Destra - Bacchannal [Directed by S’Felix & Lisa Wickham]
First up this week is someone who’s definitely a favourite around here around and should be a favourite around anywhere and also someone who is timely (vault review coming soon and she’s taking Road March next year, if you didn’t know), DESTRA! Last year, when it seemed as if quite a few of her peers had difficulties getting videos out, including the eventual Road March (and everything else) champion, Fay-Ann Lyons (she was pregnant after all, but we’ll see how the now plumpy Destra does this year), Destra had more than one. The highlight of the lot was, of course, the video for what was in my opinion the dominant tune of TnT’s 2009 Carnival Season, ‘Bacchannal’. This one was MADNESS and were I going to do a list for the best videos of the year (and I’m not), it would most likely be near the top. The video was absolute chaos from beginning to end, with Destra surprisingly joining the madness of the revelers and the. . . Dudes spraying her with chocolate and fire-breathing. Also, she wonderfully brought along fantastic friends Alison Hinds, Saucy and Tizzy from El-A-Kru. Still my personal favourite moment comes later when her hairdresser is interrupted from doing something ridiculous with her head by a Destra, BACCHANNAL BITTEN, loses the rest of her mind in the chair. AMAZING!
Video Rating: 5/5
Video - Song Link: 5/5
Blaxx - Tusty
Rather recent addition to the potential list of Road March and Monarch winners is Blaxx, essentially the reigning star of Roy Cape’s camp (where she ^ used to roam) and here, you have his video for his big 2009 tune, ‘Tusty’. He screwed up in 2008, not having a video for the even better ‘Breathless’, but in watching this video, maybe he made the right choice not to, this thing is pretty bad, which is a shame because the tune is nearly magic to my ears and following TnT Carnival, it supposedly got even stronger as I started hearing people say of various festivals worldwide ‘there was this guy name Black or something like that, did some crazy tune and killed everything!’. Yeah, the tune can definitely have that effect. The video? Not even close.
Video Rating: 2/5
Video - Song Link: 3/5
Zoelah - Wine Up On Me [Directed by Enelio Bynoe & Kavell Forde]
Homerun. We may very well look back at 2009 as the year when the Trini born, Vincy grown Soca diva Zoelah came into her own, after a couple of years spent as basically an underground success. It would prove to be a year where she would take the stage in her homeland and place a very respectable 4th in the Groovy Monarch competition, she would make her debut on the industry’s dominant piece, Soca Gold 2009 and she would do so largely on the strength of one HUGE tune, ‘Wine Up On Me’. The actualization of said tune in her very first video (to my knowledge) would also prove to be quite the success because it is SPARKLING. With the tune’s title I would have definitely expected something like the tune above (a video which could have been shot in the yard of a semi-affluent individual and in about 3-4 hours) and a helluva lot of asses, but that’s not what we got, instead it was exactly what it should’ve been, a wonderful visual introduction of the world to Zoelah!
Video Rating: 4.5/5
Video - Song Link: 4/5
Richie Spice & Alison Hinds - King & Queen [Directed by Jay Will]
This one bothers me. I know I’m supposed to LOVE this tune, but I only kind of like it. It doesn’t floor me, I’m not amazed and it isn’t the best song that I’ve ever heard, so despite both its uniqueness and its ultimate SIGNIFICANCE, I’ve just largely avoided talking about it for the most part. Still, there can be no denying that ‘King & Queen’, the RIDICULOUS combination between modern Reggae (not Dancehall) and Soca royalty, DEFINITELY birthed a video which pretty much the CARIBBEAN video of 2009, of any sorts, with a bullet. This thing is BREATH TAKING! It is a wonderful portrayal of Afrikan people modern and ESPECIALLY historical and everything is just presented so nicely and natural, nothing is forced and everything really is exactly how it should have been. And as for the tune itself, sitting here vibing it again, who knows it may be growing on me again. The video had no such room for growth, however, it was already perfect (and Mrs. Hinds looks DIVINE!).
