Chapleton

In the Jamaican town of Chapelton and its surroundings, we searched for a couple of houses that were built in the 18th century and are among the earliest examples of the “Jamaican architectural style”. These houses were built by “mechanics”, who had a lot of experience with and knowledge of both the colonial and the indigenous way of construction. Over time, these mechanics were increasingly able to merge the two architectural styles into a synthesis and in addition to become increasingly independent of their building contractors. We were able to find about five of the houses, which all were in different stages of decay. We were interested above all in the achievements of the engineers, whose talent for adopting techniques and turning them into to their own synthesis reminds us of the group of sound engineers of early DUB music. These adopted western mixing boards and other devices and transferred them to Jamaican music.