I do so much love how all of these wonderfully talented artists are able to flip and mix different styles and make such a beautiful and ever-widening variety of music. You have to think that, at their cores, probably every single genre of music is a combination of different styles and to see that continuing forth and doing so right in front of our very eyes and ears is a very powerful thing. Just a back in July, we saw such a thing from the impressive Busy Signal on his third studio album, ”D.O.B.”. That album featured the always interesting Busy pulling in influences from all across the board, including Phil Collins of all people. And while Busy certainly is the most compelling of recent examples, and one whose results turned out probably better than most thought that they might, many (if not most) of his peers have taken their music to the brink of simply being . . . something else. Of course what I’m talking about is DANCEHALL and I’d so hate to sound like some old and arrogant bastard (even though that’s clearly what I am), stuck in ‘his day’ and refusing to change with the times but seriously - Is it getting to the point where I’m simply asking too much of the people if I want an - Oh 85% HARDCORE Dancehall album? And I am not talking about a riddim album or other compilation, which may qualify, I’m talking about someone going into the studio and doing a project, which results in a Dancehall album! The last time such a thing happened, on a grand scale at least, the results were DAMAGING, in the form of a particularly venomous Mad Cobra with ”Helta Skelta”. Besides that, however, we’ve seen high profile release after high profile release from big named artists which, although a few of them have been pretty good (such as Busy Signal’s album), they’ve seemed to offer up what I’d describe as maybe 65% Dancehall, with the rest being predominately Hip-Hop. Not only that, maybe it’s just me, but have you also not tired of hearing artists say something along the lines of ‘I’m not really a Dancehall artist, I consider myself able to do so many different things’ or something like such??? Well when you get back to the Dancehall let me know. It’s gotten to the point where I’m so fucking angry that I’m ready to declare full-on “Dancehall Anarchy” against the powers that be in order to get some serious Dancehall in 2010. N who is with me?!Well apparently, someone beat me to it. Earlier this year, while not registering in more ‘mainstream’ Reggae circles (for obvious reasons), an artist from out of Martinique, absolutely teeming with potential by the name of Kalash, released his self-titled debut album. THAT was a serious Dancehall album, for the most part. Even earlier in 2010, French Caribbean Dancehall/Reggae superstar Admiral T also returned to the scene with his most recent piece, the BIG and BAD ”Instinct Admiral” and while that was another piece of ‘mix and match’ type of vibes, the Admiral definitely offered some hype Dancehall vibes which is his norm. What these two albums had in common, besides being two big releases from the FWI was the fact that both happened to feature a pretty underrated hardcore Dancehall DJ, also from out of Martinique, by the name of Lieutenant who didn’t have to wait even until the end of the year to make his own debut album (I THINK) with the apparently well anticipated, ”Dancehall Anarchy”. Certainly the Lieutenant’s own ambitions with the title aren’t along the same lines of mine), but I was very happy to see that he had an album forthcoming and for more than just the fact that the man is pretty wicked (and if you don’t know of him (and you probably don’t) what I would tell you is to take into account that his two guests spots for the Admiral and Kalash just happened to be on ‘Gladiator‘ and ‘Pran Pié‘ and both were early singles and hits on their respective albums). First of all, it continues a very nice stretch of big album releases (and big tunes in general) from FWI artists as, along with Admiral T and Kalash as aforementioned, also showing up this year has been both Krys and SamX (and hopefully Lady Sweety is still on the way) (and biggup Yeahman'C). Secondly, it also marks yet another step in a very active year for the big label in this case, Don’s Music who really continues to bring a heavy vibes in one of their more active years in recent history (and they probably have another release coming in a minute from (SEXY) new Zoukie, Ludy). Moreover, at least for me, the Lieutenant belongs to this very nice group of talented hardcore Dancehall artists from the FWI (more on another group he REALLY belongs to later) who just do not seem to get the type of recognition as the big names such as Krys, Admiral T and Tiwony. These are people like Mighty Ki La, Daly (who I’m not very fond of), SamX and a few other names and all of those artists who I just mentioned have at least two albums to their credits and now, with ”Dancehall Anarchy”, Lieutenant joins that pack and does so with one of the strongest efforts from amongst them to my ears. It should also be mentioned that, as I spoke of in the Kalash review, this album further goes to define the style of vibes you are going to hear from Martinique, in general, when it comes to the Dancehall. There will be brief excursions to other styles (even on this album), but for the most part, Madinina seems to rather routinely deliver these kind of ‘rough around the edges’ type of artists. If you look at Guadeloupe, things are a bit different with the Gwada artists always seeming to have a bit more refinement and ‘schooling’ in the music - And that’s certainly not to say that Martinique artists are unintelligent AT ALL - But they tend to come in with a bit more aggression and a bit more GRIME, along with being, at the top level, supremely talented. Lieutenant is at that top level for Martinique Dancehall and if you didn’t know it before, I have the feeling that his debut album is going to make believers out of more than a few new fans.
