'Very Necessary': A Review of "Digital Acoustics" by Various Artists

If ever you take a moment to stop and smell the proverbial Reggae roses, you just might notice how wonderful we, as Reggae fans, have it these days. Besides being literally swamped with big big tunes from nearly every corner of the earth in this day and age, we’re also so lucky to be around at a time where we’re able to witness a changing of the guard in even the most common circles of Reggae. The most glaring example, of course, comes in Jamaica where not too long ago - As recently as a couple of years ago - The arena of Roots Reggae was still dominated by this long reigning conglomerate of Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B, Luciano, Buju Banton and the likes, and while those artist are still active participants in the game, to go to those levels and not mention the name Tarrus Riley is nearly criminal at this point. If you take that on a global concept, of course, it still applies with just about every region seeing a nice shift to younger talents and I even point closer to the Dutch scene because, again, just a couple of years back there were European super-stations for Reggae, such as France and Germany, but you now almost have to include the Netherlands in that discussion as well. Still, until most recently, the one area which seemed to be such a staunch and somewhat frustrating holdout to the passage of time was another very established European hotbed of Reggae, the UK. From the outside looking in, the international faces of Reggae in the region have been for quite some time now the same names. People like Achis Reggae favourite Lloyd Brown, Tippa Irie, Chukki Starr, Peter Hunnigale, Peter Spence, Bitty McLean and other similar artists. And not only that, but just off the top of my head, the youngest person on that list is probably Starr, who is thirty five years old and has been making full blown albums since 1998. Also, the area had come to exist with this kind of HEAVY old school Lover’s Rock style which, to people like you and I - Heavy Reggae heads - Is a beautiful thing, but isn’t very current and certainly isn’t very mobile, in terms of going forth. To put it simply: Someone needed to spray a canister of air-freshener on the UK Reggae scene because things just didn’t seem to be changing as nicely as in other regions as of late and, apparently that’s just what happened.

If you take into context the rise to power of Gappy Ranks, what is most interesting is that again, looking at it from the outside, how easy it seemed to be. It was just ‘Stinkin’ Rich’ and boom for the artist and he became the hottest thing doing Reggae in England all of a sudden. However, behind the scenes, potentially an even more crucial development was under way at the same time as Curtis Lynch, Jr. and company at Necessary Mayhem was in the process of adding their names, respectively, to those big stations which tend to be interwoven within the lexicon of UK Reggae, such as ‘Saxon’ and ‘Ariwa’ and ‘Peckings’ and ‘Maximum Sound‘. And although, such in the case of Gappy, they seemed to do so with kind of laissez-faire type of a stride, when you REALLY look at Necessary Mayhem did (and we’re about to), they really worked their collective asses off and continue to do so to the point that, in terms of activity and hits scored, one could certainly make the case that they’re now one of the most in demand and biggest in the whole of the European Reggae scene. Personally, if you couldn’t tell, I’m also a big fan of their work and REALLY look forward to what they release because the output is always so nice. Why? Necessary Mayhem (fittingly titled yeah? There simply HAD TO be a shakeup in UK Reggae, it was necessary to go forth and they shook it up) has defined, but not restricted, their sound to doing this wonderful recreations of old school Jamaican Reggae and Dancehall riddims and providing them to a mouthwateringly appetizingly talented group of artists, which range from unknown and brand new, to bonafide reigning stars, all the way to the well established and in some cases, legendary, names in and out of the UK scene (more on them in a bit). To date, to my knowledge, the greatest and most fulfilling collection of what Curtis Lynch and company have been up to at Necessary Mayhem has been their STERLING compilation release, ”Digital Acoustics” which, at least to my opinion, serves not only the purpose of simply providing good music to the listeners (and it definitely does that) but also, as I alluded to, it really captures the nature of the vibes you can expect to hear from the label right now and, at least presumably, going forward as one of the, if not THE biggest label of the future in UK Reggae music. Previously, Necessary Mayhem had released (and re-released) a variety of different compilations. Most notably was a string of fairly strong riddim albums and EP’s. What those pieces lacked in volume - With just a few artists on each, which is apparently just NM’s style - They certainly made up for in quality. Those projects were originally released, for the most part, prior to the start of the year and in 2010 Necessary Mayhem made the digital switch to the wonderful people at Zojak Worldwide (nice move) and the digital distributor also went to work on some of their back catalog, leading up to ”Digital Acoustics” which will certainly go down as the label’s crowning achievement, thus far, in terms of compilations and justly so. It’s also primed to go down as one of the crowning achievements of 2010 altogether as, although like always, there’re some very nice contenders (such as the recently released ”Bobo Revolution 2” from, incidentally, Maximum Sound) and certainly more to come, a very strong case is to be made that this is the leader of the pack for Reggae compilations this year. And even if you won’t go that far, what I’ll challenge you not to honestly concede is the fact that ”Digital Acoustics” is clearly one of the more interesting and colourful compilations of the year and a powerful statement from one of the fastest rising Reggae labels on the planet.

