What I'm Listening To: September

Berbice - “Demon” [Rocking J Entertainment, 2008]

So it’s been a couple of long years since one of my favourite Soca artists, Grenada native Berbice, flexed his madness muscles and showed exactly what made him one of my favourites three years ago. His last two seasons, for the most part, just haven’t been very strong and he hasn’t attained the type he did back in . . . Oh let’s just say 2007-8. That’s when I, and I’m certain that MANY people caught when Berbice, was on his game. Two albums came from that period of time and they were very similar. One was from 2007, ”Water” and the other was this EXCELLENT piece from the next year, ”Demon”, so named after his big tune from the ‘08 season (which, I believe, netted him a runner-up for Spice Mas Road March that year) (to Miney, of course). Checking in at a RIDICULOUS eighteen tracks (which for Soca is damn near a double disc) the album featured big tunes such as the aforementioned title track, ‘Double Up’, ‘Oh Carnival’ (mad!) (and cool!), ‘Beat It’, ‘I Will Follow’ (MAD!), ‘Hey Lady’ (and its Reggae-fied remix), ‘I Lied’ and OF COURSE, one of the greatest tunes I’ve ever heard in my entire life, the certifiably LETHAL ‘Traffic’ (and its remix featuring Shurwayne Winchester). Hopefully we can, pretty soon, see Berbice regain his form, but even if he never does - We’ll always have the ”Demon”.

Romain Virgo [VP Records, 2010]

When I reviewed Romain Virgo’s eponymous debut album back in June, I gave it a 4.75/5 and I thought that was pretty fair actually. It was/is certainly an EXCELLENT album and taking into consideration everything, as far as his age and experience (or lack thereof in both cases), to give it such a score, I think was right on the mark . . . But upon further review, I may’ve been mistaken. It’s even better than I thought, now having just about three months to deal with it. Every song on this thing is WICKED! My Mother (Mama!) recently went out and bought it (after hearing me spin about halfway through it over the phone) and she absolutely loves it. My Wife (is insane and hates everything and everyone) and she loves it and me??? Tunes like ‘Customer Care’ (especially), ‘No Money’, ‘Murderer’, that entire stretch, which I loved originally are growing harder and harder along the way. An anonymous commenter left a word on my review for the album and said, “Great review . . . But this album is a 6 (not 4.75) out of 5 . . .). Shit. They may’ve been right.

Chukki Starr - “Ghetto Youth’s Livity” [RAS/Ariwa, 1998]

I think I owe the credit to the "Digital Acoustics” album for drawing this one back to my attentions. Chukki Starr, VERY QUIETLY, has always been one of my favourites. He’s just never seemed to maintain either his interest and/or activity in the music long enough to really come back to the levels of artists, at the top of the game, who are the only ones comparable to his considerable talents. That’s really a damn shame because, as evident on this absolute gem of an album, ”Ghetto Youth’s Livity" (which I believe was his first album), when Chukki Starr is REALLY on his game, the results are just devastating. This album happens to contain what I believe is his greatest tune ever and one of the greatest within the entire genre of this kind of Roots & Dancehall - the title track. That song! From beginning to end it is a clear master class of lyrics and proper delivery. It is simply next level material and it wasn’t alone. Other highlights included the opener, ‘The Almighty One’, ‘One Day [My Time Shall Come]’, ‘Words of Malachi’ and ‘In Too Deep’.

Show Love Riddim [Itation Records]

Must’ve been all that talk about Toussaint, or maybe it was this article I’m trying to work on which led Itation’s Show Love Riddim back to my players for a little while recently. In retrospect, I believe this one did quite a bit of damage (things like that tend to happen with nineteen tracks, I’m sure) on many different levels and my own personal feelings are included. The lasting impression, of course, centers around the MASSIVE tune ‘When Your Time Is Up’ which was a combination, STRANGELY featuring Pressure Busspipe alongside Norris Man. The tune was just devastating and, moreover, if I recall correctly, it was also present on Norris’ subsequent album ”Know The Road”, but it had been rerecorded in a slightly different version. The version on this riddim was ridiculous and probably one of the finest tunes I’ve heard in the past decade or so. Big names joined that epic duo such as Lutan Fyah, Ras Batch, Ras Attitude, Natty King, NiyoRah, Lady Passion, a very impressive Ishi Dube, Ras Indio and even Gyptian.

Beenie Man - “The Doctor” [VP Records, 1999]

In the most indirect of circumstances, you can very well credit Spragga Benz’s recent album, ”Shotta Culture” for getting Moses’ ”The Doctor” album back to prominence on my players. How? Of course listening to the new album, it IMMEDIATELY brought the desire to hear some old tunes and after going through most of ”Fully Loaded” and most of ”Jack It Up” and ultimately to an album by the name of ”The Best of 2 Badd DJ’s“, which just happened to be an old album featuring both Spragga and ‘The Doctor’. Despite Beenie’s rather lofty standing in 1999, this album was, in my opinion, largely underrated and is less remembered than most others in his rather obese catalog. That’s really unfortunate, because you only need to get past the opener, ‘Gospel Time’, to hear some PURE and MASTERFUL Dancehall deejaying. Tunes like ‘Better Learn’, ‘Let Him Go’, ‘Bad Man Nuh Flee’ (alongside Vegas), the classic ‘Bookshelf‘, the madness that was ‘Kingston Hot’ and of course ‘Battery Dolly’ were to be found on this album and with a lineup like that you really get to the point where you stop calling it an ‘oversight’ that it hasn’t been very recognized and get around to start calling it just ‘dumb’ - Probably one of the best Dancehall albums of the second half of the 1990’s.