What I'm Listening To Two

I Believe by Turbulence [M-Records/2005]

Okay, because I LOVE giving credit where it’s due, big respect goes to Nico (who hasn’t written a damn thing this month) for giving me a reason, a few weeks or so ago to go back and take a look and a listen to Turbulence’s back catalogue and I have certainly found some interesting stuff, particularly in the last two weeks. First of all, although (at least in my opinion) Turbulence’s catalogue has ‘aged’ pretty bad, there remain solid surprises like this piece, I Believe from the Dutchie (I THINK) based M-records. In respect to its actual quality, this piece is probably the single most overlooked album. Perhaps it was so because it checked in at a rather diminutive twelve tracks (which includes an intro) or for some other reason, but the material here wasn’t so bad, still, in retrospect. Tunes like ‘What The Hell’, ‘Mama Don’t Care’, ‘Got To Be Smart’, ‘High Grade’, ‘Taking Over’ and ‘Nah Stop Bun’ definitely still resonate quite nicely for me. The album itself, in full, carried an interesting half New/half Old school type of vibes (Steven Stanley & Paul Daley produced), which was a nice feature in and of itself. Definitely not the best Turbulence album to date, but with the pick & choose digital age now well upon us (currently available on Amazon, iTunes and Emusic worldwide), I Believe is at least worth a look.

No Guns To Town by Natty King [Insight Records/2005]

It was my own handiwork that brought this excellent piece back on my players. Just last week I did a list regarding The Best Debut Albums of The Decade and although it didn’t make the list, by far of any album that was up for consideration for that list (that I didn’t already have in rotation), Natty King’s No Guns To Town has found its way so wonderfully back into my favour as an active participant. I remember being SO impressed when I first got my hands on this album and impressed with the King in general because both seemed to be so well ‘put together’ and so lovely vibed. In the case of the artist, he had followed the typical road of Jamaican artists (particularly of the Roots variety), where he scored a HUGE hit and it subsequently led into his album, but if I recall correctly, the process didn’t run as smoothly for Natty King (perhaps evident by the fact that his debut came for Insight Records) (WHO???), and it seemed like a very long time between him first busting and securing an album release. When the sometimes AWESOME singer eventually did reach, he brought tunes like ‘Love Me’, ‘High High’, ‘Pray’ and several others to stand superbly alongside previous hits like the title track and ‘Mister Greedy’.

{note: This one isn’t available digitally, but you can currently get it ass cheap from Ernie B which is a fucking steal of EPIC proportions}

Ragga Ragga Ragga 15 [Greensleeves/2001]

Allow me to grab up my old man/hypocrite gear for this one: Do you remember when Dancehall had some FLARE? Do you remember when HARDCORE Dancehall wasn’t something which had ANYTHING in common with something you might hear at a funeral march? Thankfully such a sound still exists, but far too inconsistently for my tastes, so the occasional trip down ‘memory lane’ is required to get my fix. Here, we go back to nice years for Ragga Ragga Ragga 15, STILL one of the biggest of this ongoing series. Let this thing, which isn’t GREAT by any superficial stretch, stand as Exhibit A to show that you don’t have to go to great lengths to make Dancehall which actually . . . Sounds like Dancehall! You just have to make it! Take the sound of tunes like ‘All Out’ and ’Dem Punk Ya’ by Bounty Killer, ‘Watch It’ by Beenie Man, Capleton’s ‘Mi Food’, ‘Help’ and ‘Hands Off’, even Sizzla’s ‘Woman Dem Ah Fi Wi’ and DEFINITELY the height of Merciless’ career with ‘Sting History 2000’ and contrast it with almost any high end Dancehall compilation of today and it almost sounds like two different genres of music. Always so nice to go back and vibe the classics, particularly when they’re as fucked up, nasty and dirty as so many tunes on this one and. . . Yeah, real certified Dancehall.

Jah Guidance by Batch [Carrion Brookes Productions/2005]

Of course, Batch is one of just a handful of artists who ALWAYS stays on my players in some form or another (as he should be for you as well) and definitely for the past ten days or so it’s been all about Jah Guidance (which followed an extended dosage of To The Root). As I’ve alluded to in the past, this album was one which kind of helped to signal to me that I was becoming an old ass man and my tastes were shifting to match that state as, when I had originally spun through it, I had actually thought it to be quite boring save for so wonderfully HEALTHY music, but after a bit of time passed, I realized that this thing was GORGEOUS! Right now, there’s the tune ‘Zion Kingdom Come’ which is DAMAGING me, seriously. I find that almost every time I spin that tune, in particular (as well as the entire album in general), I find something and hear something which seems like it just made it to the finish product just that one time and it’s the first time it’s ever appeared on the tune. My ‘traditional’ favourites, the title track and ’High Chant’ are still up there as well and as are others still like ‘Justice’, ‘Fya Blaze’ and ‘Healing’ (‘Sons & Daughters’ sameway) - As this one drifts closer and closer to becoming a ‘modern classic’, at least for me.

Revolution by FéFé Typical & Tiwony [Equalize Productions/2005]

This is BY FAR the most interesting selection on this installment of ‘What I’m Listening To’, because every few months or so I find myself vibing Revolution, despite the fact that I’m not very fond of it actually. It’s kind of ‘rough’ and very varied, so despite the fact that one of my favourite artists, Tiwony, is so intrinsically involved, it’s probably my least favourite piece that I have from him (I even prefer the previous album, Double Trouble to this one). That isn’t to say that he and former sparring partner FéFé Typical don’t do nice things here, because they most certainly do - check tunes like the Afrikan vibed ‘Bole Bolo’ (which features Vicky Edimo, Tiwony’s Father), ‘Pa Ni Tan A Ped’, the SCATHING ‘Maltraitance’, ‘Rastafari Is The King’ and the title track - but for the most part the really average of Revolution outnumbers and overwhelms the GOOD. Still, the fact that I can’t seem to escape this one these days is even more proof that when something says ‘Tiwony’, I have a hard time ignoring it (and I’d still like a FéFé Typical album if possible, eh-ehmmm!).

{note: Want it? (why?) Antilles-Mizik.com}