All things considered, Pinchers wasn’t the biggest name in dancehall, but he was a notable one. Helmed by producer/engineer King Jammy, 1987’s Agony helped bridge the gap between the live-band deejay era and the emerging world of digital dancehall. The sound was leaner, tougher, and cheaper, but sweeter and more melodic, too, filled with singsong choruses and high, birdlike vocal flutters—a naive, almost punky take on lovers rock. Not that Pinchers was a choirboy: If you don’t catch his drift when he says his woman is like a magnet to steel (“Magnet to Steal”), consider the anatomical implications of “Si Down Pon It,” wherein love is compared to a hard, sturdy chair. Then there’s “Agony,” a riff on the Sleng Teng riddim whose quasi-Arabic vocal runs helped forecast the gruff, hypnotic sound of ragga.