Coming Soon Vol. 14

Greensleeves Rhythm Album #90: Set Mi Free [Greensleeves Records]

First is this week is the 90th installment of Greensleeves’ once mighty Rhythm Album Series, Set Mi Free from Heart Of Love Productions. A few years ago it would have absolutely been a shock to me had you told me that it would be 2010 and we still would be on #90 in this series given its pretty ridiculous former level of prolificacy (now, by its current level, we’ll probably see #100 in 2015 or so), but on the good side, now that it’s slowed down its releases definitely get more publicity and promotion and are just generally a bigger deal (rather than waiting all of two weeks or so between releases as it was a few years back. This installment comes via Heart Of Production (which means it’s probably the first non Shane Brown riddim in this series in maybe a year or two by my count), who is best known as the masterminds behind Erup’s (more on him in a minute) former big hit, ‘Gal A Run Dem Head’. This particular riddim was quite popular (and still is) and unbeknownst to me for awhile, it was actually constructed by Stephen McGregor which is always a big deal. Fans can look forward to efforts from the likes of Mavado, Ele, Assassin, Vegas, riddim topper Bugle (with ’Mirror’), Bramma and Suki and of course the gangly Vybz Kartel whose tune ’Love Dem’ is pretty average by my opinion, but birthed a video containing a PRODIGIOUS amount of ass.

Potential Rating: 3.5/5

Releases on April 6

Erup - How We Ride [Truckback Records/Zojak Worldwide]

Speaking of Erup - I he sorta kinda makes his debut album here doesn’t he! Okay, How We Ride kind of pops up out of nowhere, but given Truckback’s (biggup Heather) penchant for hitting the digital side of things HARD (and Zojak‘s penchant of pushing it through immediately) (biggup Zoe), I suppose I shouldn’t be very surprised here and of course I’m happy about it! Erup is one of the most talented young artists the Dancehall has seen in awhile and the fact that this compilation style release is forthcoming, is definitely something to take a look at. The piece is (duh) full up on Erup’s tunes for Truckback and it kind of actually is more of a fat EP given the fact that five of its twelve numbers are actually the same song (shame on you if you can’t guess which one), in various forms. Besides that wicked ‘clicking’ tune, fans can look forward to previous big drops such as ‘Mek Noise’ and ‘Ignorancy’ [aka ‘Roll Serious’] and combinations with Anthony B and up and comer Nature (who is VERY good). There might just be a next Erup studio album forthcoming in 2010, but as it stands in terms of official collections of his material to date, although dated, How We Ride is top of the line to my knowledge.

Potential Rating: 4/5

Releases March 20-30

Maurice - Closure [Rymshot Productions/Zojak Worldwide]

Staying with the beautiful people at Zojak for a moment - Despite the very strange circa 1997 loverman R&B-ish looking cover (biggup Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant and Aaron Hall), I have a REALLY good feeling about Florida based Jamaican singer Maurice’s debut album Closure. Why? Well the album’s first single ‘In My Dreams’ has steadily been growing on me (and even more so my wife) for awhile now and on top of that there’s that whole ‘Rymshot Productions’ thing which means that it’s a Dean Pond production. Dean Pond is one of the biggest Reggae producers to ever emerge from the Virgin Islands and we owe to his credit the discovery/maturation of artists like Ras Army, Revalation and definitely Pressure Busspipe, so with such a history if that man deems Maurice worth working with and listening to, then who am I to deny it! Seriously! I’m expecting a kind of a romantic/spiritual set, given the song titles and like I said, I have a REALLY good feeling about this one being REALLY good. Also, there’re combinations with the aforementioned Pressure and Wayne Wonder of all people. My readers can expect a full on Achis style review coming very soon.

Potential Rating: 4.5/5

Releases March 20-30

Influential - Road Hog [Sons of Spoon/Zojak Worldwide]

It was probably 2008 when Influential first blew up on the strength of a BIG tune about fucked up drivers ‘Road Hog’ and definitely made a name for himself and somewhat surprisingly he now drops an album/large EP (eight tunes) for his homebase label, Sons Of Spoon (who you probably know from having produced D’Angel’s ‘Stronger’) (also look out for their riddim album for the E-10), pushed digitally by the girls and boys at Zojak Worldwide. This one, which I’ve been playing with for most of the day is very good actually. Influential is a kind of a singing chanter and he’s very good, has very nice lyrics and while his melodies will probably get better, what he lacks there he makes up for by the application of genuine (or genuinely convincing) EMOTION which definitely gives his releases a nice dosage of colour and originality. Besides the title track, check ‘Principle’ (across the same riddim as the aforementioned ‘Stronger’) (whatever it was called), the all too personal ‘Cancer’, ‘Prayer For Mamma’ and the pretty much obligatory tune for Buju Banton ‘Free Buju’. Definitely give this one a check, it is VERY strong and I’m well expecting big things from Influential in 2010 and beyond.

Potential Rating: 4.25/5

Releases March 20-30

Jamaram - Jameleon [GLM Music/Impulso]

Okay, whatever I’m about to tell you, you take with this knowledge - I know nary a damn thing about Jamaram and I don’t feel like doing any research right now either. I think they’re German (I’m pretty sure they’re German) and despite the fact that I’m calling them “them” and “they’re”, but for all I know, Jamaram could just be like one guy. . . Or a girl. Regardless, whoever he/she/they are, Jamaram is (/are) putting out a new album, Jameleon, probably not they’re first but definitely they’re newest. My interest in this one comes on the tune ‘End Of The World’ because it just happens to feature new favourite of mine, Sara Lugo. I’m (SERIOUSLY) sure that this one is a big deal, particularly to European fans and just from listening through the clips, musically it sounds very on point and who knows when it drops I may just grab up a comment (instead of just getting ‘End Of The World‘ which I am going to do anyway).