In terms of acknowledging this big release, I’m pretty late to the game. I was absolutely delighted to see that it has, commercially, gone on to be promoted quite well actually and, for what it’s worth, although we’re still waiting on Strictly The Best for 2010, this album has been about as popular as any other compilation this year to my experience. Certainly that has to do with the fact that Necessary Mayhem’s ”Digital Acoustics” is absolutely WICKED and the madness begins straight away on the first track, ‘Real General’ by the downright LETHAL big up and coming UK artist, Mr. Williamz. You may know how high I am on this artist and a song like this piece here is the exact reason why. ‘Real General’ is RIDICULOUS! The tune rides an updated version of the old Come Down Riddim (which you know for having backed a Super Cat tune of the same name) and it has that wonderful old school Dancehall dusty and bouncy feeling to it. It’s HUGE and it is, hypnotically, the best tune on the whole of the album. Another young strong English artist, YT, strides in next and gives Mr. Williamz quite the run, with his infectiously impressive ‘Write Some Lyrics’, where he challenges his peers to raise up their collective levels, lyrically and to stop relying on long gone glory:

“Old fart inna di business nuff ah dem need a hit song
Neva write no good tune from 19 how long?
But still you caan tell dem seh dem a no di bomb
Dem still offa reputation!”

Of course, the tune places a bit of pressure on YT to ALWAYS step up with his ‘A game’, but I’m going to assume he realized this and brought it anyway, in which case - Good for you, because the tune is BIG time material. I’m sure that Little John would resent it if I called him an “old fart”, so I’ll just call him “veteran” instead and recommend that you check out his effort for ”Digital Acoustics”, ‘45 Special’. This is one for the heavy old school, fucked up, dusty and dirty, zinc fence scaling Dancehall massive who’re (and probably already have been) eating this one up (and I’m one of them!).

I hesitate to call them ‘combinations’, but of the remaining eleven tracks on ”Digital Acoustics”, six feature more than one artist (and in some cases more than two and more than three). These pieces have a healthy mix of the old school and the new school, and most do very well to my opinion. First up is an artist by the name of Chyna Soulstar (who I have heard of before) with Demolition Man (who I haven’t), with ‘Lord Save My Soul’ over a very souped up version of the Rumours Riddim. This one took a bit of climbing on my tastes to grow on me and had I written this review a month or so ago, I probably would’ve said that I didn’t like it very much, but now it’s clicking for me, so definitely don’t just glide past it. Million Stylez (more on him later) and Joey Fever (whoever he is) had no such ‘worries’, because their tune, ‘Young Gunz’, had me from the first time that I heard it. Apparently Fever is a next talented artist also from out of Sweden and although it’s, unsurprisingly, Million Stylez who steals the show, he doesn’t do it by much and Fever has now impressed the hell out me so I hope he finds his way back to England and Necessary Mayhem studios. Next up (CUTIE) Chantelle Ernandez is joined by two legends in the business, the late Deborahe Glasgow and the King Emeritus of the Dancehall, Shabba Ranking, for ‘Sort Me Out’. This tune is built on the strengths of older vibes (particularly ‘Mr. Loverman‘), which featured both the Ranking and Glasgowe, originally. Ernandez’ definitely gives the tune a different ‘colour’ (it’s a bit more aggressive), but it’s certainly not a bad mix, by any standards and, again, I actually like it. The very DARK ‘Call Me’ had a bit of work to do on me, like ‘Lord Save My Soul’. This one features Dready, Sweetie Irie, YT and Brinsley Forde (more on him later too) and it has so many different moods that it literally goes from sounding ‘happy’ to sounding like something out of Ward 21’s ridiculous vault of tunes. To my ears it’s YT whose presence highlights the tune, but they all do a fairly nice job and this tune, as strange as it is, is also a nice piece. YT is back again and this time he’s joined by Tenor Fly, UK Apache, David Boomah and MC Shabba (who, I believe, is the one with the ridiculous accent) on ‘Dubplate RMX’. Once again, it’s YT taking the tops on the tune, but I have to say that this one is, by far, my least favourite tune on ”Digital Acoustics”. And thankfully, the final ‘community’ style track and also the album’s final track altogether, ‘Champion Sound’, rights the ship as Mr. Williamz, Million Stylez, Blackout JA, wicked St. Lucian artist Jah Mirikle and . . . Yep, you guessed it - YT link up for one of the most impressive sounds on the whole of the album. This one is gifted with a version of the Pirates Riddim and was apparently quite a nice sized hit in the UK a couple of y ears back and hearing this one, it’s no wonder why, really.

