VIBES. In terms of 'supporting' and 'fleshing out' this wonderful music that we listen to, one of the things that I think often goes overlooked is the amount of different but IMPRESSIVE styles that we come across. Music -- and most things -- is often categorized under one umbrella, "genre" in this case, but when you dig into it and wring out that umbrella, what you find, specifically, can be damn different than something else within the same category. Dancehall, for example, may be quite simple on the surface but if you think about.... Elephant Man scoring a hit with the... seemingly endless number of dance tunes he used to make back in da day (and probably still does, it's been a minute since I've caught up with Ele's music) was "Dancehall" (literally); but so was Bounty Killer declaring a full on war with almost every significant and semi-significant peer he had (male, female, violent, peaceful, he didn't give a damn). If that doesn't make sense, you can go even broader, beneath an even larger umbrella, this one called "REGGAE" and, tracing it back a little, you might arrive at a man named Robert (if you don't get there, you've SURELY made a wrong turn somewhere) and, yes, Ele's 'Willie Bounce' and Bounty's 'Mi Nuh Business' were TECHNICALLY the same as what Bob did... if you can explain that. That is one end of the spectrum, on the complete opposite would be Roots Reggae, music which isn't regarded as being nearly as diverse but does have a few disparate facets which're definitely worth taking a look at. What got me into thinking about this is when I heard the material that we're dealing with today, it brought to my mind, fairly quickly, a favourite of mine - Ancient King. There is an undeniably beautifully GRIMY approach to making Roots Reggae. In the hands of someone such as Ancient King or a Jah Rubal, Roots music is... scattered. It's unkempt. It isn't neat. The food is a little burnt and no one's cut the grass in a very long time but it definitely has its appeal and I consider myself to be fortunate because I'm capable of enjoying that type of vibe (trust me, not everyone is). Now, if you go there, and you maybe mop the floor and do a little dusting (not too much though), you end up at Ambush or Jalifa ["Rastafari means Head Creator"]. Mow the lawn, plant some FLOWERS (and I do mean flowers because you know exactly what is growing at Ancient King's house) and now you're on holy ground, you're at Vaughn Benjamin's. Do a bit more and maybe you end up at Norris Man's...
Now, you can tidy up ENTIRELY. You can paint, mow the lawn (and then keep it mowed), get all of that shit out of the garage port so you can actually fit a car in there (biggup my wife) and just de-clutter in general. You can make that piece of land SO NICE that people stop on the road to take pictures of it. In that spectrum, you're talking about the likes of Tarrus Riley, Etana (when she's in form), Chonixx (when he's in form) and I'd even put Mark Wonder in there. These are individuals who making downright GLORIOUS sounding Roots music. It is... immediate (meaning that you instantly know what you're dealing with when you hear it) and it's also 'transferable', to my opinion (more on that later). You could definitely add a few others to that list and I have one, in particular, in mind.
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| 2022 |
Back in April, we did a vault review ("vault reviews" are of any piece of work that is from before the previous year) of an album from 2022 by the name of "The Ultimate Challenge" by Sydney Salmon & The Imperial Majestic Band. Salmon had a most interesting back story: Having been born in Kingston, where he also began his career as a musician and his later travels would see him to New York City and, later (and currently, still), he would find his way to Ethiopia. You've heard dozens -- if not hundreds -- of Reggae songs speaking about the process of repatriation? Sydney Salmon actually did it (and biggup the Volcano Trumpet, Qshan Deya. Born in St. Vincent, now living and thriving in Ghana) and by the time he got there he had evolved into something well worth listening. "The Ultimate Challenge" was GORGEOUS! It is absolutely lovely and FULL Roots Reggae music which captures elements of both an era gone by also as a more modern sound. In either case, what you hear is this VIBRANT and ALIVE vibes and it was all sorts of captivating throughout "The Ultimate Challenge". A funny thing happened after I wrote that review: We got a message from an ooooooooooold friend of ours, James 'Dr. Seuss' Lord from Irie Sounds International who, himself, had also packed up and moved to Ethiopia and was well aware of Sydney Salmon and co (I'm almost certain that I knew that the good Doctor had moved from a few years ago). Fast-forward to the end of the year and Dr. Seuss got back in touch to tell us of the forthcoming "Andromeda: Sign Of The Times", from Sydney Salmon & The IMB. This time, he was directly involved in the "co-production", with the album coming through on Irie Sounds (and he brings in some HEAVY hitters as well, with the likes of Dean Fraser and Computer Paul, amongst talented others working here) as well as on Imperial Majestic Productions. On top of that, the Irie Sounds Band is actually given a credit on six of the album's thirteen tracks, so Dr. Seuss well has his hands all over this project. "Andromeda" really came as a nice surprise for me at the end of the year. There was another release that I was really looking forward to that released a week on from it (might tell you about that one next week... it ain't good) but when this set popped up, I IMMEDIATELY became interested, particularly given what came before it. You throw Irie Sounds in the mix and, Sydney Salmon - you now have my full attention, what will you do with it??