Potential Rating: I have no idea

Releases on March 26

Sanctuary

And lastly coming soon this week is just a whole heap of releases from Sanctuary (which mean RAS Records basically). Releases from Israel Vibration (shown here), Junior Byles, Freddie McGregor, Eek-A-Mouse and others are popping up digitally everywhere. Some of them have previously been made available, but hopefully whoever is orchestrating this is intending to finally just unload RAS’ entire catalogue digitally which is a great thing so definitely do stay tuned as if that happens, GEMS, utter GEMS, are forthcoming.

In Stores Now

Alison Hinds - Caribbean Queen [Black Coral]

DEFINITELY the biggest deal here (and that’s saying quite a bit actually) is the fact that the DIVINE Alison Hinds has indeed dropped her sophomore solo album (as I predicted she would this year), the aptly titled Caribbean Queen. I’ve yet to get my hands on this piece, but as you might’ve suspected, it includes some of Hinds’ recent hits from the past couple of seasons and you KNOW Alison Hinds will never release an album which doesn’t include either ‘Roll It Gal’ or ‘Faluma’ and both are here. For the newer efforts, however, you can well take a listen to the likes of the remix to ‘Call On Me’ (alongside Jah Cure), ‘King & Queen’ (with Richie Spice), ‘Chocolate & Vanilla’, ‘Togetheness’, the OUTSTANDING ‘Again’ and my own personal favourite ‘Soca In Meh Body’. I pretty much know every tune on the album (and if you don’t, a couple of hours or so on you tube could probably familiarize you), but like I said, this one is TRULY a big deal and I’m hoping that Hinds is just the second of many (following Machel) big name Soca stars to drop albums for 2010.

Bunji Garlin & Fay-Ann Lyons - 2010 Carnival Singles [T&T Entertainment/Faluma]

Staying on the up to date Soca side is this here most surprising but WELCOME of releases. Bunji Garlin and his wife, Fay(e)-Ann Lyons are two of the biggest names in Soca and if you read me to any consistency you know I LOVE them both, so when you can take music which would otherwise be damn near impossible for people to find and get it somewhere as popular as iTunes (where you can find it right now), that too is a very big deal and that’s what we have here. Pretty much every single tune either Garlin or Lyons had in 2010 is available on 2010 Carnival Singles (the only tune I think is missing is their combination ‘Call Meh‘), so that includes their biggest hits - Brave (and its Road Mix) and Mad Carnival from Bunji and definitely ‘True Lies’ and ‘Start Whining’ from Fay-Ann. Of course, it seems like someone just pretty much threw it together and the tracklist is random as hell, but REALLY, who gives a shit. Pick through it and grab the hits, some of which aren’t likely to be as readily available anytime soon.

Bunji Garlin Reggae [Supersonic]

Bunji comes back here in a FAR different style from the one I just told you about with two selections from the quietly mighty Supersonic Sound from out of Germany and he’s brought two friends with him. The first of the two, ’No Gangsters’ happens to feature Faye-Ann again (that E in her name is just mysterious as hell) and her presence here is probably even more significant than his. Over the last couple of years, Lyons’ music has virtually become the definition of what BIG SOUNDING Soca music actually is and because of that she hasn’t exactly been very close to a one-drop often, but when she is, she does quite well. ‘No Gangsters’ is VERY GOOD and I’m so happy it exists (and if you check the release there’re a few different versions of the tune available, including an a cappella version. The other piece here is also very interesting as you wouldn’t expect a link with Garlin and Swedish star (I think he’s from Sweden), Million Stylez as you have on ‘Long Time’. This one is very nice and vibrant (that riddim is BEAUTIFUL) and it shows the versatility of the mighty Bunji Garlin (I’m waiting for Garlin to just push a straight forward Reggae album one of these days) and the overall skill level of Stylez. You can’t go wrong with picking up either of these releases right now.

Gyptian - Hold Yuh [VP Records]

The apparently about to be quite busy Gyptian is getting things started for an expected run towards an album (lot of stuff going on behind the scenes there) and is doing so with what is EASILY his most interesting tune in a long ass time and probably one of his most interested of all time, 'Hold Yuh'. This tune is supposedly doing DAMAGE overseas and just listening to it, it’s kind of funny, but damn catchy at the same time and VP was obviously so impressed that they chose to use it as a ‘springboard’ of sorts to his next album. The tune is well interesting, so definitely listen it, but keep in mind that probably the most impressive thing about it is the fact that it got Lady Saw to be LADY SAW again and I’ll leave it to you to find her WICKED response.

Jimmy Cozier - Way Of Life [Cozi Music Group]

Sometimes I love hurrrrrrr. Sometimes I love hur nottttttt. Do you remember Jimmy Cozier? If not then . . . Well go do some research. The former kind of one hit wonder from the R&B world FINALLY returns like a millennium later and of course, like Heavy D, he’s now a Reggae artist, with a brand new Reggae(ish) album Way Of Life. This album has been talked about from forever and it’s supposedly been partly produced by Beres Hammond and recorded at Harmony House also (and you‘re going to recognize a few riddims here). Of Jamaican blood, Cozier is a VERY IMPRESSIVE singer and if he can do damage as a Reggae artist that would be so welcome, because given his history (and the fact that he hasn’t had an album in forever) non-Reggae fans are most certainly going to be paying attention to this one and from how it sounds, what they’ll find might be pretty impressive, but I’m still thinking about it.