What I'm Listening To: October

“Bambú Station Presents Talkin’ Roots II" [Mt. Nebo Records, 2005]

From ever since we got the word, about a month or so ago, that Jalani Horton and co. of the mighty VI group, Bambú Station, would be releasing their first album in two or three hundred years later this year, ”Children Of Exodus”, I’ve pretty much been going through the majority of their collection that I have in my collection. While we could certainly argue on the group’s actual best album, it is well indisputable that ”Talkin Roots II” was one of the finest pieces of work that the group ever had its name attached to. It featured a variety of different SOLID artists from across the Caribbean (primarily the Virgin Islands, of course) and was just outstanding. Names such as Pressure Busspipe, Tuff Lion, Ijah Menelik (nephew of the recently passed Mighty Arrow) Ras Army, Danny I, Ras Bumpa, Lady Passion and others (including a big combination track from the whole of the Star Lion Family) dominated the ranks of this outstanding project - A personal classic for me and one of the finest compilations since the turn of the century.

Cocoa Tea - “Save Us Oh Jah” [VP Records, 2006]

It was actually another of his album’s, ”Feel The Power”, which got me to take my ‘scheduled’ - Every 2-3 months or so - HEAVY spin of Cocoa Tea, which stopped at an album which I definitely haven’t paid a fair amount of attention to in the four years since its release, ”Save Us Oh Jah”. This Xterminator produced set was, by no means, one of Cocoa Tea’s best (it wasn’t even as good as his last album for Xterminator, the aforementioned ”Feel The Power”), but what it had going for it was a few HUGE tunes. Such a tune is the album’s closer, the sublime ‘Spin The Song Ya‘, of course there’s the title track. ’Let The Music Play’ (“Still Blazin tour! From wi tek dem gyal and dem asking for more!”) and, very suddenly, I also found myself reacting quite nicely to ‘Stop Him’. I’m STILL having a great time with this one and hell, you might even see it back on WILT: November.

Cocoa Tea - “Feel The Power” [VP Records, 2001]

Yeah - I kind of tipped my hand on this one (couldn’t help it), but nearly a decade after its release and what may just be Cocoa Tea’s greatest complete album, ”Feel The Power”is doing nothing but picking up steam to my ears. This thing is LOVELY! The album happens to contain ‘Sweet Life’ which is . . . I mean the thing is just one of the SWEETEST tunes you’ll ever hear in your entire life and also there’s the title track which may just be the only song capable of challenging Sizzla Kalonji’s epic ‘Taking Over’ on that same riddim, in terms of quality. There were also big shots such as ‘Sniper’, ‘True Love’, ‘Auction Block’ and even ‘Who’, a tune which I recall thinking pretty awful, but now? Not the greatest, but not awful at all.

Invasion Riddim & Maroon Riddim [DownSound Records/In The Streetz Records, 2005]

As the daunting prospects of splashing together a review of another double riddim album looms somewhere in the back of my mind (for next week or the week after), I’ve also got my mind on one of the greatest such double releases of recent memory. It’s interesting that now, in retrospect, when I think of this release and the two riddims, DownSound’s Invasion and Maroon, the first thing that comes to my mind is . . . Fantan Mojah because it was the two riddims which marked the chanter’s arrival on the big stage and spotlights of Reggae with his dueling initial hits, ‘Hail The King’ and ‘Hungry’, respectively (and on a side note, I probably haven’t heard ‘Hungry’ in like a damn year and the tune had me smiling, ear to ear). Joining Mojah was a virtual ‘who’s-who’ of Roots Reggae music - Sizzla, Anthony B, Jah Mason, Luciano, Junior Kelly, [Mr.] Perfect, Norris Man, DYCR, Bascom X, even Military Man and Sugar Minott and stellar efforts from a still incarcerated Jah Cure and Capleton whose tunes, ‘Conga Man’ and ‘Invasion’, respectively, were proper hits in their own rights.

King Cephas - “Coming Of The King” [The Outpost Music Workshop]

Lastly, I wish I could offer some type of update as to what has become of King Cephas, but either I haven’t been paying attention very well or he hasn’t been up to too much being a vocal artist (he’s also a musician, in the traditional sense of the word). Still, it was just a couple of short years ago (even though it seems longer) when the singer dropped his delightful debut (and to date only) album, ”Coming Of The King” for Outpost, the label ran by the venerable VI Roots Reggae wizard, Tuff Lion. This album was somewhat significant in the ostensible sense because it was an album which featured Virgin Islands productions behind a Jamaican artist which, at the time (and still) was pretty rare to my knowledge. And besides that, it was just a great piece of work! I can recall making the connection between Cephas and the great Peter Broggs and it didn’t take long to get that feeling back to my mind, because it’s still somewhat clear. The album featured quite a bit in the way of love songs, but the mix between such tunes and the Roots was well interesting and it remains one of my favourite debuts from the past half-decade or so.