Kryztal

Born Henry Buckley in 1972 in Jamaica, West Indies, Chicago, Illinois-based Pancho Kryztal had been employed as a desktop publishing consultant until a transformative visit to Jamaica prompted him to shift toward a music career. Back in Chicago he met Jeremy Freeman, then in the process of launching the Scratchie label alongside James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky of Smashing Pumpkins plus Adam Schlesinger of Fountains Of Wayne. Kryztal joined the Scratchie roster yet kept Caribbean rights for his own imprint, Skinny Bway. An early 12-inch DJ promo pairing ‘Girl A Chat’ with ‘I Need You Badly’ received heavy rotation across Jamaica and the USA. Follow-up releases ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘Sweet Gal’ heightened attention for Kryztal’s hybrid ‘dancehall R&B’, a style that merged the smooth delivery of an R&B balladeer with the assertive stance of a macho toaster. Issued in October 1997 through Scratchie/Mercury Records, his self-titled debut invited favorable comparisons to both contemporary urban R&B vocalists and veteran ragga acts such as Shaggy and Chaka Demus And Pliers. Production duties on the album were shared among a range of contributors that included dancehall stalwart Tony Kelly and rapper DJ Spinner.