It is most certainly important for a young and up and coming label to do its absolute best in getting its name out there to the masses and just maintaining a nice level of visibility in its particular market as it is in business practices in general. In Reggae music, however, because of several factors, not the least of which is the seemingly ‘fly by night’ and ‘come and gone’ nature of many of the players in our genre, I think it is even that much more important for a young and/or up and coming imprint to focus on being consistent in doing whatever it is doing. It’s also very good to make certain effective connects within the industry (like with bloggers who write ridiculously long and detailed reviews about your material), doing so can certainly give you a bit of ‘star power’ surrounding your eventual releases and besides that, should you end up with the ‘right’ connect, it will get to the point where even if the actual name of your label isn’t constantly in the public eye, the fans will grow to associate a certain artist with you, by extension, which is certainly a great thing. So perhaps that’s what Anthony John had in mind when he (and I think his wife) began Flyroots Productions. Of course they didn’t have to look very far for an individual with whom to link their label because John himself is a very strong artist and, in terms of how Flyroots goes about doing things (which seems to be on a level in terms of production and magnetism that I don’t think John has been associated with consistently in his career thus far), and up and coming one who is being (re)introduced to the public on the international level. The label, to my knowledge, made a wonderful debut in pushing through Anthony John’s third album, Creation very recently and are now in the process of doing a VERY strong job of promoting the album and in terms of just getting up and running, I have to say that John and company are doing a very good job. Of course now that leads to a few other things - The first is the question of whether or not they can turn the album into a successful venture (both in terms of getting the message out there and in terms of being fiscally productive, which I’m sure it has been) and the second and most prominent now is - What next? Maybe we’ll have to sit around for the next eighteen months or so waiting for the next album to drop for Anthony John or maybe there’ll be a mixtape or something like that, but wouldn’t it be so nice if Flyroots could find a way to keep on our minds for awhile and do so SOONER?
Well how about a big riddim? That’s a good idea! The step that the label 
has taken to follow Creation is quite a big leap, it’s also kind of random, but I’m all in favour of random! For their next trick, Flyroots Productions has unveiled the Breadfruit Riddim and it comes under such wonderful circumstances. First of all, it just so happens that the riddim was apparently constructed by the more than capable Sherkhan of Tiger Records (a HUGE friend of this blog’s (THE MAN MADE ME A JINGLE!) and the mastermind behind Perfect’s scintillating most recent album, French Connection) which makes it even more impressive to me and hopefully to quite a few fans worldwide as well. The link with Sherkhan is definitely an impressive one and in the course of building the riddim and voicing it, the potential link Flyroots would make with the artists they chose to voice the Breadfruit could also be just as important and maybe in the future, you could see their releases roll out with similar top notch talents and as you get into the musical aspect of the piece, you begin to see a WONDERFUL cache of artists tapped by Anthony John and company to voice the riddim. Also, the riddim itself is LOVELY (Sherkhan made it, after all) and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a remake of some sorts (although I can’t quite put a finger on where I would know it from), because it is so nicely familiar and it really produces a HEAVY vibes with a very distinct old school ‘feel’ to the piece in general. It almost sounds something you’d hear as a straight dubbed out piece and I’ll most certainly get into this later (because thankfully included on the album is a clean version of the riddim), but when you listen to and focus on the actual riddim itself what you’ll certainly experience is a riddim which isn’t very complex, but is so DEEP and so healthy that it takes on the scope of a much larger and spectacularly vibed piece than what it actually is. Of course the aforementioned artists chosen to voice the riddim don’t hurt things either in any case. As it turns out Anthony John and Flyroots have VERY good taste in artists. When I first scanned the names of the vocalists utilized for the Breadfruit Riddim, there were three names in particular which stuck out to me and besides that trio, I was very pleasantly surprised to see MOST of the other artists on board as well and eventually what we find that we’re dealing with is a TOP NOTCH modern Roots Reggae riddim, not only in terms of its actual sound, but also the extent to which it has CLEARLY been supported (Anthony John spent some money on this one!) as the names who appear here would indicate. And further on that point, when I have the running ‘checklist’ in my head of what a BIG riddim is going to do in terms of who voices it (I.e. have an adequate number of equally BIG artists, one or two very nice surprises and some new/newer nice artists, as well as a couple of others), Flyroots’ Breadfruit riddim meets those criteria in most cases and even goes on to surpass them in others and, simply based on as it appears ‘on paper’, even before we get into it, the Breadfruit has winner written all over it. Does it live up to those expectations? Well, I don’t think that there was a conceivable way that I wouldn’t like this thing (and I’m pretty sure you already know that), there just wasn’t. But as far as being truly IMPRESSIVE, there’s no doubt about, the Breadfruit Riddim album is just that and a little more.
