Completely Random Thoughts 21: Ten Completely Random Tunes

We're going on a trip to a friend's wedding this weekend and I won't be back writing until Tuesday or Wednesday (whichever day that is, I'll have a review that same day). Of course that means that I won't be doing beautiful tunes this Sunday (but link me at AchisReggae@hotmail.com for next Sunday or the next or the next or the next), but as always, I like to leave with good and upful music so, on the idea of someone else (biggup Bredz), I decided to just completely randomly post some music. In some cases, this isn't even stuff I'm listening to, just something which happened to pop into my head at the time and it's all me - all the time. Hope you enjoy, don't care if you don't (because I like them!), and we'll see you back next week!

BALANCE
RasAchis

1. 'Seven Miles' by Naptali featuring Luciano

"Marcus Garvey. A Black man. Prophesied to the nation. When he asked 'Where is the Black man President".

Of course, I'm always looking for reasons to draw up Naptali's "Long Journey" and the latest came from the fact that the Paradise Riddim which backed his EXCELLENT tune 'Seven Miles' alongside Luciano was recently showcased on the "Cultural Vibes Vol. 1" release from Not Easy At All Productions and Jahsolidrock and I couldn't even make it to listening through all of the tunes on the riddim without drawing on this GORGEOUS piece from what is apparently about to take top honours of album of the year 2010 in about a month in a half's time.

2. 'Wine Now' by Cali P & Sara Lugo

And, as is the case in most things Naptali-related (at least on my players), the wonderful Sara Lugo can't be far behind and now is no different as next up is 'Wine Now' alongside another big gun around here, Cali P, from the recently released Scrub A Dub Riddim from Hemp Higher & Inspired Music. This tune turned out quite nice, so much so that I've essentially forgotten to spin out the other tunes on the riddim, despite the fact that two of them even feature Achis Reggae favourite Tiwony.

3. 'No Bones, No Blood' by Jah Sun featuring Lutan Fyah & Ras Attitude

I don't think that I like this song as much as I used to (which was a great deal about a year or so ago), but it still well qualifies here. 'No Bones, No Blood' was the only moment on Jah Sun's album, "The Height of Light", that I recall doing some damage on me, despite the fact that the album featured the likes of Prezident Brown, Yami Bolo and Luciano. But it did a MAJOR damage. Hauling in both Ras Attitude and Lutan Fyah to do the WICKED vegetarian anthem is still to be remembered for linking together these two mighty names and Jah Sun held his own as well.

4. 'Les Beaux Jours' by Lindsey Lin's

Apparently one of my favourite Zoukies, Lindsey Lin's has returned in 2010 and is doing some big things for an album which may be on its way this year or next (hopefully next year, I'm not ready this year). So, I'm thinking about what happened the last time we heard from her on 2008's 'A Mon Image' album with the MASSIVE 'Les Beaux Jours'. This one is probably one of the best Zouk songs I've ever heard. I just LOVE it and definitely a pretty girl (who was born in Paris to one parent from Gwada with the other from Nina (and you couldn't come up with a more brilliant background for a Zouk singer, even if you scripted it)) strolling around the video for the tune didn't hurt at all. As I said before: It's music for your eyes.

5. 'Si Tu T'en Vas' by Kaysha

I kind of look at Zouk music like I look at cats - I always just assume that it's female. Male cats pretty much think everything is their litter area and Zouk sang by males is . . . Well clearly it's evil, but there is an exception this RIDICULOUS tune from Kaysha's last album, the double set that was "Forever Young", 'Si Tu T'en Vas'. And yes - That concludes the Zouk portion of this post . . . Unless I can't think of anything else.

6. 'No Time To Gaze' by Sizzla

The possibility exists that, one day, you might come around here and see a list titled 'My Favourite Songs by Sizzla Ever'. I tend to avoid doing such things because, unlike albums, which have a shelf-life of maybe months with my tastes, songs lasts literally MINUTES. So whatever I'd offer you would only be 'some' of my favourites or my favourites 'right now'. Still, one of the tunes which would definitely be in the running for top honours would be 'No Time To Gaze' which is probably one of the best tunes, lyrically, EVER from any artist and it ranks well highly in regards to the finest of Kalonji's best penned gems as well.

7. 'Send A Hell' by Vybz Kartel

A reader (biggup Kelvin) send me an interview featuring Hip-Hop superstar, Jay-Z, where I believe that he was speaking regarding his new album or his still forthcoming album and the interviewer (one of them, the other didn't seem to know what the hell was going on) was pretty happy that Jay-Z had done THREE songs with Vybz Kartel for the album, but they hadn't made it on the finished product. That got me to thinking just how much Kartel's music has changed (as if I needed help to do that) and I noticed that it really wasn't long ago at all when he was still doing GOOD KARTEL-sounding music and not this . . . Sad Rappy shit. Example? Just a couple of years ago don't? 'Send A Hell' - EXPLOSIVE!

8. 'Jah Jah Give Us Life To Live' by The Wailing Souls

I fully intend to end this post with two Soca songs (whatever they are) and that will make this 'turnaround' very distinct because we're going to HEAVY HEAVY Roots Reggae with one of the greatest songs of all time, 'Jah Jah Give Us Life To Live' by The Wailing Souls. Simply put: If you don't like this song, I'm sorry for wasting your time. Now Please leave.

And never come back.


9. 'The Road Show' by Patrice Roberts

"You must have stamina, you must have energy. You must have your cooler with Rum and Hennessy. You must have your partner who feting willingly. And YOU MUST HAVE YOUR RAG WHEN YOU WAVING WITH WE!"

I was almost sure that I had posted this tune not too long ago, but I couldn't find it (of course I didn't search very good, so I probably posted it yesterday). My favourite Soca song at this very moment is 'Road Show' by Patrice Roberts. It's dominating my workout playlist (it's on there eight different times within 90 minutes) and it is just a beautiful thing. Now! We look ahead, the madness is coming and I cannot fucking wait! And you can't either!

10. 'Display' by Fay-Ann Lyons

And finally, I'm giving you a tune with a bit of hardware. It's a TnT Road March winner from about 3000 years ago (2003), 'Display' from Fay-Ann Lyons. The song kind of seems outdated for a Road March because it isn't that kind of deafening deadening HYPENESS that we've heard as of late and because of that, I think it's pretty special in retrospect. It was just a quality quality tune and almost eight years on now and it hasn't lost a step. A MODERN CLASSIC of a tune!

'In The Lion's Den': A Review of "We're Not Alone" by Bless Noble

Although it is the faces and the names of the artists which are on the covers of albums and posters, it is the work of excellent producers which is just as crucial to making music, and arguably even more so, particularly when looked upon from a historical perspective. This is the case in all forms of music where there is just a select group of names who’ve managed to distinguish themselves and when that happens from the standpoint of a producer, the results are almost overly impressive in so many ways. This is well the case in Reggae music as our music, even though it is so global (which even adds to what I’m about to say), is somewhat ‘fractured’, thus it’s very easy to make connections in terms of who worked with whom and who was influenced by whom and with certain producers, their ‘lineages’ are downright ridiculous. There are artists, admittedly, who also have had such an impact in terms of keeping the progression of time rolling in the way of younger talents - the name Bounty Killer immediately comes to mind - But such work, and particularly on that level is few and far between. However, should you name almost any reputable producer, chances are there is a line of artists (and maybe even other producers) who come from that maestro. Of course I’m drawn to my favourite label of all time, Xterminator, and its operator Philip “Fatis” Burrell. Hopefully I need not go too far through the successes of names such as Sizzla Kalonji, Luciano, Mikey General, Turbulence and Chezidek as vocalists who have made a big impact on modern Reggae music and continue to do so and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. What gets even more interesting is when you look at things such as Sizzla’s Judgment Yard and Turbulence’s Higher Trod Family and you have to think that, regardless of their own prominences, they are, in fact, ‘grandchildren’ of Xterminator in a sense. Furthermore you can go through King Jammy’s line and his is one which is far more ‘normal’ because it is his actual progeny and DEFINITELY Donovan Germaine and Penthouse Records who, besides playing a major role with artists such as Buju Banton and even Beres Hammond, also gave to the world both Dave Kelly and Steven ‘Lenky’ Marsden - Pillars of modern Reggae and Dancehall production. Still, I am fairly stressed to find a person quite like Tuff Lion in modern Reggae, whose musical lineage arguably includes the cultivation of the current state of an entire subgenre.

