Completely Random Thoughts Vol. 8: "I Don't Like Reggae"

I Don't Like Reggae

Thankfully, such an occurrence these days is a rarity for the most part, but on this past Monday I did just happen to receive an email, the first in awhile, asking me why I wrote reviews (and articles) so long. This person explained to me that they were looking around for a review of a particular album (biggup Stevie Face) and that they hadn’t managed to find anything but mine which was, of course, just entirely too long for their attention span. Certainly, if you lack a simple thing called PASSION, I could see how one might come to such a conclusion. But, I don’t think it takes anymore passion than it would take for someone to. . . Oh I don’t know, spend several months or maybe even a year of their time (and their money in many cases) making absolutely WONDERFUL music only to ultimately release it and just literally have almost NO ONE go to any detail tell them what they think about it. Someone will most certainly say “this is great”, but they won’t say why and someone might say “this is terrible”, but again they’ll offer no explanation.

Achis: The Explanation

So when I write, I try to give you some perspective and at least some type of context to what I’m thinking. So as opposed to saying “This is some bullshit”, I (far more tactfully I should say) will instead something along the lines of “this is some bullshit because the artist is clearly capable of doing much better and has done much better (maybe even on this album)”. Also, I like to draw rather obscure and sometimes rambling ass comparisons and tangents when I write a review. The thought behind that is if I’m dealing with something that you might like, I can find a way to mention three or four (thousand) other similar pieces which you may like as well, or if it’s negative review, then I can either make another recommendation instead or give you something else which perhaps also suffers from the same disappointing trait and should also be on your ‘things to avoid list’.

Besides that, the technical side of things, the other (far more important) part is definitely that aforementioned PASSION. I literally get UPSET quite often when I find myself in a situation of reviewing an album and it’s getting pretty deep into the review and I just happen to stumble upon something which his very VAST and potentially something that I could spend a nice bit of time on. Sometimes I’ll just deal with the frustration, while sometimes I’ll also just GO BACK AND ADD STUFF IN. That’s may passion to writing for Reggae music, I could gladly spend the rest of my days (and I just may) doing just that and for free. It’s DISGUSTING to me that we have, in Reggae, a music whose history is so nice, whose present is SO nice and whose future will be so nice as well, I believe AND it translates SO nice into the spoken word and the written word, but not enough people are talking or writing about IT. They’re talking about Bob and that’s it, but I don’t even think Bob himself would want to be the center of attention like that almost THIRTY years after he transitioned. Now, as I sit here listening to this amazing album, we need people who have the PASSION to write and talk and make mixes and do whatever about people like Naptali, like Junior Kelly, like Bescenta, like Anthony John, like Busy Signal and Gentleman and Anthony B and Midnite and Kulcha Knox and all of these wonderful artists that I’m writing about these days (biggup Zojak and Nate) and I don’t give a damn if I’m the only one, but thankfully I’m not. So we biggup people like Camille from UnitedReggae and Julian from ReggaeVille and Daniel from VIReggae & IReggae and Zalemmm from Bassculture and Nico and all of these other people from various sites who do their part of the 'job' of getting things out there. They all do whatever they do, almost always without tangible reward (at least to my knowledge) and just to feed the PASSION they have for this music.

Thus, for my part I’ve been trying to rework my ‘template’ for reviews. Gone (and hopefully forever) is the labourious fourth paragraph. It’s been replaced by. . . However many get the job the done. I ‘m going into even more detail and the review itself is actually getting longer - Going from an average of 2400 words or so, up to an average of approximately one-hundred more words per review. And I'm 'finished', if I find a way to haul in even more detail into my work, I am most certainly going to incorporate them and do so IMMEDIATELY. And the reason will be because this music so definitely and desperately DESERVES it. This Reggae music which has been so good to me and to YOU throughout the years, doing so much for US. This Reggae music which I do not even like.

- I love it.

{note: 400th Post!}