has taken to follow Creation is quite a big leap, it’s also kind of random, but I’m all in favour of random! For their next trick, Flyroots Productions has unveiled the Breadfruit Riddim and it comes under such wonderful circumstances. First of all, it just so happens that the riddim was apparently constructed by the more than capable Sherkhan of Tiger Records (a HUGE friend of this blog’s (THE MAN MADE ME A JINGLE!) and the mastermind behind Perfect’s scintillating most recent album, French Connection) which makes it even more impressive to me and hopefully to quite a few fans worldwide as well. The link with Sherkhan is definitely an impressive one and in the course of building the riddim and voicing it, the potential link Flyroots would make with the artists they chose to voice the Breadfruit could also be just as important and maybe in the future, you could see their releases roll out with similar top notch talents and as you get into the musical aspect of the piece, you begin to see a WONDERFUL cache of artists tapped by Anthony John and company to voice the riddim. Also, the riddim itself is LOVELY (Sherkhan made it, after all) and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a remake of some sorts (although I can’t quite put a finger on where I would know it from), because it is so nicely familiar and it really produces a HEAVY vibes with a very distinct old school ‘feel’ to the piece in general. It almost sounds something you’d hear as a straight dubbed out piece and I’ll most certainly get into this later (because thankfully included on the album is a clean version of the riddim), but when you listen to and focus on the actual riddim itself what you’ll certainly experience is a riddim which isn’t very complex, but is so DEEP and so healthy that it takes on the scope of a much larger and spectacularly vibed piece than what it actually is. Of course the aforementioned artists chosen to voice the riddim don’t hurt things either in any case. As it turns out Anthony John and Flyroots have VERY good taste in artists. When I first scanned the names of the vocalists utilized for the Breadfruit Riddim, there were three names in particular which stuck out to me and besides that trio, I was very pleasantly surprised to see MOST of the other artists on board as well and eventually what we find that we’re dealing with is a TOP NOTCH modern Roots Reggae riddim, not only in terms of its actual sound, but also the extent to which it has CLEARLY been supported (Anthony John spent some money on this one!) as the names who appear here would indicate. And further on that point, when I have the running ‘checklist’ in my head of what a BIG riddim is going to do in terms of who voices it (I.e. have an adequate number of equally BIG artists, one or two very nice surprises and some new/newer nice artists, as well as a couple of others), Flyroots’ Breadfruit riddim meets those criteria in most cases and even goes on to surpass them in others and, simply based on as it appears ‘on paper’, even before we get into it, the Breadfruit has winner written all over it. Does it live up to those expectations? Well, I don’t think that there was a conceivable way that I wouldn’t like this thing (and I’m pretty sure you already know that), there just wasn’t. But as far as being truly IMPRESSIVE, there’s no doubt about, the Breadfruit Riddim album is just that and a little more.As I said, the riddim definitely pulls an old school type of vibes to my opinion and just in general, you can get some HEAVY material from this piece and it never falters in any way, not even a little. Speaking of not faltering, you knew immediately who would be the first artist taking the Breadfruit Riddim for a spin and not faltering in that ‘plan’ is Anthony John who delivers the very healthy and very strong ‘Health & Strength’. While this isn’t the single biggest tune on the riddim (that comes next), it is a VERY FINE piece of work to my opinion. “Rastafari give us knowledge which is the key to open the door to tranquility”, John says on the tune’s chorus and that is such a POWERFUL statement (maybe even the prevailing one on the entire riddim) on an equally POWERFUL tune with a HUGE praising message to get things going (also John later turns the focus to both the music and even more directly, his label). Speaking of “HUGE praising messages”, such a thing is defined and underlined on the next tune up, the enchanting Chrisinti on ‘None Like H.I.M.’ The tune, for me, is the mightiest thing to be found on the Breadfruit. Chrisinti has LONG quietly been one of my absolute favourites and it is largely because of tunes like this large and resounding tune which defines the power of His Imperial Majesty as INCOMPARABLE! This one should it get a nice push could do a major damage I feel, but regardless of its popularity (or eventual popularity), it’s already done a big thing for me. And I am going to skip the actual tune #3 on the album and jump to the next one which is ‘Celebrate Your Love’ by the increasingly wicked Torch. This one actually isn’t one of the better from the artist that I’ve heard, though I dare not dump the d [isappointment] word on it just quite, it surely could have been lyrically stronger and the melody isn’t anything to write home about on this OKAY lover’s piece. All in all, it is a very nice opening.
