I write a lot about what is essentially my generally rather sharp ‘Reggae intuition’ in regards to knowing how to ‘pick em’. Certainly it’s something which comes with nothing more than having years and years of experience in picking bad ones which gives me and pretty much any longtime fan of generally any art form the ability to ‘smell’ one coming (consider it a sixth sense). But like most scents (did you catch that one), some can be good and some can be bad and situations like such can definitely occur. For example, who knows exactly how many times I’ve bypassed a GOOD or maybe even a potentially GREAT album because, for one reason or another, it didn’t reach me as being such a quality project. With my tastes maturing (as I say all the time) and in just the case itself, I often find it damn tempting to just go back and file through stuff I’ve never heard and I would most likely NEVER have wanted to hear either. And while I haven’t found much in the way of older gems, the way I appropriate this skill, relevant to NEW material, has been an absolute success in my opinion. Were I to look at some of the finest material I’ve come across within the past two or three years, it has certainly come through some of the most ‘out of the ordinary’ channels. Now how can I say just how many of these similar projects I ignored (and continue to ignore) from that 1999-2005 time period, which would impress me to no end these days? So, when I find such a release or such an artist which typically wouldn’t have gotten much of a reaction from me, I get downright PROUD! So although I definitely stumbled upon stronger artists and stronger releases in 2009, and far stranger in both cases, I can rather confidently say that in the entire year, I never found something as ‘remote’ as what we have here in the case of Jah Pearl & Bouddha Sticks. What makes them and their release so remote? Well, where do I start? Let’s start with the fact that it’s so beautiful in this day and age that you can waltz over to your favourite online retailer and find an album which interests you and hear 30 seconds of every song and do so immediately. There’s that and there’s also the fact that all of these artists and their wonderful record labels go through quite a bit of trouble to attract attention for their projects. So they spend a lot of money on photographers and graphic designers and artists to try and ensure that their material stands out (which is why so many Dancehall and Soca albums, particularly compilations, have become fond of using beautiful women on their covers) (biggup Ce’Cile). And, of course, if they labels are really on-point they’ll also flood the various online channels with information and video material on their releases, so you can rather easily access quite a bit of details on a piece before making your decision. In ALL of those cases, I didn’t like what was coming from Motherland for awhile and I was just going to pass on it. In that regard, I was about as WRONG as I’ve been on any release in a long time.
When I listened to said half-minute clips of every song on the album, I was unimpressed by. . . Well, by every song on the album. The cover? It looked kind of odd for awhile because I didn’t blow it up, so if you look at the cover to this album, it almost looks like two different bodies leading into one head, which is kind of creepy. And then I started to research on ‘Jah Pearl & Bouddha Sticks’ (because I had heard of neither and thought that ‘Bouddha Sticks’ might actually be one person because of the aforementioned cover) and from the outset, with my mind already sort of made up, I wasn’t very impressed on what I found (either that or I didn’t feel like translating the French in my head) and the various other material that I found on the act was largely pretty mundane also. So what brings us here today? That last part I mentioned about the VIDEO is what caught my eye. Apparently they’ve released a video as the first single for the album and that video, shot in Jamaica (where part of the album was also recorded apparently as well), is OKAY, but the video I found featured Jah Pearl and Bouddha Sticks, his band, just beating the hell out of some random club somewhere in some random European country on some random weekend in January last year and the proverbial gerbil on the wheel began running in my brain again. I went back and did a little more research and suddenly ‘Bouddha Sticks (interesting name and all)’ weren’t just some band, they were in fact, one of the more active and respected in all of Europe (which is saying A LOT) and Jah Pearl wasn’t just ‘some guy from France’ who had gotten bit by the Reggae bug and decided become a musician, but instead he was an individual with a very VAST history (including being having heritage of Madinina) which wonderfully led him not only into Reggae music in full, but also this Motherland, which I believe is his debut album. I had another listen to the clips and although I was still wasn’t blown away by any stretch of the word, it was MUCH better than I had originally thought and I also realized that I really don’t give a damn how the cover looked, after all, you cannot listen to it and really it isn’t HORRIBLE anyway! So after a few weeks, we decided to give the album a shot and what I got was an album which simply cannot be experienced in one or even two listens. In fact, I’m fully expecting to have a stronger appreciation for it by the time I reach the end of this review than I do now. What I found very interesting with this piece in particular is the fact that on each and every tune, despite the fact that I don’t like them all, what I see is a DIRECTION. I may not like how they went about getting wherever they were going (or I may not have thought that they got there at all actually), but I can see the intent and after listening to dozens of untalented and even talented artists who seem to have no point and kind of aimlessly go about their business, it’s always refreshing to run into an unknown who just seems to ’get it’ like Jah Pearl and Bouddha Sticks throughout Motherland.
