"Flawless. Victory.": A Review of Long Journey by Naptali

Still basking in the afterglow of what was the brilliant The Burnin’ Melody album from the previously unknown Lion D and Real Rebels Can’t Die from the only slightly more well known Nereus Joseph as the two best albums from 2009, I found myself heading into 2010 HOPING that such an artist with a not so storied background could rise to a similar stage. Now it wasn’t at all that I was ‘worried’ to any degree about the potential overall quality of Reggae releases for the year; standing where we currently stand (proverbially), we’re about to see releases from Junior Kelly (which is very good), Busy Signal, Gentleman and a scintillating combination of Damian Marley & Hip-Hop superstar Nas, all within the next month or so. And there’re consistently big releases from some of the biggest names each and every year, which was expected. But I do have to admit that the occasional surprise bit of MASTERY from an artist who hasn’t spent much time previously on my radars is such a wonderful thing to see occur and in my opinion, is absolutely outstanding for the music as a whole as it shows that it isn’t only strong at the ‘top’ (in terms of popularity). So, who could play a similar role in the script of 2010 as Lion D did last year? Well, perhaps it’s wisest to look back to Europe, the same place which gave us the UK born, Italy bred chanter - With the nature of Jamaican music being that almost anyone who enjoys any type of status on the scene gaining so much hype (and generally very quickly) that it becomes difficult to envision any Jamaican artist ‘sneaking up on’ the masses to any degree. That is, unless of course that road ran through the aforementioned Europe and that is exactly the case we find ourselves dealing with here. From the very first second I heard (and even saw) that an artist by the name of [‘The Great’] Naptali who I had honestly heard of, but hadn’t paid much attention to over the past couple of years or so, had an album forthcoming, I was CERTAIN that I had found the big surprise for 2010. Naptali actually is a Jamaican artist, but didn’t (at least not to my experience) gain the lion’s share of his hype with Jamaican work, having linked with exceedingly fine German imprint, Oneness Records, with whom he has clearly done the best work of his career and while that isn’t rare at all, usually it’s the case that Jamaican artists go to Europe after becoming established and reaching their prime at home - Naptali just did it the other way around. Besides that, what I heard just listening to the clips and through my subsequent research was just OUTSTANDING vibes, so I circled (a then two months away) March 12 on my calendars as a potentially HUGE day to look forward to for Reggae music in 2010.

March 12th, of course, was the day Oneness Records would bring forth Naptali’s debut album, Long Journey and it is surely the most excited I’ve been for an album in quite awhile. So what was the attraction from listening through the clips and just the general feel from Naptali? The man has this kind of ‘long chanting’ type of style and I’m growing to hate the term ‘singjay’, so I’m going to call him a ‘sing-chanter’ and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It works with the kind of easy going and very fruitful and vast type of one-drop riddims which he is backed by on the album and it resonates so wonderfully that despite the fact that I’ve learned to rely less and less on clips when judging potential quality (biggup Benaïssa), like I said, I was very impressed and excited. When I began to research exactly who the Clarendon born (another one) Naptali was, I was also impressed and excited by the fact that he reportedly is a ‘disciple’ of the great Messenjah, Luciano. I feel that this is definitely represented in his music and while certainly Luciano’s isn’t a sound I would immediately reach towards in comparing Naptali (in terms of vocals), when you listen to his vibes and REALLY take it in, the styles of writing and delivery are somewhat similar. They both have a very earthly, yet spiritual approach. They’re very much natural writers and I could envision both (don’t have to in the case of Luciano) singing songs just about the trees and water and very earth based things like that and do so wonderfully (and you simply cannot tell me that Long Journey doesn’t sound like an album Luciano might have made) with the concept as well. All that Luciano may have taught Naptali and all that he has brought to the stage on his own and has developed through working in Europe and Jamaica is on FULL display on this lovely release and although it may not immediately hit you as hard as you might think with the way I’m speaking about it, what you’re in store for on Long Journey is an album which definitely challenges its listeners to REALLY pay attention. You might not think so, especially after having compared him to Luciano, but Naptali’s is a style which is partly so interesting because despite being so straight forward and natural, the style is just so nice that you reach a point in listening to him where you can rather easily be ‘caught up’ in the vibes and get to ignoring what is being said in place of just ENJOYING YOURSELF. Certainly that’s a very nice trait for a musician to have as well, but so many of the tunes (basically all of them actually) have very important and well crafted and presented messages that can be lost when you just kind of close your eyes and listen to the vibes for their vast amounts of sonic appeal. On top of that, as I alluded to, Naptali is afforded some SUBLIME backing riddims over which he voices by Oneness and co., so while you may very well frame this one up to be a very nice and easy listen (and it may just be for you after awhile), definitely don’t just go into it presuming everything to be so easy. There’re a lot of (GREAT) ‘distractions’ to be had here. If you can initially ‘navigate’ such commotion, however, and then subsequently go back and enjoy it, what you’re likely to find here is an album which made me feel clairvoyant to a degree because, at least so far, it’s my favourite album of 2010.

