“It was 1984 finally, and the nightmare of George Orwell’s Big Brother hadn’t really materialized. True, there was great evil in the world, agents of brutality and control endeavoring to shut down all peace-beauty-freedom-love forever. But the outcome was still in doubt, because they didn’t yet have music under control. They weren’t even close. Maybe they had the mainstream (the Whitney Houstons, the Duran Durans, the Huey Lewises and Phil Collinses), but who the f*** cared about that crap with wild and inventive stuff erupting all over the margins, from all genres in all kinds of guises. Case in point, the Maffia, c/o Mark Stewart and On-U Sound (and its mainman, producer, knob-twiddler, dub adventurer, Adrian Sherwood), none of whom I noticed until 1984’s Pay It All Back Vol.1 crash-landed in my brain – a label sampler offering all manner of tortured beats, breaks, samples, meltdowns long before we even had names for such stuff.  At least Hallelujah had a familiar melody you could hang onto.” (Philip Random)