Coming Soon Vol. 18

Coming Soon

Busy Signal - “D.O.B.” [VP Records]

Not going to say too much about this one (see the footnote), but definitely the biggest deal jumping off in the next couple of weeks or so is the fact that Dancehall star Busy Signal has a brand new album reaching, his third official international release, ”D.O.B.”, for VP Records. Big release here and having already become pretty well acquainted with it (halfway through the review), I can tell you that it definitely lives up to the big name and the big expectations. Busy Signal has become an even more interesting artist over the past couple of years or so and when combined with his already incendiary level of talent makes for one very colourful album to say the least.

Releases on July 13
{Review coming on Tuesday, thus no potential rating}

Gyptian - “Hold You” [VP Records]

As if the largest Caribbean music label on the planet didn’t have enough things on their plate (and even though I want to, I’ll resist the temptation to run down the ‘murderer’s row’ of releases they’ve had going in the last two months or so), here comes what will probably be one of their biggest commercial releases of the year as an extremely reenergized Gyptian drops what is easily one of the most anticipated albums of 2010, ”Hold You”. This one figures to grab more than a bit of ‘mainstream’ attention as the tune after which it is named has well exceeded all expectations and continues to. Now he’ll have to make it so that everyone who shows up for the album doesn’t walk away having essentially paid an album’s price for one tune. As I always say, I’m not the biggest fan of the singer in the world, but if ever there were a time for him to put his best foot forward, it was on this album and I’m well interested to seeing what Gyptian has come up with this time around (especially on the tune ‘Leave Us Alone‘).

Releases on July 20
Potential Rating: 4.25/5

“Bobo Revolution Vol. 2” [Greensleeves]

As much as I most certainly am looking forward to (finishing) ”D.O.B.” and ”Hold You”, coming from the VP camp, I’m even more excited to get my hands on this potentially HUGE compilation, the second edition of the big ”Bobo Revolution” piece from Frenchie and company at Maximum Sound. The first edition was EXCELLENT, one of the best compilations of the past few years definitely and with the WINNING lineup of artists on this release, you know it’s going to be of similar successes. Although missing is Natty King (who I believe had one of the biggest scores from the first disc), ‘newcomers’ to the series like Tarrus Riley, I-Octane, Peetah Morgan and even Johnny Clarke make up well for his absence. And of course there’s no shortage of the big guns like Luciano, Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B, Jah Mason and Chezidek to ‘round things out’. One of the biggest compilations of the year to be certain here.

Releases on July 20
Potential Rating: 4.75/5

“Dancehall Glory” [Ragga Force]

Thought that I’d briefly mention this cool little release via Ragga Force as it . . . Well it’s just a few (actual) Dancehall tunes thrown together and it’s nice. Decorating the roster of this "Dancehall Glory" are names like Wayne Wonder, Sizzla, General Degree and even Super Cat (who checks in with the very popular ‘Scalp Dem’) amongst a few much lesser known lights (including Chappa Jan who is a big artist from out of St. Ann!). I can’t actually imagine that it’s strong all the way through, but definitely on the digital side, picking and choosing on this one might be a pretty good time (oh, and that's probably THE worst cover I've seen all year).

Releases on July 15
Potential Rating 3/5

Simon Splinter - “Life Is a Serious Thing” [Splinter Music/Zojak Worldwide]

Simon Splinter is/was a very talented member of Sizzla’s Judgment Yard camp and following Joseph Shepherd and that other guy whose name I forgot and am too lazy to look up, he’s now taken up and released his debut album (Congo Judah was the other I believe), ”Life Is A Serious Thing”. Unlike the two other artists, fans will be able to grab this one up on more usual and popular channels (outside of Judgment Yard’s website). Splinter also featured on the recent ”Caveman Culture Sound Vol. 1” release and has just, in general, been taking a higher and higher profile leading up to his album. What you can expect is a very interesting release from an artist who has a very ’rough around the edges; type of feel to him. At times Simon Splinter sounds like Perfect and at others he sounds like Josie Mel a bit and it’s all on this very nice old school type of cadence. I’m still working on this one and I’m certainly not saying it’s anything special, but something about it is very strong.

Releases Soon (if not already)
Potential Rating: 3.5/5

Shaggy & Alaine - ‘For Yur Eyez Only’ [K-Licious Music/Zojak Worldwide]

And lastly is a big tune from two big artists and a real big man behind the boards as superstar Shaggy links up with the incomparable Alaine on ‘For Yur Eyez Only’ for K-Licious, the man himself, Tony Kelly. Alaine has a nice stack of hits behind her, Shaggy . . . Pretty much goes without saying and Kelly only seems to get out of bed when the biggest of big projects come calling so this one is on a pretty much ‘can’t miss’ basis. It’s incredibly catchy and infectious and it is going to continue to do very very big things.