Video Rating: 8.7/5
Video - Song Link: 5/5
{note: If you do LOVE this song, its label, Black Coral, has made it available to the masses and it’s already in circulation on several etailers, including Amazon (of all territories)}
Shelly G - Touch Meh [Directed by Bonny Alves]
I couldn’t resist. Our new best friend, Shelly G, definitely does have quite a few videos to her name in her still young career and not a single one has become more infamous than one of her first (it may actually have been her first), ‘Touch Meh’. Two things. First of all, you’ll notice the eternally funny white man in the blue shirt, unapologetically tourist and despite CLEARLY being laughed at, you gotta love the man’s commitment! You have to! So big him up, wherever he is (I bet you he’s Canadian . . .). And then, besides our good friend in the blue shirt is the fact that Touch Meh is a bra slip and a ‘St. Claire’ away from being full blown pornography and it doesn’t seem to mind at all. And in this capacity, call me a hypocrite if you like, but I don’t see much wrong with it.
Video Rating: 3.5/5
Video - Song Link: 5/5 (definitely a lot of touching going on)
Claudette ‘CP’ Peters - Jumping Away [Directed by S’Felix & Lisa Wickham]
Next in is everyone’s favourite big voiced, quarter pint Antiguan Soca star, the sublime Ms. Claudette Peters, with her big tune ‘Jumping Away’, from the 2008 season. This video, of course, is marked by the fact that it’s kind of two videos in one with the tune being broken into two different vibes, the hard and the soft. The soft is this beautiful and serene (for her) ballad type of vibes which is reflected in the intro and outro with CP just relaxing and enjoying nature in very much the type of scene you’d see in a Zouk video. In between? You can see the crazy intensity of the tune which DAMAGED Antigua Carnival 2k8 and continues to do so, definitely.
Video: 4.99999999/5
Video - Song Link: 5/5
{note: Both lovely versions of the tune are available on Taxik & CP's 2008 album, Method To The Madness}
Machel MontanoHD - Wild Antz [Directed by Remy Rembunction]
One of the biggest videos every year, guaranteed is the video for whichever tune Soca superstar Machel Montano decides to push as his biggest of the season and in 2009, said tune was the infectious Wild Antz. This tune, as usual, received a massive amount of attention, but it wasn’t as celebrated as previous years (although I LOVED it). The video received even more mixed reviews as well. For me, the problem is that it related TOO WELL to the actual tune. I would have tried to have made some type of metaphor for ‘ants’ instead of going direct on to it (look at me talking like I know what the hell I’m trying to say) like the Jumbie video which was more appropriate. Still, you do have to admit this thing is KINDA, SORTA funny at times, isn’t it???
Video Rating: 2.5/5
Video - Song Link: 6/5
Destra - Hott [Directed by Eldon Pernell]
And despite my better judgment to do otherwise, I’m going out the same way I came in with the might Ms. Destra on the somewhat overlooked ‘Hott’. The actual tune, of course, wasn’t overlooked (it was the name of her album), but the video definitely got lost in the shadow of Bacchannal to a degree which was a shame because on its own merits, it’s very very good. Here’s the thing, I kind of joke in reference to Destra being sexy, but I don’t find her overwhelmingly so, but she looked DAMN sexy throughout Hott. This video apparently went to grab a different side of the boom (that’s my new nick name for Soca artists, right there, if you see someone start using it, I invented it!) from out of Laventille (biggup my Grandmother). This one was far less hectic, more in control, sleek and SEXY (look at Destra getting out of the pool with all that ass). The magazine at the beginning was a WONDERFUL touch and really throughout you get the kind of ‘glammy’ feel of things, but every once in awhile she lets you know that it’s still she: Oh wonderful ass Destra Garcia.
Video Rating: 4.5/5
Video - Song Link: 4.999999999/5
No comments:
Post a Comment