In terms of his sound, Jah Pearl definitely is an interesting case. He has a few different vibes at his disposal, including a very confident chanting style, there’s a kind of a trepid singing voice, there’s a DJ style and a few others as well. And it all (for the most part, works for him) and I should add that like Lyricson, Pearl is another Frenchie artist who delivers for the most part in English. And you can sample Jah Pearl along with Bouddha Sticks displaying his English skills on their new album Motherland, which begins with the very jovial ‘Mountain Top’. Okay I’m of two minds on this tune: The first thought is that it certainly isn’t one of my favourites on the album in terms of total quality, but on the other hand it just SOUNDS GOOD. The Pearl opens up by going all Jacob Miller, tenement yard style, on the people and the very nice and ‘happy’ vibes just keep going. The tunes isn’t particularly strong lyrically, but again, like I said I see the point as Jah Pearl paints the literal picture of the ‘mountain top’ being a place of social and spiritual refuge . . . Okay maybe it is one of my favourites between you and I. Next in is the first of four combinations, ‘Burning Fire (tune number 7,932 with that title)’ which features respected veteran Anthony John (who himself has a new album, Creation which I hope to get to someday). This one, ostensibly, was one of my favourites before I even really got into it. It well follows the opener, despite the title, in that the vibes are just so laid back and easy, but again, should you get into the tune with any type of depth, you get far more of a solid appreciation of the tune (and never mind the fact that Pearl WICKEDLY delivers the line of the tune when he says, “Dem so wicked and deceiving, dem nah go like dis yah tune. But mi bun dem inna di morning and again before noon”) calling for a cleansing fire for the wicked. Lastly in the opening lot is the jazzified ‘I Roar’ (which I think should be ‘I Rome’). This tune is another like the first (and I mean it this time), where it may not be the strongest tune from a lyrical aspect, but it just sounds so nice and who knows, I’ve been wrong before about the lyrics. All in all a VERY nice start.
As I mentioned Jah Pearl and Bouddha Sticks bring a few friends to voice with them on Motherland and one of them, Spectacular (who I believe is now officially named ‘Burning Spectacular‘, or something like that) was yet another reason why, initially, I wasn’t too high on this release, but he also goes on to prove me wrong. His guest spot comes on the very stirring ‘Who We Are’. Spectacular is his typically over-animated self, but this one is a BIG stepping tune, so he fits right in (in fact Pearl even raises his levels as well, so you know what type of HYPE to expect (over that one-drop which is ANGRY)). Big tune. Martian voiced Chezidek also chimes in with the even stronger ‘Rising’ which is definitely one of the biggest tunes on the album and the same is going to be said of the final combination Motherland has to offer, ‘Poverty’ which features none other than LKP veteran Mabrakat. The tune is fairly standard in terms of the approach and well simple to follow, but it has a kind of ‘hitch’ to the vibes which marks the lion’s share of its sonic appeal in my opinion and that’s not to call it a gimmick at all, it’s a very nice song (and I LOVE when Mabrakat kicks in. Madness). Although he goes on in English for the most part, Jah Pearl offers up two tunes in his native tongue with ‘C’est Pour Ceux’ and the WICKED ‘La Route Pour Zion’. The former, I THINK, is the album’s official single (and that riddim is a beautiful thing as is the downright Zouk-ish backing singer, whoever she may be), but the latter is MIGHTY as Pearl goes into a nearly full on DJ style at times and in the process he manages to deliver one of the, if not THE, best chorus on the entire album. Still, all of that being said, my absolute favourite moment on the album comes during what must’ve been one of the most personal for Pearl, ‘Homeless’. Apparently he was actually homeless for a period of his life and he chooses to grasp a piece of that situation and emotion and pushes it into a song. I can find better tunes on a few different levels on Motherland, but none which has this same type of ‘healthy’ range of vibes. It’s extremely well done and when you break it down and get into it, it’s a very relatable tune and one I’m sure is going to help a lot of people struggling across the planet and not just with homelessness definitely. HUGE TUNE. I also REALLY liked the title track and it’s a song which is pretty much everything that I thought it would be after I had gotten the album. This thing is absolutely sprawling, I could spend an entire week exploring it. But the main thing I come away with is that it’s essentially a tune about the ENVIRONMENT. It’s not about (just) Afrika, although that, in the most terrestrial of situations, is explored, but it’s about protecting and DEFINING the protection of the planet, but like I said you REALLY have to pay attention on that one. Also check the obligatory herbalist tune ‘Likkle Bredda’, which has a very heavy and swinging vibes to it and (speaking of HEAVY) the excellent ‘Tell Dem’. That tune is clearly near the class of the album and a genuine standout here. The only tune I DEFINITELY do not like on Motherland from Jah Pearl & Bouddha Sticks (you have no idea how many times I’ve typed ‘Jah Sticks & Bouddha Pearl’ in this review) (NONE) is the lover’s tune, ‘Baby Girl’. It isn’t horrible, I’m not offended and my wife didn’t vomit when she heard it (and that riddim is truly nice), but it just doesn’t do much, such tunes rarely do, but it’s not particularly SWEET either. The album comes to its conclusion with another of its best tunes, the very inspirational ‘Now’. We’ll forgive them for the autotune and this tune is just so simple and it’s also the only time on the album (I THINK), where Jah Pearl refers to him as his alter ego ‘Royal Bamboo’ (I’m not even going to say anything) (NOTHING) (NOT A WORD). And if you haven’t figured it out by now, I really like the tune and it’s definitely a more than just fitting end to this more than just adequate project.
Overall, while Motherland surely isn’t just an overwhelmingly amazing and SHOCKING album, I do have to admit that I was completely WRONG in the way I had sized it up initially and not just ‘wrong’ but wrong on so many levels. Even the cover looks a little better now (although if they want to redo and add a random Ce’Cile or something like such, I won’t complain) to me and it’s really just a solid project throughout. I’d also like to reiterate the fact of just how expansive this one is. It has quite a few tunes which I could really dig into as a critic and probably would enjoy more because of it. All in all, there is the case of this list of perhaps MYTHICAL proportions of albums that I’ve sized up wrong and missed out on. Well, you can take Motherland by Jah Pearl & Bouddha Sticks and strike it from the list because I did the right thing here and so should you and pick it up. Well done.
Rated 4.10/5
Gibraltar Music
2009
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