Virgin Islands Reggae. Name a Reggae artist from the Virgin Islands - Go ahead, I’ll give you a moment. WHOEVER you name, if they’re remotely prominent (and I can name you more than a couple who aren’t, but still qualify), they’ve almost certainly worked, in some capacity with the musician/producer/arranger/writer/engineer wizard that is Tuff Lion and it isn’t only artists, most of the producers that I know of have worked with him as well and you’ll find nary an album from VI artists which doesn’t have his name on it. So, when such a man sees talent in someone (and mind you, he’s also seen talent in me and has probably given me the greatest compliment ever from since I began writing), I almost feel it a duty to check out that “someone”. Meet Bless Noble: The latest “someone” Tuff Lion has seen a talent in. I never delete emails (or rarely ever), so I still have it [dated February 26, 2010] - A message sent to me by Tuff Lion where he referred to work done with an “unknown” Bless Noble as being “rich with culture, common sense and good feelings” and that it has “the potential to be a game changer”. Those are well lofty levels to live up to for such an unknown as Bless Noble but, again, given the fact that the Tuff Lion saw and heard something in him, going in my expectations are to the point where if I am not about to hear something TRULY special, then what I am about to hear is something which is just going to be so solid and well put together that something genuinely special isn’t too far off. What little I do know of Noble is that, unsurprisingly, he is a native to St. Croix and apparently he’s pretty young (hopefully older than me, however) but has been on the scene for awhile now. Trying to trace back my memory, I couldn’t actually recall seeing his name on any mixtape or guesting on any album but, perhaps that’s due to Noble’s current locale (I think) being based in the Eastern US, which coincidentally is also the location of the Tuff Lion’s Virginia based Outpost Music Workshop which does nearly all of the instrumentation and production on what is, essentially, Bless Noble’s ‘HELLO’ to the wider Reggae listening world, his debut album, ”We’re Not Alone”. I would tell you to not let the extraterrestrial like title confuse you, because if you take it in that manner what you are going to hear on the album - That STERLING 100% Virgin Islands Reggae sound - won’t exactly match up for you. What will match up however, regardless of what you’re expecting, is the very solid nature of the album, which is emblematic of not only Tuff Lion’s work (and it is TRULY excellent work when a producer can take what is arguably his greatest quality and infuse it into the body of work of just about every artist he works with) but, when done well, the entire scope of Virgin Islands Reggae - While you may not be totally in love with everything you hear (and I’m not), whatever criticisms you may have won’t be for a lack of craft or a lack of effort given to a particular project. For his part, I’m surely not going to attempt to speak for Bless Noble at all, but simply based on his output on ”We’re Not Alone”, I would imagine that he thought a great deal of the opportunity afforded him and it seems to me that he made the most with it as the album proves to be yet another very positive result in a very long line of projects bearing the tag “Produced by Tuff Lion”.

As far as his style, I would say that the artist definitely has elements of both a singer and a chanter. He seems to do both, although I’d probably lean towards straight chanting as being his greatest attribute in terms of his delivery. Also, while I’d say that his command of MELODY isn’t great, what he lacks in that aspect, he more than makes up for in pure INTELLIGENCE as there is some very SMART sounding vibes and messages on this album. Such astuteness immediately makes its presence known from Bless Noble on his very first album, ”We’re Not Alone”, on the track which gets things going ‘Find A Way’. RICH! If I needed to borrow musical money I might beg it from this tune because it is absolutely wealthy with nice material. The tune reveals a very interesting ‘hitch’ that Noble has in terms of his lyrics that I heard and that I previously merely referred to as ‘intelligence’. There’s just something about this song which is definitely on a vibes that I’ve heard before . . . But just a LITTLE off-center in terms of how it is crafted and that’s a good thing that Noble has a different musical take from so many others - Very refreshing. While the opener is clearly a highlight for the album, it is, in my opinion, topped by the second tune, which brings in a big bit of pulsing and force as Bless Noble tells us to make sure to let ‘Meditation Rule’. If I’ve managed to read correctly (and I almost certainly have not) this tune is the album’s first official single and justly so. At its core, it is a praising tune - Giving thanks and praise to His Imperial Majesty - but it takes so many interesting twists and turns to get there, with the unifying and prevailing sentiment being to give thanks and praise and to do so by making sure to be firm in your meditation. For someone like me, I could spend days analyzing the lyrics of this one (“make sure your meditation rule in dis yah meditation school”), but I’ll just leave it by saying that the tune is ultimately my second favourite on the whole of the album. Next in is ‘Eat & Live’ which is another very RIPE song to my ears. It seems as if Bless Noble is trying to focus literally being healthy in the body. He even mentions HIV (“HIV is just a lack of knowledge”) (MOST interesting). But in the way it’s written you can take the ‘food’ of the song as food for the brain and not necessarily the body (or you can take both of those as being the same thing!). So, for people like me who absolutely live to be overly-analytical, the first third of this album will definitely keep us ‘eating’ for much time to come.

As I said, it was a completely evident general level of intelligence which struck me from Bless Noble on ”We’re Not Alone” and this is never more apparent to my ears than on the album’s finest moment altogether, ‘Road To Perdition’.

“Under attack
Babylon under attack
For the youth that they stuck
On the guillotine rack
Under attack
Babylon under
Thunder. Lightenin
From The Most High cherubim”

Theoretically it is a song not unlike hundreds, if not thousands, that you’ve heard before - With the construct of babylon headed for its impending doom - But Noble just adds the appropriate amount of himself to the vibes to make them go in such a way that it literally sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before (even the title, although pretty obvious, is just so refreshingly different). And on top of that, from a strictly sonic degree, it is a lovely tune and one of the most pleasing on the album. HUGE HUGE tune!

I was very interested in hearing the title track here and increasingly so after spinning through just a few tunes and coincidentally, in terms of the message, it actually follows ‘Road To Perdition’ in a sense. What Bless Noble seems to be saying with the track, which was so important to him that he named his album after it, is that because there is this ultimate force which is with ‘us’ that babylon shall soon reach its corrupted end. It’s such a full song, however, that I could play with this one and have fun and I would definitely suggest you do just that before making up your mind about how you feel on it. I’d also say the same about ‘Already High’ one of the best tunes on the album, although the pace of that tune probably makes it more directly appreciable. The tune is yet another very unique one because I approach it about to label it the ’obligatory herbalist tune’ on ”We’re Not Alone", but there is nothing ’standard’ about this tune. Noble literally seems to LEAP the song out of its normal bounds by something as simple as the chorus.

“I’m already so high
And you want to take me down”

To me, that’s a social statement because he’s using against those who fight against herb, but he does it so casually that you almost miss the significance of it and the subsequent tune built around it is just as nice. And speaking of casually mighty lyrics, on ‘Vital Draw’, which is absolutely brilliant, finds Noble going in a very Vaughn Benjamin-esque direction (you can literally skip to any point during the tune and hear just a random, powerfully poignant lyric). And the album ends with ‘Nothing Yet’, which has a riddim which grew on me very quickly - The thing is LUSH! The gorgeous one-drop composition provides a perfect setting for Bless Noble to efficiently end the album by tell the corrupt system and its leaders that the best is yet to come!