Back in the land where one person writes a song and goes into the booth and records it by themselves to a riddim, on the remaining five solo tunes, ”Digital Acoustics” offers up definitely its biggest names in terms of active artists. The aforementioned Million Stylez goes all John Holt on the people with ‘Police In Helicopter’, over Necessary Mayhem’s sterling remake of the classic riddim. Stylez absolutely destroys whatever was left of the classic tune (which certainly wasn’t much) on a piece I’m sure Holt would be very pleased with (and I’m sure he’s also pleased with his royalty checks). Then is my choice of the album’s second strongest tune as the biggest and baddest man on the Dutch scene, Ziggi Recado, comes through with his big and bad ‘Joker Smoker’. This one has been heavy and I should have to say too much in regards to its known quality, but what I will say that is if you STILL have yet to fall into Ziggi’s crazy vibes, you’ve got some serious explaining to do because songs like such are simply showing him to be one of the most talented artists around today, regardless of origins. Mr. Williamz also dusted off the Joker Smoker Riddim for his tune, ‘No Cigarette’ but for this album, he goes Leroy Smart and Baby Wayne style with ‘Money Friend’ and he does so with his increasingly typical . . . LAID BACK and easy brilliance. I’m slowly but surely coming to recognize this man’s style as a bit of blast from the past (and not just a kind of ‘coincidence’ on various songs). I love it, I think he has some of the greatest potential around and it’s songs like this which make me think so (but especially ‘Real General’). Brinsley Forde works his way from out of the pack and does so with a reborn classic of his, ‘Can’t Tek No More’. The song has received a bit of a rebirth from since it’s been remixed anew (most notably by UK Hip-Hopper, Dizzee Rascal) and after appearing on a compilation like this and running with Necessary Mayhem in general, the former King of Aswad (hell, he may still be doing that) is also receiving a kind of rebirth and it’s so nice to have him around. And the final solo selection on the album comes from??? No, not YT, but Maikal X, who apparently caught that same flight from Holland to the UK that Ziggi was on because he also reaches ”Digital Acoustics” on the Police In Helicopter Riddim with ‘Get Away’. This tune speaks of someone trying to steer their life in the proper direction, ‘getting away’ from one’s troublesome past and just living a nice life in the struggle. After a few dozen spins, I have a very nice taste for this tune and I actually have come to think of it as one of Maikal’s better tunes lyrically.

Overall - COOL. Necessary Mayhem’s ”Digital Acoustics” is a COOL album. What I really like from it, and the label in general, is how nicely it works the edge in terms of combining the times. It’s really one thing to take an old riddim and to throw a whole heap of new artists on it and see what they can do, but it’s another to make it work. And to speak of that in more specific terms - Way back when I was speaking of that kind of stereotypical UK sound being this type of old school Lover’s Rock, when you listen to this album and the pieces from UK artists like Mr. Williamz and YT and then you listen to what Gappy Ranks just did with ”Put The Stereo On”, perhaps the shift of changing the style from Lover’s Rock, to a kind of retro-Dancehall vibes in the UK is already under way and if that is the case - Then bring it on! And I hesitate to say this because I don’t want to overrate or overestimate the album, but you potential have a bit of a landmark release in ”Digital Acoustics” because, at least presumably, what is in store from Necessary Mayhem is BIG BIG vibes for a long time and here, we have what figures to be one the biggest early examples of the strength of what should be one of the most prominent Reggae labels in the world. Now if they could just get me a Mr. Williamz LP, I’d be a happy man.

Rated 4.65/5
Necessary Mayhem/Zojak Worldwide
2010
CD + Digital




Necessary Mayhem