I should really just get extra credit for this one. In some of my ‘stops’ to further discover more and more of the strongest music in the world, I’ve ‘been’ to some very strange and remote places. Over the years, for one reason or another, I have found artists traveling to such places or, even more interestingly, actually found artists from such regions. And they’re performing and producing music their to audiences who THANKFULLY respond and respond to such a degree that they’ve managed to build the particular artists’ name up enough to the point where someone like me and you, worlds away, begin to pay attention. A couple of the more recent ones in mind actually happen to come via the very same label, the always lovely Dasvibes. First there was the Israeli born and raised Raz Bin Sam who found his way to Australia long enough to mature as an artist, on top of what he had already done in his homeland (as varied as he is, notwithstanding, actually perhaps withstanding even more to some degree). And there’s also Elephant Wise whose travels are perhaps even more unusual than his label mate’s. Elephant was apparently born in Kenya of all places (as a person of European descent, which isn’t very unusual to my knowledge) and he also packed up (or was packed up) and headed ’down under’ as well and in doing so, given Australia’s apparently VERY strong Reggae foundation, has found successes in his travels. I’m also getting to the point, presumably, that I’m pretty soon going to be able to name AT LEAST a single relatively talented Reggae artist from every single state in the US and I’m already at the point where I can pretty much give you at least a dozen or so from almost every island in the Caribbean and quite a few from almost every country in South America as well. And someday in the not so distant future, I’m anticipating a point where some INSANELY ICE COLD Dancehall lyricist will emerge from Antarctica. Well, although I haven’t necessarily gotten as far as the large polar ice capped continent (yet), what we have in Malkijah is an artist with some SERIOUS ability who has emerged in about as remote of a place that I have ever seen in regards to Reggae music (and perhaps even music in general). However, I could leave the discussion as blank as that, but upon further research and contemplation, while her origins most certainly do remain remote, perhaps her inspirations and ambitions are of a far more familiar and not very remote degree at all.
First of all, if you can even identify La Réunion on a map somewhere and you are not an instructor of some sorts, then definitely consider yourself a well read genius in the field of countries and locales, because although I had heard of the actual place (and no, I don’t mean the one in Texas), I had no idea that this thing was virtually laying out in the middle of the ocean all on its very own, off the coast of Madagascar (which is, itself, “laying out in the middle of the ocean”, off the coast of the Afrikan continent. It’s interesting (for billions of reason) that if you go not to huge of a distance up the coast of Afrika, you’ll come to another island nation with French ties (although apparently it is apart of the UK), Seychelles, which has also produced a number of Reggae talents like Eazy Dread and a few others. AND, although I can’t name you an actual artist from the country (yet), Réunion’s closest geographical native, Mauritius, also has a very unique musical history, which includes quite a bit of Reggae (as do, fortunately, the majority of all Afrikan nations). However, to go back to what I alluded to ^ up there, when you actually begin to study these places and see pictures and (obviously), hear the dialects, what you begin to hear is something so beautifully familiar that you almost feel that you haven’t figuratively traveled to some remote and obscure corner of the globe (ehhh) and found what you have found and instead are somewhere in the ‘Caribbean‘ in the traditional sense. Luckily, what we have found here is the mysterious and perhaps even somewhat magical Malkijah an artist who has been on my radar for probably over a year at this point and unless I’m REALLY overlooking someone (and I just may be) is the international face of Reggae music from out of La Réunion and has represented her homeland in the genre in a way unlike anyone else has previously. As I said, she also has talent and it was that talent (and not just her VERY interesting face and, from what I can tell, demeanour, oh, and all of that ass also) which made me interested in her when I began to see her name in circulation with the same top notch French and French Caribbean artists that I had been listening to for the past few years. Still, like her country of origin, something stuck out for Malkijah from her peers. Besides the obvious, that she’s a female, and although for me personally a female is definitely one of my favourites of the subgenre (biggup Lady Sweety), it is still somewhat rare to my knowledge at the highest levels of French/French Caribbean Reggae/Dancehall; there was also her very varied approach. She has a tone in her voice which makes quite a bit of her music seem VERY urgent, but at the same time, she can not-change it very much and get just a very soothing and contemplative tone out of it and she can also just flip it and go straight Dancehall DJ on it which she does often as well. With this very interesting background I had to learn more and here we have the pinnacle of “more” in regard to Malkijah, her downright INVISIBLE album Eruption. I have been looking for this album for a YEAR! But finally someone name Hot-Game and someone else named Discorama brings it to me about a year on. Interestingly enough, I also found that Eruption wasn’t to be her very first album (even more perplexing), that had come a few years back in the form of Sur Ma Route (wish me luck; I’m looking for that one now). However, temporarily satiated having finally gotten a hold of Eruption, I am now, even more than before, wanting to learn even more about this . . . Malkijah. Let’s examine!