I saved two songs to mention last because I feel that they kind of go together to a degree because, at least ostensibly, they are the ‘love songs’ of the album (but of course, that doesn’t mean the same thing to Bless Noble that it does to almost everyone else). First is ‘Destiny’, which is probably my least favourite tune on the album and the second songs is ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’. In the case of the former, the problem I have with the song is that it seems to lack some serious FLARE to it and when you take that and compare it to the latter, which is actually supposed to be the kind of ‘lamenting’ love tune of the two, you hear the difference. Definitely ‘Destiny’ isn’t a BAD song (no song on the album is), but I think that as Bless Noble goes along he might attempt to work on doing more with melodies, particularly over Tuff Lion riddims which require the artist to put forth their absolute best, each and every time out.

Overall, definitely call Bless Noble the latest fantastic find from Tuff Lion and, even more importantly, the latest in a loooooooooong line of top notch talents to emerge from out of the VI. As I said, the album is really on a heavy Reggae vibes, so while I wouldn’t particularly recommend it to listeners who are new to the genre in general, I would also probably say that it would really help if you’re more familiar with Virgin Islands Reggae as well. Also as I said, Noble really packs on the intelligence so, a ‘newer’ listener in general may just be completely lost (I do this everyday and I had to REALLY dig into ‘Nothing Yet’ to grasp it), as where a more experienced and mature head should, after a certain amount of time, see Bless Noble and ”We’re Not Alone” for the potential goldmine that they actually are. I’ll be very interested in watching Noble’s progression as well. It’s so interesting that he makes the type of music that he makes and, apparently, is situated in the eastern US, despite the fact that the hotbeds of audiences for his vibes are in the Caribbean, of course, and in the western US - So watching him go along, specifically in terms of popularity, should be something to see indeed as, perhaps he can increase the genre’s visibility or perceived visibility in his region. Yes. He’s that talented and I think he’ll get even better. Well done.

Rated: 4/5
Outpost Music Workshop
2010
CD & Digital

Purchase Exclusively @ BlessNoble.com

The Headscratchers

Chances are that if you’ve purchased more than . . . Two or three albums or so, you’ve experienced this - You’re really looking forward to it and you start playing it a little and what happens? All good common sense that you have tells you that it isn’t very good and you become instantly disappointed, but what do you do? You fill in the gaps and you either convince yourself that it is good or, you put it down to return to it later. We’ve all been there. It is the musical equivalent to FINALLY linking up with that special someone you’ve had your eyes on for soooooooooo long, only to find out that something isn’t quite right when you get their clothes off, so say your eyes or, most regrettably, your nose [Don’t lie, you’ve been there as well]. Perhaps more interesting, however (at least in the music sense), is when you do open up that new album and pop it in (there’s a joke in here somewhere, I’m sure) and your brain slowly begins to seize up because it’s not quite sure what to think. These are albums which, for some ridiculous reason or another, be they good or bad, just . . . Don’t quite add up to even remotely decent sense. They may not be really bad (although they usually are), but they are most certainly odd. These are the ‘standouts’, the ‘special albums’, and, in most cases, the ‘vibrationally challenged’ - I submit for your approval a few moments of my own like this. Albums which make very little sense: The Headscratchers.

{note: Although there're one or two instances, I tried to avoid glaring crossover attempts}
{note 2: Although there is one instance (but it is legit and it adds to the puzzle), I also attempted to avoid Charm/Penitentiary/Rude Boy releases}
{note: 3: Albums are listed in no particular order}
{note 4: Biggup Dale Cooper}

Sizzla - “Rise To The Occasion” & “Soul Deep” [Greensleeves - 2003, 2005]

The Twins. Okay so, my first entry in this post is a bit of a no-brainer as just a half decade ago, Sizzla Kalonji, alongside the then burgeoning (but clearly skilled) Don Corleon, completed a set of two very odd albums (even for him), ”Rise To The Occasion” and ”Soul Deep” (which I’m fond of calling ‘Show Love’ for some reason).

The first of the two, in retrospect was and remains the more popular of the duo. It spawned hits such as the title track which was the biggest of them all, ‘Give Me A Try’ and ‘It’s Burning’, which is now probably my favourite tune here - But damn! See track #11 for pretty much everything you need to hear here as evidenced for extraterrestrial behaviour. ‘In The Mood’ is cheesy and dusty cabaret sounding . . . Stuff and it is probably mathematically incorrect as well. There’s also ‘Nice & Lovely’ which I think I used to like (I’m sorry) and the very slow and child-like vibed ‘Give Praises’, which sounds like something that I could’ve made on my daughter’s keyboard. ‘I Was Born’ was a minor hit of sorts, I can’t stand that song and it’s odd. ‘Know Yourself’, ‘The One’ and then almost completely random ‘riddim work’ tacked on near the end. Oh and if that weren’t enough - On my own personal copy - The sleeve was bigger than the case so just looking at it there is this permanent wrinkle in the cover when it is cased. How fitting!

As for ”Soul Deep”, while as a complete unit, it was probably better than ‘Rise’ and not quite as outlandish, but certainly it earns its spot on this list. The good stuff? The biggest hit here was probably , ‘Be Strong’, which was a hit the year before the album dropped on Corleon’s MASSIVE Drop Leaf Riddim and while I don’t particularly like it anymore, I definitely used to, so I’ll give credit where it is due. I do like ‘Where Are You Running To’, probably now more than ever and ‘Show Me’ is another very strong selection as is ‘Why’ (although should you ask me about that in an hour or so, I might not think so). The rest of the album? While not complete RUBBISH tunes like ‘Good Morning’, the useless ‘Girl Come To See Me’, that R&B song, ‘All I Want’ alongside Morgan Heritage, the praising dance song ‘Mount Zion’, the . . . . I don’t know the adjective ‘Love You More’ and the closer, ‘Push & Shove’, over the DOMINANT Tighty Tighty Riddim - NOPE! Good moments here and there surely, but they just as surely were perplexing.

In total, the albums still, surprisingly, remain rather popular. ”Rise To The Occasion” did quite well commercially, if I recall correctly and just going through ”Soul Deep”, I was very surprised at how many of these songs I remembered by the letter of the lyrics as I haven’t drawn on this one maybe in a couple of years or so now. But they were odd highlights on what has been a most odd trip through the discography of Sizzla Kalonji.

Sizzla - “The Overstanding” [KOCH Records - 2006]

The Showoff. The backstory of Sizzla’s foray into the wonderful world of ‘mainstream’ music, ”The Overstanding”, shouldn’t require too much explaining (and if it does, I’m sure you can find it somewhere else), but the basics were that Sizzla, somehow and someway (probably because he’s the greatest of all time) attracted the attentions of Hip-Hop ‘mogul’ (I hate that word) Damon Dash who inked up the chanter to put together this album for, again, the mainstream music world. Of course this was impossible to do, in retrospect, but I give them good marks for effort as the idea to include previous hits of the artist was a good one, I think. The weirdness, of course, came when they went ahead and re-recorded each and every single one of them. So you get unfortunately new renditions of songs like ‘Solid As A Rock’, the previously mentioned ‘Give Me A Try’, ‘Just One Of Those Days’, Thank U Mamma’ and even ‘Black Woman & Child’. I’m a fan and so are you so we would’ve liked the original more, obviously, but would it have sold better with them? Obviously not. ”The Overstanding” did have ‘Take Myself Away’, which was a score and it did bring in new fans as well, but I most remember it as an idea which wasn’t the greatest, was carried out decently and now exists in the annals of, again, the very ‘colourful’ discography of Sizzla Kalonji, which we‘ll revisit again before this list is done.