Releases Soon (if not already)
Rated: 4/5

In Stores Now

“Soca Dons & Divas“ [Faluma]

Maybe you are just that much of a Soca head that every name on this FIFTY ONE track set will be a big deal to you and if that’s the case, then I’m pretty jealous and more power to you my friend. As for the rest of us, however, ”Soca Dons & Divas” is thankfully packed with more than enough of the ‘usual suspects’ from out of Barbados to keep our interests and to grab them up in the first place. Alison Hinds, Blood (who I think may’ve produced the set), Biggie Irie, Contone, Sickey, Statement and Peter Ram are just a few names highlighting this MASSIVE set sent on by the keepers of the rocket launcher, the ever present Faluma.

Nadine Sutherland - ‘Cougar’ [Jah Snowcone]

I’m kind of in a weird position here because I don’t really like this song, I think it’s kind of trendy and corny and . . .Yeah (but that riddim is ridiculous), but I love this artist, can never get enough of Nadine Sutherland and the tune, ‘Cougar’ has definitely been a nice sized hit for her. Of course you know the story of the somewhat older woman pursuing the younger man and Sutherland took that idea and ran with it into a hit. Good for her and hopefully it’ll lead to an album in the future, should it continue to grow as one of the biggest unfortunate situations on Reggae shelves is that Nadine Sutherland has literally been singing from 1467 and only has two albums (both are very good). So there you go - Listen to it, if you like pick it up (and if you don’t, play it for someone else). Biggup Nadine Sutherland every time.

Kes & Tessanne Chin - ‘Loving You’ [KES The Band & Tessanne Chin]

Didn’t see this one coming. Earlier this year the always welcomed Tessanne Chin linked up with that dude from Kes The Band (Kees . . . Something German sounding) and made one magical piece of romantic tune that did really big things in 'Loving You'. The song itself was pretty remote and random, so you didn’t really have much to go on as far as what would become of it (although the closest piece perhaps, ‘King & Queen’, from Alison Hinds and Richie Spice did also go this route), so I was SO happy to see that the artists had chosen, themselves to make the tune available for the masses worldwide. It’s a very lovely song, very clean and very romantic and it is Tessanne Chin (who really needs to come out and play more like this) so definitely give it a few spins.

“Reggae Gold 2010” [VP Records]

As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. I thought that I’d remind the jaded and incredibly stubborn ass Reggae heads that the latest edition of the biggest compilation in the game, “Reggae Gold”, is out now. As usual, it’s most certainly going to appeal more to newer fans and that goes without saying (even though I just said it), but this year’s piece is rather easily one of the better of recent years and you’re going to find some nice things here which you probably don’t have on official form anywhere else. The main highlight is definitely ‘Slow Motion’ from Vybz Kartel (even though it’s been rerecorded) and Kartel does a double dip with his hit ‘Clarks’, a rather surprising entrant here, alongside Popcaan and Kim. Joining Kartel are nice unexpected pieces from the likes of Wasp, Konshens, Shaggy & Tessanne Chin and even Jr. Gong & Nas - featured alongside the far more expected names of Gyptian, Busy, Tarrus Riley, Etana, Romain Virgo, Mavado and Beres Hammond. Like you know, newer fans are going to like it more, but “RG2K10” isn’t a total waste for the hardcore heads.

Check It Vol. 13

{Note: A few of these releases may not be available yet, but should be very shortly}

Luciano - “United States of Africa” [VP Records]

Of course, going first this week is the biggest recent drop (that I haven’t already reviewed) as ‘The Messenjah’, Luciano, returns with his brand new album, “United States of Africa”, for VP Records. Having been around from basically forever at this point, it’s a wonder the singer can STILL excite, compel and just CHALLENGE his listeners because you start to think that we’ve basically heard it all at this point. Besides just sounding more ‘into it’ this time around, Luciano also links up with Frenchie from Maximum Sound for the very first time and comes on the heels of artists like Jah Mason, Lukie D and most notably Anthony B, all of whom have made albums (and nice ones) for Maximum Sound. This one should be a similar hit because it is very strong and despite the fact that it kind of seems to have popped up kind of early, when the masses catch on that it’s released, they should eat up this very RICH album.

{review coming Friday}

SamX - “De Causes à Effets” [Genesiz]

I’d actually saw this one up just before we left and was so happy to see that after two big French releases earlier this year - Admiral T’s "Instinct Admiral” and Kalash’s self titled set (and biggup Yeahman‘C and Young Chang MC also)- That it wouldn’t be too long at all before another big name stepped forward as well as the android-ish and demonic SamX pushes in with (I THINK) his sophomore album, “De Causes à Effets”. Despite the fact that my favourite SamX tune of recent (the Soca vibed ‘I Di Mwen’) is absent, you can still expect MADNESS from one of the most inventive names currently in all of Dancehall right now. You can also expect a ridiculous Achis-like review when I get my paws on it (unfortunately what you can’t expect is a SamX-Saïk combination, but we’re still waiting).