Now, as I alluded to (at least I think I did), the Breadfruit Riddim comes ‘equipped’ with three artists who I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see on board. Sequentially, the first is the one I skipped at #3, which is the excellent ‘Years To Come’ by none other than the explosive Ras Brando. I’ve been looking out for Brando’s output for a couple of years now and tunes like this one definitely will keep me looking for more. The next artist I was very happy to see here comes in six tunes later with the even stronger ‘Jah Will Be There’, Kulcha Knox. I believe Kulcha is in the process of making a comeback of sorts (even though he’s been here for years) (biggup LL Cool J) and this tune is surely one of the better of his catalogue in recent years (he has an album out as well, that has been re-released digitally, Praise Jah Again) . And the final vocal track on the album is ‘Careless Ithiopian’ from none other than the downright MYSTERIOUS, atrociously underrated and feloniously overlooked Steve Machete! This tune is amongst the absolute best on the riddim as Machete identifies some of those individuals in the world who have simply lost their way and have lost their hope in the process. Anytime you can get this artist to do work, the results are potentially MAMMOTH and it’s just such a damn shame that he doesn’t do more, so biggup Anthony John and Flyroots Productions for linking him, every time!
There are also three fairly new/unknown/up and coming artist on the riddim as well and the trio is highlighted by another underrated artist, Emperor Mangasha, who checks in with ‘Higher Then Dem’. The tune kind of echoes the sentiments expressed by Chrisinti on his riddim topper in a very strong way and Mangasha is definitely a name to look out for also. There’s Mark Tenn here as well, with the very catchy ‘Who Is That Girl’ [on the veranda]. This tune probably isn’t that good, but it’s very memorable and that chorus will have you singing along almost immediately. I don’t know very much about Mark Tenn actually, but hopefully his is a name which will stick with Flyroots in the future as well. And lastly there is the representative of the fairer sex, Tavanity, with ‘Foot Prints’. She does very good on this spiritual tune. It’s not exceptional and it’s not groundbreaking in anyway to my opinion, but still very well done and I would have complained were there not a woman on the riddim by its end and Tavanity is definitely more than just a ‘token’ in that regard.
The balance of the tunes on the Breadfruit Riddim are made up of veterans and big named artists who you’d expect to see on board with such a project. Early on the album there is a downright ‘murderer’s row’ of three established artists in succession who make up a large part of the big name talent on the riddim. To my ears Norris Man’s ‘Differences’ is the best of the bunch quite clearly, followed by Determine in a fine form on ‘Wicked Haffi Fall’ (a tune which is still growing on me with its HYPE chorus). The other name in that group is not too surprisingly the not too low-key Lutan Fyah and his tune is, of course, a nice vibes but it’s not as good as his material usually is and having now heard probably hundreds of his releases, I know that he can do much better than ‘Overcome Dem’, his tune for the Breadfruit (still the man manages to approach lyrical perfection somewhere in the middle of the tune. The best effort from a big named artist on the riddim comes via the Messenjah, Luciano with arguably the second strongest tune on the riddim, ‘Battlefield Warriors’. This is a pretty atypical tune for Luciano ostensibly speaking because it deals with more tangible matters on the surface, but rest assured things quickly take a turn for the epically more spiritual on this nearly massive effort. The ‘hot & cold’ Turbulence also checks in pretty good on ‘Just Hold On’, a tune which, for some reason, I feel that I’m underrating, so give it a spin for yourself and lastly there’s [Burning] Spectacular who tones himself down just a bit on ‘Hungry Society’. Doing said ‘tone down’ (in my opinion) opens the quality of the tune up and it proves to be one of his stronger outings as of late to my opinion. And as I mentioned, Sherkhan’s clean Breadfruit Riddim is also on display, thankfully, a practice I most certainly hope John and Flyroots keep up on their future output as well.
Overall, yes the Breadfruit Riddim album is well worth your time, ESPECIALLY if you’re more of a hardened fan of Roots Reggae. However (and I don’t find myself saying this a lot these days unfortunately), I think even if you’re a newer fan of the music you’ll probably find something here which won’t go COMPLETELY over your head. I find that tends to be the case with compilations which have such a nice variety of artists, new and older, on it. Big respect goes to Anthony John and Flyroots Productions for putting this piece together as well, as the label is mainly based in France (to my knowledge), clearly they took matters to Jamaica to seek recording talent and HOPEFULLY should they continue on (and they should), some of these artists (especially the Machete) can become staples of sorts on their releases. This piece also becomes another SOLID statement as to why you cannot ignore Sherkhan in this day and age. So with seemingly the ‘appropriate’ next step secured by Flyroots Productions, of course the questions now turn to the future, but with more of what is to be found on the Breadfruit Riddim, I’m not worried at all about their future. Not one bit.
Rated 4/5
Flyroots Productions
2010
Ive been playing that Determine track nonstop since I heard it! Big tune!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a big tune yeah
ReplyDelete