Bushman - “My Meditation” [Stingray - 2003]

For lack of effort. Ostensibly, there isn’t much out of the ordinary surrounding Bushman’s ”My Meditation” album (save for the fact that it was, essentially, a re-release of an earlier album, ”A Better Place”). Produced by the very reputable and respected McLeod bros. of Stingray from out of the UK, the album was one of Bushman’s earlier pieces and it was pretty popular in its day (in both forms). But it was inherently FLAWED and in the worst possible way in his instance. What happened? I recall reading an interview with the Bushman where he related a story of his manager setting up a session in the UK and that he so did not want to go that while he did go, he just wasn’t into the vibes and didn’t do his best. And you know what? You can hear it. Bushman’s HEAVY baritone vocals are some of the most impressive that you’ll hear in the landscape of modern Reggae music - There isn’t a tune on this album, in either form, which features those sterling vocals. NOT A SINGLE ONE! Things hit the complete bottom when ‘Back Weh Vampire’ rolls in, which sounds like it did roll in while Bushman was rolling in his bed asleep. The Country music loving Bushman also doesn’t help things when he draws a Kenny Rogers tune, ‘Love Will Turn You Around’, but I’ll tell you the strangest aspect of this most forgettable piece - Had he sang it GOOD, like he usually does, it almost surely would have been a GREAT album. But he didn’t and it’s the worst album he’s ever done, by far.

Louie Rankin - “Lethal Weapon” [Atlantic - 1993]

All in a name. You’ll notice that I didn’t use my usual ‘of the last decade’ caveat in regards to this list and I did so purely to be able to include this one album. Louie Rankin is an artist who is destined to probably be best remembered for his roles in the films “Shottas” and “Belly”. And if you don’t watch movies and know him for his music, then certainly you’ll recall his biggest hit, ‘Typewriter’. And that’s cool. It’s cool because it distracts you from remembering that he also had a decent hit in a tune called ‘Lethal Weapon’, which might lead you to MOST UNFORTUNATELY remembering that he also had an album named after that song which may be the worst Dancehall album of all time. It was bad that it was weird. Take away the title track and maybe ‘Buenos Dias’, and the rest of the album’s twelve tunes are rubbish. And not only that but you see the title and the title track was a typical ‘violent’ tune (“lethal weapon, got the lethal weapon. Every time mi come DJ run up and dung”) - But the Rankin spent the vast majority of the album discussing his bedroom prowess. At its frightening worst there was the BARRY WHITE inspired ‘Put On Your Negligee’ and its awful remix. Lethal indeed . . . To everyone unlucky enough to stumble upon it.

Norris Man - “Hey Woman” [JetStar - 2004]

The no-crossover. Typically when we say the word ‘crossover’ in reference to Reggae music, it means that an artist is making music which isn’t of his/her usual genre and is aimed at garnering new attention. Fair enough. Rare is it, however, that we see an album which although it has ‘crossover’ material on it, it’s pretty clearly meant for Reggae fans. Such was the case on Norris Man’s ”Hey Woman”. It is an R&B album and it isn’t a very good one and everything I recall reading about it used to talk about how bad it was. I don’t think it HORRIBLE, but it was one of the most truly bizarre albums I have EVER heard. Norris Man’s greatness comes when he locks his very unusual vocals on a riddim (usually a one-drop) and is able to almost overwhelm his listener with EMOTION that we not only ignore that his voice isn’t the greatest, but the fact that it isn’t makes the moment even better. When you take it and you do to it what is done on this Cynergy produced album (ESPECIALLY on ‘She Don’t Need Nobody’) it . . . Well it . . . Is counterproductive . . . To sanity.

Busy Signal - “D.O.B.” [VP Records, 2010]

Busy being Busy. A few months on and I’m still enjoying what I’m hearing from Busy Signal’s latest studio album, ”D.O.B.”, and I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon which is different from most other albums here and it also goes to show, like I said, that “odd” doesn’t always translate into “BAD”, musically speaking. Busy Signal used to be an artist who, while he always displayed an exceptionally high talent level, didn’t always display the type of ‘WOW’ which it seemed like he could do on every tune. Those days are long gone. The Busy of today is one who doesn’t know how to back off an idea and, because of that, he’s clearly the most inventive artist in the Dancehall today and one of the most such of all time at this point. ”D.O.B.” found him at the heights of his creativity. When hardcore Dancehall circa 2009-2010 meets PHIL COLLINS, meets THE COMMODORES and meets ELVIS CRESPO. You’ve gone into some very odd territory and Busy did just that (he also ‘met’ Katy Perry shortly before the album was released). Add to that some pretty odd ‘standard’ Dancehall such as the album’s finest song, ‘Opera’, ‘Hair Dresser Shop’ and that far too enthused tune ‘Nuh Fraid’ (and you listen to the album going straight through - Notice the HUGE change after that song and the melancholy ‘Peace Reign’ which follows it) and what you have is an album which had a SERIOUS problem with boundaries.

Anthony B - “Untouchable” [Togetherness Records - 2004]

Writing on the wall. Despite the fact that it was probably one of his highest profile albums to date, it probably wasn’t a very good sign for ”Untouchable” by Anthony B when he was to be seen, very uncharacteristically just kind of hanging out on a yacht in the album’s liners. Certainly what followed wasn’t going to be one for the sufferers. There wasn’t going to be a great deal of burning of babylon and the shores of Rome (does it have shores???) were safe for now. But there was Bone Crusher! And Snoop Dog! And Blaqthoven (who!)! Yes. This was probably Anthony B’s worst album to date and it’ll probably (and hopefully) remain so into perpetuity and it was completely ODD! There were remakes: ‘Someone Loves You’ (which was one of the best songs here actually) (alongside Aisha) and ‘Lollipop’ which was absolutely awful. There was fluff and R&B: ‘Safe Sex’, ‘Love I More’. And there was very odd and bad sounding Hip-Hop. The only redeeming qualities to the album was the main attraction, ‘Lighter’ alongside the always welcomed Wyclef Jean and the decent ‘Sweet For A Moment’, but despite the fact that Anthony B has been one of the most consistent artists of all time, this album proves that the occasional lowlight even strikes in for the best of them. UNTOUCHABLE INDEED!

Jahdan Blakkamoore - “Buzzrock Warrior” [Gold Dust - 2009]

Mistaken identity. I was really on the border about whether or not to include ”Buzzrock Warrior” on this list because when you REALLY think about it, it’s not that weird, itself. The album is a Hip-Hop/that UK stuff album and there’s nothing wrong with that . . . Unless, of course, you were expecting a Reggae album and we were. ‘Solo Jahdan Blakkamoore album’ sounds downright appetizing at this point (and apparently, I won’t have to wait very long from this writing to get it again in ”Babylon Nightmare”). It sounds like you just can’t go wrong with is - If it’s Reggae music. ”Buzzrock Warrior” wasn’t, but apparently the people at iTunes believed otherwise because they called it the best Reggae album of 2009. Not a weird album, weird circumstances, but weird enough to qualify it.