Curiously enough, despite the fact that he seems to come ‘from out of nowhere’, the most immediate and prevailing vibe that I take away from Naptali and his music is that both simply MAKE SENSE. He doesn’t go very far to make his point (and for the most part, he doesn’t have to), instead he delivers messages which are quite universal, yet simultaneously eschewing of clichés and well worn ideology generally. For example, take a listen to the very first tune on Naptali’s beautiful album Long Journey from Oneness Records, ‘Show Some Love’, a matter of making nearly perfect sense. This tune is just so easy and nicely done that it quickly grabs your attention and then when you actually get into the song’s lyrics, it takes a step even higher up in my opinion. Start up! Big opener. Things take a slightly different route on the next tune, ‘What Goes Around’ which, although not as vibrant or colourful as the opener, is arguably just strong. What impressed me on this tune (as it also did, in retrospect, on the first) was the ‘flow’ of the tune. Typically a word reserved for DJ’s, ‘What Goes Around’ has it in abundance and what I mean is that it’s almost an impossible tune to break into parts in terms of its sonic appeal and lyrically just as difficult because the message here (one of not only ‘reaping what you sow’ but, also the literally ‘going around’ of daily occurrences being aided by Rastafari (and in my opinion, taking it a step further on what Naptali means - LOVE)) is so interlaced with itself from verse to verse. Beautiful song! Then there’s the title track and I definitely had a great time with this one. Looking at the album as a whole, of course I’m interested (you know me) in the title being what it is and I kind of went with the cliché, thinking it was named ‘Long Journey’ because Naptali considered himself at the end of a long journey in his career. Instead, from listening to the tune, he very much considers his ‘journey’ a thing of the PRESENT (“I am on a long journey, this journey that I trod is always filled with poverty. I know Jah awaits me so I hold the faith and wait patiently”). This tune is better than the first two, it has a very simple sound to it, but as I said, definitely pay as keen of attention as possibly can, failure to do so will allow you to miss one of the most powerful vibes on the entire album.

“What’s the problem with mankind? How them so ignorant and so blind? For simple things they try to take away your life - Why them don’t learn to live upright?”, Naptali begins on what I feel is the most beautiful moment on the whole of Long Journey, the DOMINANT ‘Redeemer’. I’ve been listening to this one for awhile now and I’ve heard it go from just being an entertaining and pleasing tune, onto one which just excels on so many levels. It is absolutely gorgeous as Naptali urges the masses to seek the will of ‘the redeemer’, His Imperial Majesty - Probably the single best tune I’ve heard in 2010.

Naptali and Oneness definitely go a pretty large distance in bringing in a LARGE ‘supporting’ cast for him to voice with, including two very familiar names and two who, hopefully, will be very familiar very soon. First of all is one of the biggest of them all, the downright MAMMOTH ‘And They Cry’, which features the bubbling Sara Lugo. Lugo is kind of jazzy type of vibed singer, so as you can imagine, such a laid back type of ‘groovy’ songstress melds EXCELLENTLY with Naptali. The tune itself is superb as it speaks to the troubles and ills that people (particularly the youths) face on a daily basis. It’s also very very pleasing to the ear and I’ve told you to do so before and I’ll remind you here - Keep an eye and an ear on Sara Lugo, maybe another big surprise for 2010 or beyond. Naptali’s good friend (apparently, the two have more than a few combinations together) Arofat, joins him on the next offering, the wonderful ‘Grandma’. This tune has given me all types of joy because it seems to be a rarer and rarer occurrence where artists actually make a tune for the Grand Mothers of the world and this tune is very nice. I THINK Naptali’s Grand Mother has actually passed on, which would have made this tune all the more special and later on he actually stops saying “Grandma” and begins to say “Mama” and I’m pretty sure he means the same person, so you can tell what type of impact she must’ve had on his life and wherever she is, I’m sure she LOVES this vibe. Arofat returns on the familiarly DAZZLING ‘More Love’ and this time he brings big man LUTAN FYAH with him. This tune was available on Oneness’ enchanting one-drop, The General Key Riddim, from a few years back (HUGE tune from Mark Wonder on that riddim) and it kind of builds on the work done by Naptali and Lugo on ‘And They Cry’ as it goes to outline a solution for keeping the youths out of violence, poverty and corruption which is, of course, to show and give them love. Definitely the Fyah is near top form and Arofat, a kind of fiery Dancehall DJ, is another artist to pay attention to in the future as well. Well done. And there’s also ‘Seven Miles’, which features Luciano. I would’ve been quite disappointed, after learning how big of a presence The Messenjah has had on Naptali’s career, if the two hadn’t linked for a combination here and what they’ve come up with is probably the best combination on the album (if you forced me to pick a one). The tune obviously references The Most Honourable Marcus Garvey and it’s SO interested listening, even superficially, hearing just how close the two are vibed. Luciano has inspired probably dozens of artists worldwide and I think that in Naptali, he’s probably found one of his greatest disciples and one who can continue to work as he himself has done and continues to do and to do so in a very similar and COMFORTABLE fashion. LOVE this tune, love it’s direction and how it doesn’t simply view ’seven miles’ as a thing of the past. HUGE!