Certainly merely being a mostly Dancehall album will help, but it isn’t going to be ENOUGH to sway the masses and, more than that, because of the talent displayed by this artist in the past, I don’t think that it’s unfair, at all, to hold him to a high standard. Well, even in doing that, the Lieutenant scores fairly big on his debut solo album, ”Dancehall Anarchy” for Don’s Music. In the case of the opening two selections for the album, I have to say that, although I was impressed to some degree, it’s kind of typical BIG sounding FWI Dancehall style and both were expected. First is an intro which leads directly into the album’s title track. I would imagine that the reasoning behind these really big sounding intros is to literally create frenzy for the listener, but it’s something that I think works much better in person, in a live show. Here, like I said, it’s impressive, but largely expected. The title track is even more expected, yet even more impressive and it really goes to lay the foundation for the album, in terms of its sounds and exactly what I was hoping to hear. It’s not the most melodically gifted thing you’ll ever hear, but it’s HEAVY and hardcore Dancehall music, which is what we wanted. And then there’s the boom. The next tune in is the MASSIVE first single from the album, ‘Artmada Party’. Okay, first thing that you need to know - Artmada is a collective of artists from out of Martinique and two of them, Valley and Pleen Pyroman appear on the track alongside the Lieutenant (the crew also includes young artist Sergeant (who may, in fact, be three years old) and Achis Reggae favourite Saël (both of whom, in the video, adeptly manage to escape capture and thus don’t appear on the tune)) and this tune is, essentially, a party track from part of the group and it is BIG. It’s bright and beautiful Dancehall music, but it’s also quite heavy. For my opinion, the Pyroman steals the show ultimately, but all perform very strong and despite the fact that there’re a couple of tunes, in particular, that come close to toppling it, ‘Artmada Party’ is the finest tune I hear on ”Dancehall Anarchy”. The song ‘Démystifié Yo’ stands out for more reasons than for its big title. It slows down the pace and it also takes things on a social level (the Lieutenant actually mentions people like Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and, of course, Aimé Césaire) which helps to make it the strongest of a few changeups on the album to my ears.
And as far as said “changeups” go on ”Dancehall Anarchy”, it just so happens that literally all of them are situated near the middle of the album, sandwiched in between this somewhat hectic and frantic Dancehall start and a similar ending. Right after ‘Démystifié Yo’ we dive into the SWEET ‘Palé Raté’, a Reggae tune for the girls. I call it a changeup, but going from Dancehall to one-drop Reggae certainly isn’t much of a stretch, but it’s definitely good that Lieutenant can make the minor leap, because the tune is one of the stronger efforts to be found here (and I LOVE later on when the Zouk-ish sound kicks up). Then there’s another Reggae tune ‘Oú Tu Vas’, which happens to feature a very impressive young Zouk singer by the name of Senario. These two make a very strong duo and I could REALLY see this one serving as a single for the album at some point with its very transferable vibes (and if they were speaking English, this one might be quite the big hit, I think). And also mixed in is the somewhat solemn ‘Ba Yo Love’, another combination which features Martinique veteran chanter, Djama Keita. Keita is an artist who I could speak about for quite some time because he’s definitely not gotten his fair share of hype to go along with his staggering talent levels and hopefully his appearance on ”Dancehall Anarchy” opens up fans to his vibes as well because, again, his time is long overdue in my opinion. As for the tune, it’s somewhat of an R&B type of vibes and it’s another with social ramifications and colours as well (which was a given with Keita’s presence). It’s also another BIG one as well (love the chorus on that one).