Al Pancho - “Righteous Men” [Minor 7, Flat 5]

Featuring. Thinking a ton about the final selection on this list got me to thinking in the direction of this most unusual release. Okay, there’s more than just a strange album at play here. The first thing you should know is that the label which released ”Righteous Men” by Al Pancho back in 2003 has gone on to become one of my least favourite labels since then and I was REALLY high on some of their stuff a few years back (and still am in a few cases, particularly Anthony B’s ”My Hope” album which is arguably his best album ever and CLEARLY the best thing the label ever did). The second thing you should know is that, for some reason, I am just not a fan of Al Pancho’s. I can’t explain it, I’ve heard a great deal of his music (obviously, now three albums deep) and it just doesn’t do much for me. So maybe some of that might explain how he could drop a debut album featuring the likes of JAH MASON, NATURAL BLACK, LUCIANO, LUTAN FYAH, JUNIOR KELLY and even BOUNTY KILLER and it just not resonate with me very much at all! Two songs here, ‘Start All Over Again’ alongside the Mason and ‘My Reputation’ with Lutan Fyah, are very good. The others? If they began to disappear from the back cover of this album and off of the disc itself, I probably wouldn’t even notice. Why? I have no idea!

Bunji Garlin - “Revelation” [VP Records - 2002]

Can you blame them? Looking back, Bunji Garlin’s first two albums, ”Chronicles” and ”Revelation”, just weren’t his best material. No one cares about the former because it’s pretty much long gone at this point (although I own a CD copy of it), but the second one was actually a VP album! It’s not hard to see why, looking back. The album dropped in 2002 which is the same year Garlin took his first of now four Soca Monarch titles (tying with Iwer George) and despite the fact that it rose before he actually took the crown (I THINK), clearly Garlin was something NEW and refreshing in Soca music. His style was one which was easily transferable to the majority of VP’s fans (Reggae fans) and listening through the album, they clearly aimed him at doing music which Reggae fans would find more enjoyable. Of course the problem with doing that is that you risk losing the FUN, which is what happened here. This one isn’t horrible actually, but I place ”Revelation” on this list of most strange moments because it managed to do something which just should NEVER have happened: With just a few exceptions, it made Bunji Garlin kind of boring (fortunately VP would get the mix right a few years later with the big shot that was ”Global”).

Spragga Benz - “Prototype”
Mad Anju - “Mad Bwoy Anju”
Sizzla - “Addicted”
[Drop Di Bass Records - 2008]

Hello. Hello. Hello. Thinking back and despite the outstanding year currently being had by an amalgam of the oft-mentioned (at least around these parts) Jahsolidrock & Not Easy At All Productions, I cannot think of a label in recent memory which made a LARGER display for an introduction than Drop Di Bass back in 2008. The label, over the course of a few months (I THINK) released three different albums from three Reggae/Dancehall veterans (two of whom were bonafide stars and the other was a debut album), Spragga Benz, Mad Anju and Sizzla Kalonji. That, itself, was pretty damn peculiar if you ask me, but when you got into the actual music, the wackiness surrounding the albums became less and less so.

Because Spragga Benz’ ”Prototype” was his first album in quite some time (that didn’t require you to literally mail your first born child to Japan in order to purchase), it immediately grabbed my attention. But it was pretty bad and just had some very strange occurrences, such as the fact that the album ends in three consecutive tunes, ‘Frigg Ya’, ‘Number One’ and ‘Come Home’, which featured Spragga alongside Sizzla. It was actually ‘average’, but average Dancehall is, of course, the absolute worse thing in the world.

For his part, Mad Anju, having been around from forever, clearly did the best out of the three, but that isn’t saying much and his debut album, "Mad Bwoy Anju”, probably would have been even better if not for all of that damn music! Yes! ”Mad Bwoy Anju” sans any riddim whatsoever, would have been better in my opinion. I don’t get the opportunity to talk about him too much, but Mad Anju is one of the most talented Dancehall artists of all time. Without qualifications, AT ALL. He’s that good and the fact it took him this long to have an album is just a testament his . . . Desire to do other stuff besides deejaying. So, lyrical and delivery brilliance does abound, but it is trapped in this thing. Two combinations alongside Vincy Soca poster boy (one of which features Sizzla also), at first seemed just nice and experimental, but in retrospect it now seems not so good (experiment didn’t work too well). And the production was just kind of adequate throughout. Anju, master class of a DJ, did well, but yeah shave the music and you would have had a real winner and when do ever say that about an album, much less Dancehall.

And finally there was Sizzla with ”Addicted”. I’ll make this simple: In terms of albums where there was an actual effort given to make the project into something - this is probably his worst album ever.

And it should also be said that if ”Addicted” didn’t have a title track, before I went back to spin these albums for the sake of writing this, I couldn’t have named you a SINGLE TRACK off of any of the three. Now maybe that says a lot about me or maybe this shit was just strange (and how they haven't delivered an album from Calibe (who would sound good on this stuff) is just ridiculous)!

Chezidek - “Rising Sun” [VP Records - 2005]

The Gold Standard. I know I mentioned that this list wasn’t put together with any type of order in mind, but I did specifically save the ‘greatest’ for last. Probably once a year or eighteen months or so, I pull out Chezidek’s ”Rising Sun” and give it a THOROUGH listen because I’m still convinced that, even five and a half years on, it will be different. But not only is it never different. Every time I hear it, it’s like hearing it for the first time . . . Chezidek is one of my favourite artists, it was produced by Xterminator (my absolute favourite label, EVER) and there’s nothing funny going on. There aren’t any Hip-Hop tunes - It’s almost completely 100% Roots Reggae - But I don’t get it! There’s just something about this album which just doesn’t quite add up. I don’t know if I like it, I don’t know if I hate it. I cannot tell you the best song, I can’t tell you its worst either. It is a musical brain lock of the highest caliber. And I don’t think I was the only one as I don’t think I’ve ever read ANYTHING remotely decent (in terms of how it is written) about, negative or positive. It’s almost like the sun never rose and it never existed. But I’ll keep trying. Why? I don’t know.

"Digital Madness!": A Look at The Absence of Soca Music In The Digital Age

"Don't tell me 'it's coming'. Don't tell me 'hold on'"
'Open The Gate' by Shurwayne Winchester

I find it so interesting that almost every time I read articles in regards to CD sales, the numbers are becoming bleaker and bleaker, but it certainly doesn’t appear that the music industry as we know it is going anywhere. In terms of Reggae music, specifically, I remember last year all the talk about some of our biggest and brightest names such as Mavado, Tanya Stephens, Lady Saw and others had gotten to the point where actual physical CD sales were in digits of the very low thousands and, more usually, the high hundreds and nothing more and everything I’ve heard from 2010 thus far, with names like Capleton, Busy Signal, Buju Banton and Luciano, seems to suggest that the trend has continued. But again, it certainly doesn’t seem like Reggae music as we know it is headed anywhere either. Quite the contrary - Each and every week I see more and more labels popping up and more and more music being made in different corners of the world.

What these labels seem to have in common (amongst other things) is that - Being that I pay a TON of attention to the area - They all seem to be quite good and consistent with making their materials available worldwide through the digital medium and I don’t even think I need to tell my readers just how wonderful and convenient the ability to be able to not only buy pretty much whatever you want with just a few clicks is, but also to be able to pick and choose on a particular album with what you want and don’t want. When you were a child, you DREAMED of such a day and while mankind is seemingly still working on perfecting that ‘flying car’ thing, the age of ‘press button music’ is here and it is amazing, isn’t it? Almost every genre has thrived within the new arena and I’m sure it will continue to grow, even with Reggae as there’re not only more and more music making companies popping up constantly, but more and more companies who are lining up to distribute the work of these labels (and specifically these labels) digitally throughout the world (biggup Zojak).

Of course, I also pay attention to a few other genres such as Zouk (generally included in that ridiculous “World Music” category) and Zouk has definitely flourished on the digital scene as well. I always think that I underestimate the genre, as a whole, and I still think that I do because every remotely interesting Zouk album that I’ve come across is digitally available and, in some cases, is available in multiple editions. But I try to remind myself that not only is the music popular in the Caribbean, but seemingly in various other places such as, of course, France, portions of Afrika and even Portugal and the States which are all hotbeds for the music and stops along the tours of the genre’s biggest names (and apparently Japan loves Goldee as well).