Krys - “Step Out” [Aztec Musique]

I was kind of quietly expecting Krys to jump up with something in 2010 (actually I was more expecting it last year when he had caught fire with a big tune) and he picked a pretty nice time to go up with SamX as yet another nice duo of French Caribbean artists dropping a pair of albums in close proximity to one another. Krys is a bit more ‘terrestrial’ (in terms of sound) than SamX and just in general approach and the result, usually, is just a very good time is to be had when he drops and having already picked this one up and skimmed through it a bit, it sounds like more of the same from Krys with a high-powered type of vibes. Also, there’s the fact that the previously alluded to “big tune”, ‘Hustla’, a combination featuring both Jamaican stars Vybz Kartel and Aidonia, is also on board ”Step Out” is ‘Bye Bye’, a combination with Zoukie Fanny J and even a salute to passed legendary Pan-Africanist, Aimé Césaire.

“The Hit List Vol. 2” [Tad’s International/Zojak Worldwide]

If you haven’t been paying too close of an attention to what’s going on in the Dancehall these days, you might want to go ahead and grab up the second installation of ”The Hit List” which features a very healthy dosage of tunes which have been popular in the Dancehall over the course of the past six months or so. So with that being said, you already know to expect quite a few big names in the process and that’s exactly what’s going on here - Kartel, Mavado, Beenie Man, Lady Saw, I-Octane, Tarrus Riley & Aidonia, Merciless and others dominate this very healthy tracklist and make this piece EASILY oneo fthe most attractive compilations on the market right now. Not only that but good luck finding some of this material on other (official) projects. Songs like Mavado’s ‘Starlight’, ‘Di Trees’ from Riley and Aidonia and particular Saw’s ‘Me Hold You’ (and the album contains both the clean and raw editions of the tune) just aren’t going to be stuck onto a ton of albums as of yet. Big release.

“Kings Highway” [Reality Chant Productions]

Speaking of potentially big compilations - I’ve yet to actually get my hands on this one as of yet, but I have a VERY good feeling about it as it seems to play from the same producers as one of one of my favourite tunes altogether in recent times, Natty King’s WICKED ‘Fyah Bed’. That same tune is present on the “Kings Highway” from New Zealand based Reality Chant Productions as are a few other usages of that big riddim. And also on the lot are names like Lutan Fyah, Jah Mason, Zareb, Chrisinti and even Mikey General. These big artist are joined by a few lesser known lights including local (to New Zealand) songstress Porina, who sounds very nice and I can’t wait to hear her tune and this entire potentially BIG time project.

“Reggae Zone Mix-CD First Edition” [Tiger Records/Zojak Worldwide]

Of course you all know that mixtapes certainly aren’t my favourite thing, but you should also know that I make exceptions. Well I’m going to add Achis Reggae favourite Sherkhan of Tiger Records to a list highlighted by DJ Child and the likes of people who can make good mixtapes, because he’s adding his name to the bunch with the very first “Reggae Zone Mix-CD”. The reason why I like this one (unsurprisingly, I did just tell you he was one of my favourites) is because a great deal of the material is proven by me, I already like it. Seriously, you just kind of casually place what is probably the best song I’ve heard all year, ‘Cross Me Heart’ by Junior X, on a mixtape and you’ve got my attention and you’ve got it IMMEDIATELY. Not to mention other big tunes from the likes of Sizzla, Diana Rutherford (WICKED combination tune, ‘Under The Covers’ alongside Assailant), Norris Man, Perfect, Lutan Fyah and others - Add those and you now have my undying respect. Big big piece.

Midnite [Rastar Records/Zojak Worldwide]

I thought that I’d go ahead and throw this one in the mix briefly because a little while back when these two albums, ”Ina Now” and ”To Mene” dropped, they did push, but unfortunately they didn’t go digital (and neither were stellar, at least not in my opinion, so they’re definitely of the ‘pick and choose’ variety) and now they have courtesy of the most magical place on earth, Zojak Worldwide. Rastar Records have issued quite a bit of their recent back catalogue through them as well so all of those compilations (like ”King of Kush” and ”Defender of The Faith”) are also available for your digital consumption. Have at it boys and girls.

Snake Charmer Riddim [Red Nile Music/Zojak Worldwide]

When I actually figured out exactly what in the hell the Snake Charmer Riddim was, I got VERY happy that it had made its way to an album because it, in and of itself (not saying the songs are), is EXCELLENT! The riddim featured prominently on Lutan Fyah’s unforgettable giant double spread, ”Africa” from 2008 on the song ‘I Love Everything About You’ and here it is just as attention-getting and downright dazzling as it was a couple of years back. Joining the Fyah (and Sophia Squire, the previously unaccredited female singer who joins him on the tune) is an impressive outfit of veterans and up and comers - Names like Tony Curtis, Hezron, Torch (twice), old man Lucal Lynch and Carol Gonzalez (also a remix of the big tune as well). So even if those names, or some of them, definitely give an eye and an ear to this one sleeper riddim album of 2010 (cool cover too).