And that’s it! The balance of the album is Dancehall music and fairly hardcore at that. As I said, there’re a couple of songs which, to my ears, come very close to knocking ‘Artmada Party’ out of the top honours on ”Dancehall Anarchy” and they’re both very hard Dancehall tracks. For one, if you read my blog (or even if you just read the first part of this review), you should already be quite familiar with because it also appeared as the first single for the aforementioned Kalash’s debut album. ‘Pran Pié’ is fucking RIDICULOUS! It is utter chaos and I love it. It also is remarkable that, despite my affection for this song, it’s bested by two others on the album, because not only is ‘Artmada Party’ a huge song, but so is the delightfully HARD and old-school ‘Gigik’. I don’t even know what to say about this one past that because when I first heard it, I was probably still knocking my head on that riddim well after the tune had completed (and the much differently vibed ‘Oú Tu Vas’ had began) because it’s just top notch material and it’s also probably one of the oldest efforts on the album because you may remember it from the third installment of Don’s Music big compilation, ”Don’s Collector”, where it was also a standout. Big big tune!
As the album winds down, it still has FIVE big Dancehall tracks for your listening pleasure and I couldn’t be happier. Going in order, the first, ’Pa Mété Nou A La Fét’, is also the first of two tunes which just so happen to feature one of my LEAST favourite artists from the FWI, Mali. Mali, to my opinion, is more of a Hip-Hop (biggup Dee Kross) artist than a Dancehall artist and there’re elements of Hip-Hop on this song, it fits right in and I simply have to give credit where it’s due, because Mali’s major contribution on this tune is INSANE! He does an excellent job! Two tunes later Mali returns on the ‘dramatic’ sounding ‘Bad Man Bullet’, where he is less impressive (as is the Lieutenant), but I’m going go back to the first tune to summarize his presence on this album because it’s rare than I’m THAT impressed by him, so big him up. Of the other three tunes mixed in here, one is ‘Dancehall Battle’ on which the self proclaimed -Dancehall Teworist’- goes to war and is the victor with one of the album’s finest moments. But that tune is felled by the MUCH stronger ’Infama’ which APPROACHES ’Gigik’/’Artmada Party’ levels at times with its brilliance and again, this is the type of music that you REALLY wanted to hear out of this album, just nose busting type of Dancehall. The Lieutenant’s special brand of anarchy wraps up with ’I Di Yo’, another very strong piece, which probably boasts the strongest riddim to be found on the whole of the album. I’m smiling from ear to ear because this tune has absolutely no shine whatsoever and is nearly as disgusting and grimy as ’Pran Pié’ and I can’t imagine that it’s going to blow anyone way, but as STARVED as I’ve been for tunes like this, it just hit the spot and made for a very fitting closer for the album.
Overall, yes - Call it a winner. Lieutenant isn’t, unfortunately, going to win any type of popularity contests, but to myself and the many people, who follow French Caribbean Reggae and Dancehall, this is a BIG time release and I would imagine that, to anyone with semi-functioning ears, it’s a big release in terms of quality. It is better than Kalash’s album and it’s a push for Admiral T’s (which means that it’s clearly much better than either effort from Krys or SamX, both of which were somewhat disappointing to me), which makes ”Dancehall Anarchy” definitely in the running for French album of the year, but even with that on the side, it’s just quality work. I definitely would have liked a tune featuring Saël mixed in somewhere, but they’ve worked so much together in the past, so maybe focusing in other directions isn’t such a bad idea, necessarily. Still, this album, while by no means the greatest of its kind, IS a Dancehall album and I don’t think it was too much to ask for, but if we had to declare ANARCHY to get it done, well then much like a Lieutenant debut album, in general, I kind of wished we’d done it years ago.
Rated 4.25/5
Don's Music
2010
CD + Digital
Lieutenant @ Facebook
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