So, with Reggae covered and Zouk covered, what’s left??? Soca. Soca, Soca, Soca . . . I have a number of theories as to exactly why one of my favourite genres of music has yet to develop into the digital market and seemingly isn’t on the fast track to doing so. The first and most prevalent, in my opinion, is the fact that the music itself, although less so these days, is ‘seasonal’. Soca music accompanies Carnival and most unfortunately Carnival isn’t technically year-round, so what happens (or at least the assumed perception of what happens) is that you get the REALLY big songs from almost every relevant artist at the same time of the year which probably isn’t going to be too attractive to a label - Having to, essentially, compete with itself if it locks up more than one artist (while competition is apart of the basis for the music and the season). And also there is the issue of the songs being released timely, but at this point if you grab them in the same year, I don’t think that’s much of an issue at all. What most likely is a concern, on the other hand, is the growth of the music. Soca music, as a whole, has yet to make the same consistent progress as Reggae has and, in retrospect, neither did/has Calypso and it seemingly exists as more of ‘underground’ genre.

Destra Garcia - They call her Bacchanal

But that’s SHIT! If Soca actually is ‘underground’ (and it is in the global sense), then it is BY FAR the most developed of underground genres that we have today - Oh and it is fucking wonderful! Not only that but with names such as Machel Montano, Alison Hinds, Bunji Garlin, Iwer George, Destra [pictured] and Fay-Ann Lyons, just in Trinidad, it has STARS with star qualities and star appeal which is routinely exhibited and not only in the physical, but within the music as well. And the music! I am a Dancehall head at heart and hopefully when they bury me (or do whatever they’re going to do with me after I die) I will still be so, but I have to admit that there is not a single greater adrenaline rush of SOUND than that which is found in Soca music. The music also has a future and the one thing which does seem to grow within it is the talent level of its artists as you find names, younger and younger who seem to that start potential within the music.

But with all of that being said Soca has been all but invisible on this growing digital scene. Okay - There’re problems today, but if I can get a most random and obscure Sizzla album from a decade ago when this ‘whole digital thing’ was still in the “damn wouldn’t that be so nice” stage, then why can’t I get one from just a few years ago from someone like Destra. And not only that but let’s look in the current:

By my own (hopefully reliable, but certainly passionate) research, just taking a look at Road March Winners (hopefully you know what that is) over the past decade - of the last ten Trinidad Carnival Road March champions, only three of them [Fay-Ann’s ‘Get On’ (2008), ‘Display’ also by Fay-Ann (2003) and ‘Trinidad’ by Naya George] are widely available digitally and ALL of those come via VP Records’ ”Soca Gold” series. Of course that also means that only one Road March winning song from the past seven years on the biggest stage the genre has to offer, TnT Carnival, is widely available and that (even if I’m off with my count) is WRONG! Similar searches for all of the Soca hotspots (with the exception of Barbados) reveals similar results and usually worse (far far worse). Just this year we had a breakout winner, ‘Palance’ from JW & Blaze which is/was wildly popular and, in my opinion, that is the basis for the being able to go into the ‘pick and choose’ type of shopping offered by the digital medium - Getting these REALLY BIG songs and it is nowhere to be found - Neither are ‘Meet Super Blue’, the jewel of Fay-Ann’s magical 2009 season, any of Machel Montano’s nor Shurwayne Winchester’s mid 2000’s work.


Montano’s case is really interesting because, as I alluded to, he is one of the genuine stars of the genre and his lengthy career has seen him make collaborations with international stars such as Wyclef Jean, Lil’ Jon and Pitbull from the Hip-Hop world and many others as well. Still, the only widely available material of his ended in the Xtatik years with the albums ”Heavy Duty”, ”Footsteps” and ”Any Minute Now” from VP Records more than a decade ago. The same label is behind the only two available from Bunji Garlin, ”Revelation” from 2002 and the relatively recent ”Global” from five years later. And in both cases, their digital absences aren’t from a lack of available material as Bunji has now eight albums to his credit (having released one every year from 2001-’08) and Machel’s activity can be best summed up with the title of his most recent release, ”Album 34”. Shurwayne Winchester does have one album available of his several ”Under My Spell” which originated in 2002 and the Tobago native has since had at least six releases with his last three being fairly high profile. My beloved Destra? None of her four are anywhere to be found, none of Iwer’s (I don’t know how many he has) are either and Fay-Ann Lyons has yet to even bless us with a collection of her work.

I would, in contrast, like to speak of the good things to be found in the digital world of Soca (as tiny and shriveled as it is) because there have been a few artists and occurrences relatively recently which have made rather shocking appearances. Most recently, of course, there was rising Tortola star, Jalena, who kind of turned into an entrepreneur and put out her own album, ”The Jam Sessions”. The move was similar to those made by the likes of Nadia Batson with her album ”Caribbean Girl”, former Vincy Road March King, Bomani with ”Deep” and the "Method to The Madness” from the big Antiguan band, Taxik, as well. Furthermore, there have been label releases for the likes of Berbice from out of Grenada, Lil’ Rick and most recently (and probably most surprisingly too) Trini lyrics machines, Ms. Alysha. Alysha’s case is interesting because her album came via Da Mastamind who is EXTREMELY active with multiple digital releases each and every year. There’s also Alison Hinds who has both of her albums, ”Soca Queen" [pictured] and 2010’s ”Caribbean Queen” available now and have been available from since they were both released, and a bit of other material as well (like three singles). What I don’t like about that, at least in theory, is that it is so random that it’s almost a matter of LUCK and being in the ‘right place at the right time’ which brings these about. Certainly FAR more people know of Alison Hinds than ant of these other artists that I’ve named but, as I just said, the artists on her level haven’t had the same success (and neither has her former group, Square One).


Perhaps the most active and successful Soca act in terms of making their material digitally available has been Bajan Soca super group, Krosfyah. The band has managed to make the vast majority of its large discography instantly available across the globe and, to my knowledge they did so with one of the very few entities (and maybe the only) which exist to take Soca music into the ‘new world’, Faluma. The German based (I THINK) label will always have my respect (despite the fact that they absolutely refuse to give the world the "Rocket Launcher") for what they’ve done with just a small portion of the music. Besides dealing with Krosfyah, they’ve done similar things for one of my favourite acts, Tizzy and the boys of El-A-Kru, the legendary Mighty Sparrow and former Montserrat Soca Monarch, Scrappy. They also have a shop where you can buy their releases and although it isn’t the finest, they do distribute the music readily and it is available on iTunes, Amazon, Juno etc and, at least in my opinion, they managed to release arguably the most important digital release in Soca in 2010 in ”Carnival 2010” which was an obviously just thrown together compilation which featured absolutely nothing but MAGIC from both Bunji Garlin’s and Fay-Ann Lyons’ 2010 singles (including both of their biggest hits, ‘Brave’ and ‘True Lies’, respectively, which would have both been lost to the digital world otherwise, without a doubt).