Empress Roberta - “Cold Heart” [Kick Off Records]

. . . Ehhh. I’m of two minds here - On one hand, Empress ROBERTHA releasing a new album is a big thing, because her first, ”Solid Ground”, was just so nice and solid and well done, so ultimately the fact that she’s returning and doing so very quickly is a pretty big deal. Also, that first album had a few holes in it in terms of tunes people may’ve known from the singer which weren’t there and her new album, ”Cold Heart” might have them. HOWEVER, this one has issues. First of all, her name is misspelled which is simply inexcusable, unless they’re changing her name (and if they are, it’s no longer inexcusable, it’s just RIDICULOUS at this point). Second of all . . . What is it? Even the first album had a little promo for it. This one just came up from out of nowhere and here it is. Ultimately, like I said, it will come down to whether or not it’s good and ROBERTHA does good work to my opinion. I’ve yet to actually pick this one up (and may never), but the clips sound very nice, there’re some tunes here which you may know which weren’t on the first set (particularly ‘These Wars’) and I’d be genuinely surprised if it wasn’t quality material. . . But I just don’t feel too good about the way it’s set.

Roll Out Riddim [Irievibrations]

I wrote about this one awhile back for United Reggae and apparently having lost track of time - They actually released it. This one is Reggae meets Santana circa 1975 or so. Big long ass ugly Cadillac, 8 track playing piece of riddim is the Roll Out from Austrian bad asses, Irievibrations. Despite how utterly strange this one is (and it most certainly is), it’s still carried out well and I suppose it’s just a matter of whether or not you’re going to like it. Of course, I can’t tell you that, but to ensure that you just might, Irievibrations has enlisted talents like Tifa, Konshens, Ward 21 and Konshens & Delus (separately).

“King Yellowman Mash Up Chicago” [Chicago Reggae Vibration]

This one seems like a pretty good idea, although I can’t say how well it was carried out as of yet. Someone (Herbert Weedhead Spliffington) (who may actually be Yellow Man himself) apparently just up and decided to record a random King Yellow Man show in Chicago on some random date and . . . Sell it! Well, since I wasn’t there (and you probably weren’t either and even if you were, you probably didn’t know it) (I think the last time I saw Yellow Man live would’ve been . . . 2005 maybe), I’d like to have an opportunity to hear it. Why not? Yellow Man, even this far on, ALWAYS gives a good show and listening through this one, the intensity sounds decent, nice crowd response and you can never have too many live albums in my opinion (biggup Louie Culture).

Kali Blaxx - ‘Mama Teaching’ [Nicko Rebel Music/Zojak Worldwide]

WICKED up and coming artist, Kali Blaxx (from out of St. Ann!), returns with a big new single following several (especially ’One Smoke’), which definitely went to getting his name out to the masses good and proper. This piece, ’Mama Teaching’ from Nicko Rebel Music has been getting a bit of attention and hopefully the fact that you can now grab it up digitally will make it even more potent on the international side. The tune, like all of his work that I’ve heard thus far, is BIG. Obviously, it’s a tune for Mama and we can never have too many of them (if they’re good - Tunes and Mamas) and this one is more than just “good”. Definitely keep an eye out for Blaxs, big future ahead of the man.

Zebi-Lion EP [Andrew Bassie Records/Zojak Worldwide]

I thought that I’d mention this one quickly as just going through stuff seeing what we were going to keep and what we were going to get rid of, I kind of stumbled into this one. This release is simply three tunes - ‘Babylonian Inna Problem’, ‘Messages’ and ‘More Love’ - From an artist whose name I know, but couldn’t tell you a thing about in Zebi-Lion. Apparently the Lion is from Grenada and how he found himself to Jamaica and working with the very prolific likes of Bassie Campbell is a mystery to me (and I don’t care that much actually), but the work they’ve done here is VERY impressive! And from what I’ve read (I think), an album is on the way. There’s no reason for you to stop and check this one very closely at all, but what you’re most certainly going to pass over is pretty big material - And for the sake of reference, when I first heard it, I thought Zebi-Lion sounded like a much more enthusiastic version of Determine and there you go. Big vibes.

Lady Sweety & Jessica Dorsey - ‘Pwan Tan Gadé’ [Taïnos Records]

And lastly, I thought I’d mention ‘Pwan Tan Gadé’ [‘In Time’], from Achis Reggae favourite, Gwada Dancehall superpower Lady Sweety, alongside THE name in French Gospel, Jessica Dorsey (who I believe is from Madinina originally). The tune is inspirational and on an anti-violence and anti-corruption type of vibes and I GUESS it’ll work to help tide me over for the inevitable BOOM which is “Ma Vérité”, Lady Sweety’s hopefully soon to be released new album.

Maddzart: Road March King

So just to put a wrap on the matter (and I alluded to it earlier), Maddzart did end up taking the road in St. Vincy this season with the OUTSTANDING tune 'The King Road', as he announced on his Twitter. Congratulations to the man and excellent choice by the people who played the hell out of it.

Should you press play on it - Good luck getting it out of your brain.

Stuff: "Charge Up"

YOW!
So I tell you I'm coming back on such a day, such a day reaches and I'm back yeah! So let's go, no long talking. Of course the big piece of news round here is the fact that Skinny Fabulous charged up and took St. Vincy Soca Monarch 2010, his third crown consecutively, which is ridiculous now. In my mind, he took the crown with his third or fourth (or even fifth if you count the remix), best tune of the season, 'Duracell'. I thought (and predicted) that he would win, but I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to take in too much information - So make no mistake about it, Skinny Fabulous currently is the best Soca artist St. Vincy has to offer and from the first word utter, ". . . LIKE A PACK AH DURACELL!", you know it was over from nobody ever have so much intensity before him and the ones who figure to maybe have such, Fireman Hooper and Problem Child had already gone.