In terms of her literal style, I’m kind of trying to draw a comparison at some point. The problem is trying to decipher her BASE from what she has added and I honestly can’t tell if Malkijah was originally a Dancehall artist or a Roots artist in terms of her sound (everything I’ve read has said that she was first a Dancehall artist), particularly given the nature, in my opinion, of French Dancehall to overdo the hype at times (pick up a Krys album). However, like I said, she’s talented at both and that’s definitely a plus in any circumstance. Particularly the circumstances of a seventeen track album which encapsulates all of her styles such as the Eruption. Said lava spray (biggup I Wayne), begins predictably enough with the very up tempo ‘Come Back Again’. This tune is Malkijah essentially marking (or remarking) her territory (in the human sense of the phrase) and is kind of all over the place, however, I do have to mention the subtly adorable way in which she voices the chorus (which makes ‘come’ and ‘back’ one word) which is not to be missed and gets funny after awhile and just as addictive! Big opener. Before the next vocal track, Malkijah, who apparently spent a bit of time in Jamaica dealing with her album, manages to sandwich in the first bit of superstar friends in the form of Capleton who guests on the first of two interludes (the second features the legendary Mykal Rose). Then things slow down nicely a bit and in doing so enables Malkijah to deliver the most BEAUTIFUL vibes to be found on the album altogether in ‘Zion’. This song with its HUGE knocking drum and its serene chanting style just really catches the attentions and for me personally, unsurprisingly, tapped emotions not reached on the majority of the album. Next in is the DEEP ‘Respect’. This one challenged definitely is one of the more lyrical efforts on Eruption and Malkijah (I would so call her ‘Malki’ if I knew her and I would love it!) performs a near master class to my ears and really this is the type of song which will go overlooked, but in my opinion it’s one of the ones (if not THE) on the album which require the most tangible skills to perform. Big tune.
Staying on that same notion for a second with some of the album’s slower and more lyrical vibes (actually I’d probably call ‘Respect’ a Hip-Hop vibe to a degree, but definitely slower), there are a few very nice such tunes sprinkled in throughout Eruption. Check ‘Education’ alongside veteran Blacko, which really shows the best of both artists. ‘Combien de Temps’ is another one and features Malkijah showing off more and more of the vocals and really showing what I meant by the “urgent” nature of her sound. It comes and goes throughout the brilliant tune which proves to be one of the album’s finest in my opinion. And then there’s the SWEET ‘Ma Sista’ for the inspiration of the ladies and beyond with that vibes. I’m not a female and it takes me a minute to piece the words together still, but the tune has such a nice build with the riddim and the way it’s paced as well and I always love to hear Malkijah singing like that also. And lastly is the vibrant and colourful one-drop of the closer ‘Survivre’. This tune is another HEAVY one with Malkijah going almost STRAIGHT chanting style on the tune and even in the face of tunes on the album which would prompt me to lose all sense of decency and another which would require her to bring one of my favourite artists altogether with her, this would be the tune on Eruption that I would most like to see performed live, because it is just HUGE and giving thanks to His Majesty like that, you really catch moods that just don’t get touched outside of the top of the top artists. I’m just saying! Okay, all of that being said, of course there are two tunes which are going to receive the lion’s share of the attention on paper from the album and they aren’t one-drops at all. The first is the album’s very catchy title track which features Malkijah alongside Jamaican Dancehall star Mr. Vegas. If I’m correct, the tune took Malkijah’s name to an even higher level ostensibly, but I prefer to think that it just gave her a bigger audience because the skills CLEARLY were already there and the tune itself is pretty much the type of standard fare we’ve come to expect from Vegas over the years and Malkijah’s presence just pushes it to higher levels. Speaking of higher levels, definitely the HIGHEST level to be found on the album comes in the form of the other high profile tune, the MASSIVE ‘Systeme D’. The tune is a MAD social commentary and features the always solid Jamadom and the WICKED Tiwony alongside Malkijah. The song just doesn’t let up, not even once in its duration and the combination of skills on this one is just nearly an HONOUR to be able to hear as all three are in fine form (and you listen that chorus a couple of times and it STICKS with you!). Of course the highlight for me is when Tiwony darkens the mood just a bit and literally LOCKS OFF the flow as he usually does on his verse, but all three are more than just on point. MASSIVE (and check the bit of back and forth later on the tune)! There’s a tune earlier that I’ll mention by the name of ‘Laisse Toi Aller’, which is kind of a midtempo type of piece which is very nice on its own right. This one kind of got me wishing she had done ONE tune in English, or maybe even made it another combination with a Jamaican artist (with I don’t know . . . Maybe someone like Assassin or Baby Cham, one of the Dancehall artists who can legitimately rhyme midtempo). And the last tune I’ll mention from Malkijah’s Eruption album is the aptly titled ‘Kraz A Li’. I don’t know where this thing came from but it is so strange that you have to hear it. It literally sounds like the riddim is someone having a ridiculously fast sword fight with a horn in the back of it and that’s it. Oh (so I lied) and check the heavy Dancehall piece ‘Bad Style’ which is a not too UP tune, but a one which kind of settles in very nicely and leads into the final stretch of the album with ‘Systeme D’ and ‘Survivre’.
Overall, I do have to say that given the EXTREME circumstances surrounding my wanting this damn album that it didn’t actually blow me away (and in order to do that, at this time, it would have had to be a bonafide modern classic, like immediately), but had I got it a year ago I would have definitely made room for it as one of the best albums of 2008, no question about it. Of the literally thousands of interesting things about Malkijah and Eruption, the most interesting in my opinion is, as I alluded to, the familiarity of it all. You can tell that, to any measurable degree, first and foremost this woman is VERY talented with the spoken word, this is nothing new for her and unfortunately I can’t examine it to the mi-nute detail which is what I want to do and look at the various producers that she’s worked with through her developmental years and such, but to whomever (or whatever) helped Malkijah become what she is - THANK YOU. So while Eruption is certainly by no means the greatest album that I’ve ever heard, is it worth the price of a trip to some beautiful island out in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Absolutely.
Rated 4.25/5
Hot-Game/Discorama Productions
2008 [Digital 2009]
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