In terms of online shops specializing (or merely dealing with) Soca music, if you’re REALLY looking one can definitely find some great material and do so at three places in particular. The first is, Trinidadtunes.com. As far as I know, it is the digital site of one which has been one of my favourites for years to research, Trinidadmusicstore.com. Trinidad Tunes is THE place to go if you want brand new Soca and you want it RIGHT NOW. They have other things as well (even a pretty nice Reggae section), but to make the point - If you wanted a copy of ‘Palance’, ‘Meet Super Blue’, Machel’s and Patrice’s ‘Band of De Year’ (and the album named after it), it is ALL available at Trinidad Tunes as are quite a few of Bunji Garlin’s albums AND others from the likes of Winchester, Dawg E. Slaughter and even Destra’s two most recent albums ”Hott” and ”Soca Or Die”. That is the place to go. There is also a relatively new site, Iribbeantunes.com, which has different things, but still very new and fresh. For example, Krosfyah released two albums just this year, ”The Experience”, which is their new album and the greatest hits compilation, ”20th Anniversary Special Edition”, both of which are available on the site (and maybe exclusively) right now. They’re far more in the norm in terms of commercial sites, as opposed to Trinidad Tunes (which is completely legit as far as I know) who kind of puts together very attractive purchases whether or not they exist in any pre-planned sense. And the third site to check is NuMusicZone.com (which I think has some type of ties to Dominica for some reason), which isn’t even a Soca specific site (and neither is Iribbean Tunes, for that matter) but does have various nice and exclusive pieces such as the 2010 album from reigning two time Antigua Soca monarch, Tian Winter (and it also may be the only site in the world to offer an Aima Moses album digitally as well).

Going forth, the best possible thing would be a project which takes the best of all three of these sites: The musical accessibilities of Trinidad Tunes and Nu Music Zone and the ‘commerciality’ of Iribbean Tunes (and the wide reach of Faluma, as well) - Which would be the absolute best for the genre and perhaps the mere fact that they all do exist and have for quite some time (seemingly successfully) is a great thing. But, with as far as the music has developed ‘on its own’ and with the great deal of BEAUTY and EMOTION and PAGEANTRY it possesses, you can’t help but think that it should have already passed where it is. Or maybe that’s just me, but there’s just something about this . . . Momentous vibes that make millions and millions of people jump for no earthly fucking purpose other than just because it seems like the thing to do. There’s something so special about that and I wonder if people can imagine just how helpful it might be to the music if someday someone from the UK and someone from the States can logon to the “Soca” pages of iTunes or Amazon and the faces of Machel Montano, Destra Garcia and Bunji Garlin plastered up with their discographies on sale.

What a beautiful day that will be. But for now, it still seems far off.

'Music From The Highest Region': A Review of "Cultural Vibes Vol. 1" by Various Artists

2010 - How sweet you’ve been. With just about a month and a half remaining in the year it certainly begins now a time of reflection of all the wonderful and not very wonderful moments that we’ve had and very shortly people like me will begin to compile lists of the most and less memorable moments of the year and people like you will begin to tell us how stupid we are. How beautiful! Of course, we’ll talk about things such as Artist of The Year (I-Octane) and Album of The Year ( ”Long Journey” by Naptali) and song of the year (’Cross Me Heart’ by Junior X) and so forth and another very critical declaration of 2010 will definitely be Reggae Label of The Year and ‘New’ or ‘Breakout’ Reggae Label of The Year. We speak so much about artist development that I probably overlook not only the roles that labels play in that very crucial process, but also the maturation process which occurs for the labels themselves. One thing that I feel is so important in said process, and perhaps even more so than in the case of the artists, is attracting attention and gaining a hype. As ridiculous as it sounds, such a thing is probably even more important than actually doing ‘good’ work (because “good” means something different to everyone) because labels oftentimes have such a presumably long shelf life that creating and continuing to gain attention for your projects, and doing so immediately, is almost immeasurably important in that instance. It certainly does help if you can do something “good” as well and attention does come from doing good work, but if we were to take these criteria and apply them to labels in 2010, while there are still the reigning big boys of the genre, we start to look in a few new and refreshingly different directions. Certainly not in the discussion too much in previous years, we begin to look at entities such as the UK based Necessary Mayhem and all of the good work done by Curtis Lynch Jr. and company as they now join the likes of Irie Ites (who’ve had another exceptional year) and Special Delivery and Pow Pow Movement and others as THE reigning class of Reggae music in Europe. And sneaking in right behind Necessary Mayhem we look towards a most fascinating label collaboration between two names from out of the suddenly Reggae RICH Netherlands, Jahsolidrock and Not Easy At All Productions who, together, have come up with an OUTSTANDING 2010.

Although the case could well be made (and I’ve made it quite recently) that the genre of Reggae music is one which is still largely focused on the production and promotion of singles, as opposed to albums, if you do what these two labels did in 2010, then consider the important step of gaining notoriety for your work to be a completed one. The first step, of course, was the MAMMOTH ”Judgement Time” by Chezidek which was both EXCEPTIONAL and attention-grabbing as well and just very recently (officially yesterday, I believe), the labels teamed up again for the first album since the turn of the century from former Israel Vibration front man, the much revered Apple Gabriel, ”Teach Them Right” (although reportedly Gabriel now has problems with that union) (more on that coming never). So, you have a potentially big thing going here and you have a Reggae label as well . . . What next??? Well, as was in the days of old (like four or five years ago), you really weren’t FULLY going as a label until you had actually managed to link together random, yet strong material to put down a full fledged compilation album. And while (I THINK) Jahsolidrock and Not Easy At All have released riddim projects in the past (be it together or as single labels), the “compilation” I’m speaking of is the multiple riddim, multiple artists and multiple vibes type of project which stands best as pretty much a showcase of your company’s output. And apparently they agreed with me which is way, at least presumably, they’re sending 2010 out on its ass with just such a compilation, ”Cultural Vibes Vol. 1”. Surely the title could use a bit of work (but that cover is very very nice), but I’m pretty sure that the same fans who were well delighted by the labels’ prior collaborative work (yours truly included) - Which was well highlighted by the fact that what it was, was just some SERIOUSLY beautiful and HEAVY Roots Reggae music - Will rather easily find something here which appeals to them on the same level (and I’m sure of that because some of that exact material is here as well). This release, does have a bit more in the way of colour and flare than the artists’ albums, which was to be expected with all of the different voices, but just listening through as someone who loves to analyze things like this, it’s so interesting when you take riddims with which I’m growing increasingly familiar and place them into unexpected or previously unheard ‘hands’ and I so much come away from constructs such as ”Cultural Vibes Vol. 1” with just a more open mind and, definitely, a mind on the lookout for some of these ‘newer’ talents. And while this release isn’t exactly LOADED with new and never heard before names, what it does offer is a more than healthy mix of familiar and more established names alongside newer faces and, given the fact that I tend to pay a really great amount of attention, I’d be willing to bet that most fans wouldn’t be as familiar with some of the names on the roster here (one in particular) (more on him in a minute) (four times), which would offer an even more intriguing experience, or potential experience, in my opinion. I’m not going to go as far as to proclaim this one as THE compilation of 2010 (still thinking about that one actually), but what I will say is that, specifically here, this release offers a very nice ribbon for what has been a big and noteworthy year for the two labels.

The way the album is situated is that is that it is split between four different riddims - the Collie Weed, Anybody, Paradise and United We Stand - with three or four tunes on each one and that’s a very good way to do things. I most certainly am no great fan of mixtapes, but this one has a kind of mixtape vibes to it and I’m not complaining in this instance.