The man killed the bunny, charged it up and brought it back to life. It was madness and I cried like a baby! AND I THINK I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE! The Wife, who hates everything, of course was a bad ass and showed no emotion whatsoever, besides losing her damn mind, but I happened to glance at Bredz (my Wife's brother for the new people) and obviously overwhelmed, his spectacles came off several times during the performance . . . And I'll leave it there.

Besides Skinny, Fireman came second with 'Battlefield', he was high intensity like usual and like last year I do think he deserved second. Problem Child with 'Delinquents' was likely to grab third, but he didn't because he was (really) bested by Maddzart, whose 'The King Road' took third, but all four at the top did very well in my opinion. I also liked the girls - One was Fire Empress, and Tisa and Tomisha - They all did good to my opinion. Everyone was decent, people were talking about the show should be shorter (it was 18 this year) and, of course, I'm always in favour of that (and if you're headed to Lucia this weekend, you'll agree with me like hell come Sunday morning), but I didn't have a problem with this year's show at all. I was very entertained and it was well worth the trip. I think they announce Road March tomorrow (today when you read this) and 'Duracell' is the most popular tune in Vincy now, clearly, but I'm still not picking it to take the road and I'm actually leaning more towards Maddzart (who even alluded to it maybe being his focus in his performance. . .

I think that's it, oh! The Fireman does leave the season with a bit of hardware as he surprisingly took Ragga Soca Monarch (Vincy's 'Groovy'). I had Galanaire there (who came second) (Maddzart was third) and biggup Alison Hinds and all that ass. So yeah, great trip, got a few business things done also and ran into a familiar face or two also. Don't know if we'll be back next year, but chances are likely. Biggup Vincy massive.

This Saturday - Is St. Lucia's Soca Monarch. Unsurprisingly, we're sitting this one out this year and as I read on it, we made an excellent choice. For me the story here is that they're putting both the Groovy and Power Monarch competitions on the same stage on the same day and they both have fifteen 15 competitors. WHICH MEANS THAT IF YOU REACH ST. LUCIA SOCA MONARCH 2010, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO STAND THERE FOR THIRTY PERFORMANCES IN ONE FUCKING NIGHT! Good luck with that!

Last year's winners Alpha (Groovy) and Ricky T (Power) are both back and defending. They're also the favourites and I'm pretty sure Ricky T is going to win again (which would be the 1900th time he won that thing), but I think the most likely source to spring the upset is someone liek Q-Pid or maybe even DJ HP, everyone is eating his tune up. Still, you know my favourite tune from Lucia this year comes via the same artist who gave it last year as Ilah Man apparently did not get his money back last year and is apparently now just all fucked up in his brain and mad as hell!

And I'm also thinking Q-Pid can trouble Alpha in Groovy (she's going to win one of these damn things one of these years) and I think she'll be joined by Nicole David and her innuendo laced 'Mr. Dean Dough' and TC Brown with the coolest song in the world 'Ah Taking A Wine':

And of course Ricky T will win Road March, because he wins every year. So check that out, good luck if you're going and I plan on watching as well.

Okay, with all the madness out of the way, turn our attention to more madness because my Dutchies are in the finals of the World Cup and could potentially be joined by Spain in a few hours. I predicted Spain to win, but The Netherlands, of course, are my favourites left and I'll be cheering for them mad against either Germany or Spain. Germany looked crazy against Argentina, but Spain should be pretty damn hard to beat, considering that they ALWAYS HAVE THE DAMN BALL. I didn't watch as much in the past two weeks, but you know I went mad out when Holland ate up Brazil's food and I liked Argentina, but I didn't at all mind seeing them lose. Oh and France of course went out, but I think I mentioned Florent Malouda from Guyane and lo and behold France scored one goal the entire competition and it was he who dun it! So biggup Malouda and France has apparently gone mad. Loved the game today (yesterday by time you read this) with Holland erupting in the second half and then Uruguay just going crazy at the end, which I watched nervously with a towel over my face.

Coming Up

So we're back and it's business as usual. Big things coming in July, already have one with Capleton (in stores now and biggup Bredz who greeted me with a package containing it and three other albums when we linked him) have another on Friday and probably two more next week. Let's go!

• Expect the big review for Luciano's new album "United States of Africa" coming on Friday. Next week you'll get Busy Signal's "D.O.B." on its release date and you'll also (HOPEFULLY) get a review for Jah Mason's new album which I have already (but do not know the name of). And in the coming weeks expect reviews for Gentleman (hopefully before the end of July), Bryan Art (done), Franz Job (done) and who knows who else. Also have a 'Modern Classic' written and ready to go (have no idea when I'm posting that, however).
  