The balance of the tunes on Long Journey, all of which feature Naptali solo, are just as strong and in some cases, even more so. Check ‘Fire Burn’. Hopefully you, like me, will greet this tune by singing “bad boys, bad boys . . .” as it flows over African Beat’s relick of that very popular riddim. This tune, as you might expect, speaks to exactly how Naptali supposes to deal with the NASTY and CORRUPT powers that be in the world who kill people and keep them impoverished. Similarly vibed is the spectacular sounding ‘What They Are Fighting For’. This one has such a big and powerful CRISP sound to the vibes and Naptali uses that backing to nearly prime effectiveness on the tune as he delivers what is essentially a multi-tiered/multi-faceted anti-violence tune. Certainly, things aren’t that simple here (and he goes on to sporadically speak of his ideal of a post-war and post-violence type of a world), but the ultimate direction in which the tune heads is very impressive. I don’t know if it’s simply because I’ve listened to it SO MUCH in the capacity of this album, or through some other trait of the tune, but ‘Rise Up In The Morning’ is a tune which seems so recognizable to my ears and definitely in a good way. This tune is HEAVY. I mean HEAVY! Seriously, even on the surface, it’s one for the Dub heads, you’ll love it. From the message side, things are fairly simple (at least I think they are by Naptali‘s somewhat deceptively cryptic standards) on the very spiritual tune - He speaks of life in the light of His Majesty and also what the life is like in absence of observing Him. It’s rather quietly one of the best tunes on the album and for whatever it’s worth, after ‘Redeemer’, it’s the next tune that I learned the words to. Down the stretch of Long Journey, we get a tune in ’Laws Of Attraction’ which is probably the changeup of the album. I guess you could call it a love song, but it’s definitely doesn’t fit into those parameters as most tunes that I’ll label like so. This one is more of a love song for the world, with serious social overtones and subtly inspirational vibes. The song is an ‘experience’ and I’m still not exactly sure what to make of it, so hopefully when you reach it, you’ll give it the necessary time to work on you - this most interesting of tunes on the album. ‘We The People’, the penultimate track on the album is one of its finest moments. This one (like most of the songs here) just makes you feel good and it doesn’t make any mysteries about it either. It’s a big unifying tune for the masses and hopefully ‘they’ll’ (‘you’ll’) (‘we’ll’) well take heed of it. And lastly there’s the biblical Nyah drum (and acoustic, as if you didn’t know) backed closer, ‘Seven Brothers’. Besides the obvious, I attempted to draw some more of a tangible meaning to the tune and ultimately I found on very much like the tune which immediately precedes it - Unity. “Seven brothers, seven different minds, seven different thinking at the same time” - but still brothers. The tune offers a very interesting and sublime ending to an album not short on both qualities.

Overall, I’m SO HAPPY that this album was as good as I thought it would be and I’m not at all disappointed with it. Naptali is an artist who, to my opinion, has just placed himself in such a powerful position with Long Journey and I’m definitely hoping that the messages here can reach the ‘necessary’ ears to have the big impact that they most surely will have if given that opportunity. Beside that, strictly on the side of the listeners - If you have a love for modern Roots Reggae music (and if you didn’t you wouldn’t be hanging around here and certainly not reading a nearly 3000 word review for this album, would you?), you’re absolutely going to glue yourself to this one as it reaches pretty much expected level and exceeds and it creates a few of its own and exceeds them also. Naptali (and Oneness Records) have my early favourite for 2010 Reggae Album of The Year, with the SPECIAL Long Journey and if it isn’t so come December, then we’re in for a HUGE HUGE year. AMAZING! Go get it!

Rated 5/5

Oneness Records

2010

Naptali

Naptali @ Myspace