First up on ”Cultural Vibes Vol. 1” from Jahsolidrock and Not Easy At All Productions is what is probably the most well known of compositions on the album and probably from either label, the Collie Weed Riddim which starts with not only its finest, but the finest tune to be heard on the whole of the album, the dazzling ‘Walk With Jah’ by Chezidek. Each and every time I listen to the ”Judgement Time” album I fall in love with another tune and it becomes harder and harder to make the point that this is song is also the finest tune there as well, but I’m still there right now and it’s one of Chezidek’s best, one of the best tunes, period, of the year and a wonderful way to get things going here. So if the best song is going to start matters, then next should clearly be the most visible artist on the album and that’s exactly what happens when Benaïssa reaches with the very strong ‘African Blood’. Okay - Benaïssa. This artist would’ve been the first experience I had with either label as, back in 2008 he released his debut (I THINK) album, ”Tables Turn”, which wasn’t exactly GREAT, but was decent and respectable enough. As good as his first tune, of four, is, it probably would’ve been better than anything on that album, with the exception of one song (more on that later). I took this one as dealing greatly with the Afrikan Diaspora and the way Benaïssa builds it is damn near brilliant lyrically and . . . It’s been awhile, maybe he’s getting better. Also interested in the globality of things is Wild Life who invites us all to his BLAZING ‘Ganja Yard’. This one is a pretty complicated (lyrically speaking) herbalist track as Wild Life, as is his usual, definitely goes outside of the norm to deliver a track which also appeared on his own debut (again, I THINK) album for Not Easy At All, ”Too Tuff” from just last year, which I’m thinking about going back to and giving another spin now. And the final vocal track on the Collie Weed riddim comes courtesy of an artist who, I believe, will also be dealing an album from the labels in the future, the most venerable Earl 16, ‘Fittest of The Fittest’. This gorgeous recording is one on which 16 may be going a bit too far, as he’s calling on a new LEADER and one of absolute legendary proportions (drawing on names such as Garvey, King and Mandela), but if He or She is out there (and they are) should they hear this tune, I imagine that his very lofty goal will IMMEDIATELY be fulfilled. The legendary singer from out of Kingston makes way for a dubbed out version of the riddim (which is almost a full minute longer than his tune), which has become a bit of a staple from Jahsolidrock and Not Easy At All in 2010 and appears for every riddim here. Excellent touch.

Next in are three vocal selections on a composition with which I wasn’t very familiar, the Anybody Riddim. The first tune, ’Anybody’, is the only one I did know ( ”Tables Turn” album) and it comes as the album’s first combination as Benaïssa (who I’m pretty sure actually produces with Jahsolidrock) teams up with Benjah (not to be confused with Benjai), who I know absolutely nothing about aside from the fact that he makes music with Benaïssa. This tune is a very nice lover’s piece and it actually took me a minute to realize that I knew it from somewhere and I’d imagine that if it’s your first time hearing it, you are REALLY going to like this very accessible tune. Another combination is next because teaming up with the aforementioned Wild Life is old (OLD) school veteran Junior Murvin who offers free ride on the bouncing ’Reggae Train’. This one isn’t going to grab you immediately as a tune which is anything more than adequate and although nothing tremendous is actually said (Murvin actually says the same thing like four times on one of his verses), it’s just a feel-good type of moment for the album and there’s nothing wrong with that. ‘Part of My Life’ unfortunately isn’t a remix of Achis Reggae favourite Sara Lugo’s tune of the same name, but it is an introduction to Lloyd De Meza, another friend of Benaïssa’s who appeared on his album. On this song De Meza sounds quite a lot like VI star Pressure Busspipe to my ears (Jahsolidrock, Not Easy At All - PRESSURE BUSSPIPE! Good artist) and it’s just another nice love song from an artist who I believe has a background in Hip-Hop and so does Benaïssa as well.

Again it is Benaïssa opening our next backing, the Paradise Riddim, with the same tune which opened his album, ‘Believe’. This song is just pretty decent. It’s nothing too special (especially considering his other three selections on ”CV”) but, again, I think it’ll sound much better to listeners who haven’t spent time with it already. So definitely check it out if you are such a person (and you are). Following Benaïssa we get our first and only taste of another up and coming Dutch artist to keep an eye out for, Joggo, who presents us with his idea of a ‘Strong Black Woman’ and this has to be one of my absolute favourite tunes here. This song just has a bit of star quality around it and I hear it all over this one as it speaks not only to the ultimate and immediate upliftment of the Black Woman, but also of the relationship and how she DIRECTLY fits into its survival on the big tune. And speaking of big tunes (and star quality) one of the two biggest on the riddim rolls in next as Chezidek shows off the gorgeous ‘In My Heart’, which was a single from ”Judgement Time”. I’ve spoken more than enough on the virtues of this future classic and I’ll continue to because it is BEAUTIFUL! And it is also worth mentioning to check out the riddim’s other GREAT tune, ‘Seven Miles’ which can be found on 2010’s greatest album thus far (and hopefully you were paying attention). The Paradise just may be my favourite riddim altogether on ”CV” and I wouldn’t at all mind if they passed it around even more in the future.

Finally, we get a couple of vocal selections on the United We Stand Riddim, the first being its best by the smallest of margins, just as it was on ”Tables Turn” as Benaïssa returns with another young Dutch artist, the fiery Ayya Ites, on a different sounding version of ‘Sodom & Gomorrah’.

“Inna Sodom and Gomorrah
Peer bad things dem a follow
Wah dat?
Di whole a dem ah seek fi di dolla
Yuh think it gone be better wid Obama?
Politician nah go dun di drama”

This one is screw face, ANGRY, head knocking type of Roots Reggae which makes its point well emphatically and does so to the tune of being easily one of the best songs here. Also, most surprisingly, testing out the United We Stand riddim with ‘Jah Jah Have The Handle’ is Achis Reggae favourite Mikey General. I can’t believe just how WONDERFULLY prolific the singer has become these days and we’re leading into his forthcoming album, ”Born To Rule” and a song like this is only going to get me more excited (if that’s possible) to get my paws on that release as the General continues his most expected excellence on that heavy one-drop.

“When I stop awhile and check
I see dem running Jah earth to a wreck
Wi ah give and dem a tek
Jah Jah bless di little bit dat we get
And the fortunate few
They’ll treat the unfortunate many
They have us fighting for food
And sometimes we nah get any
It seems as if it’s more than we can bear
Because of Jah mercy, that’s why we persevere
So keep our feet from falling Jah
I know You hear our calling Jah
Their system is so appalling
Take all and leave us with nothing
So keep our feet from falling Jah”

I love this tune more and more each time I hear it and if I wasn’t tired, I’d probably go back and change which tune I just called this riddim’s greatest.

As a bonus we also get a couple of tracks in ‘Praise Rastafari’ from the WICKED Zamunda from out of ST. ANN (!) and Jah Kente’s ‘Crops A Grow’, and I really like them both actually. The former, obviously, is a big praising song as Zamunda continues to impress at almost EVERY SINGLE stop, leaving more and more headscratchers wondering if his latest offering is the new Jah Cure tune. And for his part, Kente’s song is pretty captivating actually and damn delightful (over the same EASY riddim which backs Chezidek’s MASSIVE ‘Ganja Tree’ tune). So I love the ‘bonus’ attention and do keep an eye on these two as Kente appears to be a big artist and should Zamunda continue on his way, whether you pay attention or not, you’ll still be hearing about him.

Overall, besides ”Cultural Vibes Vol. 1” being an excellent excuse to look back at what Jahsolidrock and Not Easy At All Productions were able to accomplish in the year 2010, it’s also a very nice time to look ahead at what they’ll potentially do in 2011. As I alluded to, I’m pretty sure that I read that they were planning on working with Earl 16 and that should be really big considering how well the styles line up with the singer’s great work and I think it’s been awhile from he last had a studio album anyway. But even if that doesn’t materialize, just more REALLY GOOD music would be fine. Specifically . . . I mean . . . You know . . . Dutch labels . . . Ziggi . . . Smiley . . . MAKE IT HAPPEN! I’d even ‘settle’ for Maikal X! But just in general it’s going to be a very difficult act to follow what they accomplished in 2010. But, I’m definitely looking forward to it and maybe a year from now (if I haven’t completely tired of doing these things by then), I’ll be slapping up another review for ”CV2” with another year’s worth of top notch material. Well done.

Rated: 4.35/5
Jahsolidrock/Not Easy At All Productions/Heartbeat
2010
CD & Digital




Not Easy At All Productions
Jahsolidrock @ Myspace