• Have a big edition of 'Check It' hopefully sizing up for tomorrow. A lot of very interesting things dropped (and are coming still) in the last two weeks and hopefully we're going to play catch-up and tell you about a few of them that you should check out.

• Have what is probably the best edition of 'Video Drop' that I've ever done (still have one more to add to it actually) and you can expect that sometime this week and biggup Ras Champion on that (and you know why).

• Of course, whole heap of other things as well. Maybe a vault review of the most interesting sort (because I haven't done one in awhile). And the end of July marks the end of the first half of the year so you know you can expect first half 'Best of' lists in the last week of the month and after a month's divergence (I had a good excuse), the return of 'Artist of The Month'. Oh and definitely send in suggestions for big tunes which WILL be running on this coming Sunday and for this week only I have absolutely no problem posting multiple suggestions from multiple different people, so do your best my friends.
  

Biggup everyone, I have a ton of email to go through and if you asked me for something you can really do me a big favour and send it back again so I can see it up top. It was interesting how I get like 7 emails from new people saying that they're new readers while I'm not writing. It's like the time give everyone a minute to read the old stuff so, welcome my new friends and re-welcome my old ones. We're back. More life, more madness.

BALANCE
RasAchis

Song?
Meet my neighbour



Pictured

Charge Up

Like a Duracell

"Unification Fire": A Review of I-Ternal Fire by Capleton

Capleton. It’s so hard to find things that we, as music fans in general, can agree on. The nature of being such a person, if you are to be ’successful’, somewhat inherently lends itself to being quite fickle so as to be able to identify new music and new artists even if you’ve already found literally hundreds that you enjoy. Certainly we can be loyal, but that loyalty (and the extent to which it goes) is based on so many different things that it almost becomes completely random. In Reggae music, things can be even more random due to the kind of ‘regionalized globalization’ of our music where artists can pop up from almost anywhere at any time, but do so with very little, if any at all, fanfare outside of wherever they’re from. So while YOU maybe looking very much forward to a particular project or a particular artist, you may very well be one of the only ones - I may not even know that particular artist exists or that particular project is on its way. So with that being said, while I certainly pride myself on having the ‘make good music and I’ll find you’ type of an attitude because I listen to such a wide variety of names (and find myself as the “YOU” given in the previous example almost daily), I do so LOVE the moments that we’re afforded which can almost supersede someone’s taste (meaning that it doesn’t matter if you like it or not) and skepticisms and become a unanimously HUGE moment in Reggae music. Trying to think of something in recent memory and the best that I can probably come up with would be Buju Banton’s 2008 album ”Rasta Got Soul”, but despite the fact that Buju is more well known than he is (he‘s also more polarizing), I think that Capleton returning after six years with a brand new album, ”I-Ternal Fire”, becomes an even bigger deal amongst the at least somewhat educated Reggae fans across the globe. It’s because of that, that the ridiculously overused tag of ‘most anticipated album of the year’, which you’ll see on at least one new album each and every month, is probably most applicable in this case as, like I said, it’s been a woefully absurd three-fifths of a decade since ‘The Prophet’ dropped ”Reign of Fire” back in 2004 and if you would have told me when I picked up that album, that it would be 2010 (for reference, I was 23 then and am now a month and a eight days away from 29 years old), I would’ve been completely disappointed, but now having waited the time, the planets and stars have seemingly once again properly for The King of Fire to reassume his never ending burning of everything wicked.

So much has changed in the six years hasn’t it? There’re so many new faces - There’s an entire new ‘class’ in fact (hell, there’re probably two of them by now) of big artists now shining on the same VP Records where Capleton has done the lion’s share of his business as far as albums and continues to. Back in 2004, artists like Gyptian, Busy Signal, Mavado and of course the Etana’s, Queen Ifrica’s and Romain Virgo’s of the world had yet to make their debuts (and Virgo would have been all of about 14 at the time). Capleton himself has changed also. The first thing that caught my eye on ”I-Ternal Fire” was the cover which rather prominently features Capleton with more than a few grey hairs in his now signature beard. That right there was a signal to me that perhaps we could expect something different than was present on his previous three comparable VP efforts (within the ‘fire series‘) the classic ”More Fire”, ”Still Blazing” and the aforementioned ”Reign of Fire”. Also, should you actually pick up the album and comb it over (it is, as typically, presented very nice), you’ll also notice for the first time a logo for a ‘Capleton Music Inc. Ltd.’ on it as well which should show that he’s getting more and more into the business side of things as well. But of course, we don’t sign up and listen for business, we do it for vibes and what you’re going to hear on the album is a bit of surprise, as I alluded to, as the album is a bit toned down actually and it even has that kind of a vibes to it just on the surface. Checking in at just fifteen tracks, ”I-Ternal Fire” is scaled back considerably from the previous three albums, all of which were either nineteen or twenty tracks full (and even seem bigger in retrospect - I swear ”More Fire” STILL feels like it was a double) and the music itself doesn’t seem bent on hyping up things inasmuch as Capleton seems to really want to get his point across. The result of that, in my opinion, is an album which shows off a quality which I feel that The Prophet hasn’t received his fair amount of praise for throughout his career and particularly as of late - His lyricism. So many times we look at calls of ‘More Fire’ and ‘That Day Will Come’ and ‘Cooyah’ and I think that people get mislead with those and the general hype and figurative fire that he burns and just completely miss that not only does Capleton EASILY have one of the greatest deliveries Reggae music has ever heard (and on more than one style), but LYRICALLY this man is doing things that are simply superior to the vast majority of his peers. With the style now slowed down and ‘settled’ a bit, it is definitely my hope that this can be conveyed in the clearest sense in quite some time. On top of that, besides being potentially wicked for so many reasons and pretty much certain to be the most eagerly awaited drop of 2010, ”I-Ternal Fire” is just consuming! It is a BIG DEAL and if you’re like me and such a big fan that things like this take your attentions and just . . . Goes to work on them, an album like this is just an ‘event’ of sorts. It’s like the WORLD CUP FINALS of Reggae albums for me and as I said, if you’re also a pretty deep fan of this music, I’m sure it’s registering for you like such as well. The most crucial question remains, however, is it any good? Capleton album? Good? Do you really have to ask that question?

