s is of course, compared to the ancient drums, scrapers, xylophones, shakers, bells, or wood blocks, relatively new.