As is seemingly the case more and more these days, the album’s executive producer is Chris Chin who also is the big man at VP Records. The music itself comes from a wide variety of different producers and features some of Capleton’s most flame worthy releases as of late and also some tunes which may be completely new to most listeners, myself included, which makes for a very healthy mix of big vibes and big tunes on Capleton’s six years in the making new album, ”I-Ternal Fire”. Such as our opener, ‘Some Day’ which begins to shine, but does so (at least it did for me) after more than a few listens. The acoustic guitar dominated set is very laid back and it’s only when you get into the tune’s lyrics that it really grabs your attention as a big inspirational vibes and one which I don’t think I heard before the album jumped out. I certainly can’t say the same thing about the next tune on the album, its first undeniably strong piece, ’Acres’, Capleton’s cut of Shane Brown and Juke Box’s Indiscretion Riddim which was WELL popular. The tune is the album’s obligatory herbalist number and it is BIG (still, should you find yourself able to rile through it without singing Assassin’s WICKED ‘Stay Like Bees’ tune, consider yourself far more focused than me).

“So mi tell babylon seh nuh fi touch mi ground
And mi tell di wicked man seh nah fi cut it down
Mi neva come up ah yah place and try fi shut it down
I neva use mi bulldozer and try fi buck it down”

Madness! Of course the tune centers around those trying to fight against the herb and Capleton has no reservations in defending it by any means necessary and creates one of the biggest vibes on the whole of the album in the process. ‘Acres’ is, however, topped by the tune which follows it, one which I’m calling the ‘game changer’ (as they say in Hip-Hop circles), the MASSIVE ‘When I Come To Town’. This one is getting my vote as the album’s finest moment altogether and on Capleton just speaks of spreading knowledge and righteousness to the people but does so in away which is downright DOMINANT lyrically.

“Dem used to say Rasta antisocial
Dem even fight against Bob Marley vocal
But Fyahman a dun di whole ah dem total
An bun out di leaders dem weh so called
False promises a weh dem couldn’t navigate
Rastafari works, di youths dem haffi agitate
To consciousness, di ghetto youths dem gravitate
And hail King Selassie I straight!”

The ENTIRE second verse of the tune may very well be some of Capleton’s best work ever lyrically and hopefully the masses pay attention to this musical peace of gold.

And that’s just three tunes in. As I said, I fully expect (as has already been the case on a couple of the other reviews that I’ve read through) that the big ‘story’ surrounding the actual music on ”I-Ternal Fire” is just how laid back the vibes are and such tunes definitely shine throughout the album, to say the least. To my opinion, perhaps THE most interesting is the somewhat strange, but fairly popular, ‘Mama You Strong’. The ‘mama tune’ on the album - I remember from a year or two ago (never heard it on this riddim, however, actually). The vibes here are . . . Kind of weird, but intoxicating at the same time to some degree and I’m going to, with a bit of trepidation, call it one of the album’s best tunes because - again - the lyrics are just so powerful and about two minutes deep into the 4:14 long song, that riddim absolutely melds itself to my mind. So definitely check it and give thanks to my Mother and your’s too. That tune is sandwiched between two other similarly vibed tunes, ‘Same Old Story’ and ‘I’m In Love’. The former you should know as being Capleton’s cut of the best riddim of the year 2008, Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor’s Rub-A-Dub and it’s just as big today as it was back then. It’s a big social commentary and you should already know it, but if you don’t it’s time to become acquainted definitely. As for the latter, the Bulpuss produced tune is pretty much a very straight forward love tune from Capleton and it’s somewhat reminiscent (at least to me) of ‘Remember the Days’ from the ”RoF” album - It’s very strong also and the chanter has had a remarkable good streak with tunes like this doing a major damage throughout the second phase of his career. Later on there’s a somewhat melancholy piece in ‘It’s On’ which, ostensibly, sounds like a love song also (that’s how it’s vibed), but to my ears it’s a big knowledge track instead. There’s something really interesting about the ‘feel’ of this song - The word I think is ‘enchanting’ - It just sounds amazing and the lyrics are definitely on point (he even references the tune ‘Search Fi A Find’ from ”Still Blazing”) and a big respect goes to Chantelle who sings an OUTSTANDING featured backing on the song as well. I’ll also mention the midtempo WICKED effort, ‘Long Way’. This one definitely has a bit of spice to it (and that one-drop is ANGRY AS HELL), but it seems to restrain itself from hitting critical mass and a later verse on the tune is a prime example of that as it breaks down the journey so many people have taken to get where they are.

“So dem coming from so far
Tru so many tribal
Tru so many war
So many suicidal
So many bars
So many revival
So many jar
So many idol
So many stars
So many reprisal
So many scars
Rastafari is the ultimate, whether near or far
Tell di ghetto dem youth yah star”

The verse following it doesn’t rail back the levels either (“Don’t worry about dem obstacle, cause sooner or later dem ahgo melt like a popsicle”) on the tune that is probably my second favourite on the album. Also check Capleton’s tune on Cutstone’s beautiful Joe Keyz riddim, 'Blessing' - A nearly magical praising tune, which also may be one of the strongest on the album. And the closer, another acoustically vibed number, ‘400 Years’, is another impressive piece discussing, essentially, the Afrikan Diaspora and it goes in so many ways to get there. I’m left almost paused (but wonderfully so) with the lasting thought as Capleton RIDICULOUSLY INTERESTINGLY says “hatred is the war that we get for love”, it places a stamp on an album which seems so much bent on expressing that love and succeeds and then some.

Of course that isn’t to say that I can’t love you and flame you from every conceivable angle at the same time - It is a Capleton album after all, so flammable substances do abound even in the face of the aforementioned predominately less combustible material on ”I-Ternal Fire”. While Capleton never quite reaches the levels of tunes like ‘Slew Dem’ or ‘Cooyah’ in terms of intensity on the album, The Prophet definitely strikes lightening on a tune such as ‘Babylon Go Down’. Of course you probably can figure out the nature of the tune without even hearing it, but you’ll REALLY need to sink your teeth into this one to get a big proper feel for it. It’s all about burning out corruption wherever it hides and in my opinion, while the actual phrase is never uttered, it’s pretty much the title track for the album as well as, lyrically, it’s definitely the fiery King Shango we’ve come to expect on one of the album’s finest. The same goes for the very familiar Bobby Digital produced ‘Global War’, on which Capleton outlines the various factions around the world who seem to be pushing for war and against peace and of course he applies the necessary amount of scalding flames for their cleansing. The vibes of the tune are also very strong (I did say Bobby Digital, after all) and it sounds like another one of those SPECTACULAR anthem-like tunes from Capleton, which is exactly what it is (definitely sounds like something which would have fit in so nicely on ”Still Blazing”). If you just jump in on ‘Call I’ you might think it another more laidback type of a vibes, but when you get into the body of the tune, you’ll see that it may very well be the single most intense tune on the whole of the album. This one comes in like a call to action as Capleton takes burning out oppression to a biblical level in the name of His Imperial Majesty on another RIDICULOUSLY impressive tune lyrically. Check the gorgeous midtempo ‘All Is Well’ also. Again - You’ll listen to it and not initially recognize it as having much spice to it, but throughout the tune the levels turn up higher and higher and while never quite reaching the boiling point, they come damn close on the slight ode to the man himself, Bob Marley. And lastly, I’ll mention another very familiar tune, ‘Them Get Correl’ from House of Hits’ St. Jago De La Vega Riddim. For me, this song is just about righteousness, plain and simple. It’s about trying to be as uplifting and upstanding as possible and if you don’t and you aren’t, you know full well that Capleton has the remedy for you as he has had throughout this excellent album.

Overall, you really shouldn’t need my (or anyone else’s) recommendation to pick up a Capleton album, particularly because you, Reggae head, have been (like me and everyone else reading this most likely) waiting for this for full on six years now. And while the results of the project may not be as incendiary as most may’ve expected, again I’d just like to stress the point that a very strong case could be made that ”I-Ternal Fire” (which I have now just typed as “I-Ternal Flame” for the seven hundredth time) (at least) may be Capleton’s greatest lyrical creation to date which, if you know anything about the artist (and you do), is certainly saying something HUGE. So while it may not be as spectacular and as immediately gratifying as the others, make no mistake about - This is album is HUGE and it does live up to its rather lofty and just strange expectations. It’s so interesting that it is an artist like Capleton who provides a moment in 2010 which will go unquestioned as one of the year’s biggest. Amid some controversies (which is always the case) and some people who have even began to speculate that the chanter’s best days, musically, were well behind him at this point, Capleton pulls yet another winner for not only himself, but for the vast majority of the heavy Reggae listening community. However, should I have to wait until I’m almost 35 for him to do it again - I may just have a fire to start of my own and I'm sure you'll join me in that. Well done.

Rated 4.5/5
VP Records
2010
CD & Digital



Capleton