You will shine. I used the word (perhaps poorly but I'm sticking with it) "transferable" in an attempt to describe what I hear when I listen to music like this and what I meant, specifically, was that I think what you're going to hear on this album works for.... pretty much everyone. More entrenched, longtime fans of the genre only need to be informed of its existence but I can see someone entirely new to Roots music having an appreciation for what they hear here. It's just SO open and very well done and we don't typically apply terms like 'crossover' to Roots Reggae (and I'm not about to now) but while I know that SOMEWHERE out there must be some awful soul who just detests everything Reggae -- minus that poor soul -- virtually everyone else is almost guaranteed to hear something on "Andromeda: Signs Of The Times" that will work for them in some way. If you needed an example, just try the album's first tune, the LOVELY previous single 'My Banner'. I'm thinking that I probably ran into this tune, initially, through doing background for the review for the review for "The Ultimate Challenge" because as soon as I heard it, I recognized it and began humming along with it. This is a beautiful song about pride and Sydney Salmon touches on a variety of different things that he has pride in and that represent very significant things in his life. On top of all of that, THIS SONG WILL MAKE YOU SMILE. If you feel bad, IT WILL CHEER YOU UP! There's a powerful vibe behind 'My Banner' that pulls you in and to the credit of this album and its creators, it isn't the only such tune here. 'Organize & Centralize' is of an different type but it is MAMMOTH and firmly within the conversation of the absolute best that "Andromeda" has to offer altogether.
This tune caught me! I was listening to it and it hits a moment, relatively early on, where the music TOTALLY comes together and what you get is this.... damn near EXPLOSIVE, golden presentation which highlight The Imperial Majestic Band, arguably, even more than Sydney Salmon, himself! Salmon does more than hold his own with a message centering around the adage of 'if you fail to plan then you plan to fail' ["But some love the silver and some love the gold; and some, them own birthright, dem already sold"] and you HAVE to stick around here because the music on this song does so many wonderful things that is has to be experienced. BOOM! ["Now the truth is before their eyes"] The opener puts a smile on your face. The second song gets you moving a bit. The album's third track, 'Good Life' (biggup Cocoa Tea), is going to glue itself to your memory and long after you're on to the next (and the next one after that), you'll be singing:
"Have a good life!"
Along with its sonic appeal, 'Good Life' does have some substance to it also. The song is a very clever one about UNITY. It's about doing the best you can for yourself and making sure that you do the same for others and allow them the room to do what they want and pursue what they want in their lives. For me that means something as simple as.... not complaining ALLLL the damn time. Having something nice to say to someone ["kind words and good emanation frequency"] (biggup Vaughn Benjamin) and bringing some tiny piece of joy to their day. That can be really powerful stuff and that's something that I felt from 'Good Life': Helping yourself to the good life and others also! Next up is the SWEET 'Africans Alive'. You listen to the nascence of this one and how it begins with this BEAUTIFULLY scattered horn sound before it ascends even higher into the sugary African delight and praise. Salmon reaches on a broad level but also takes things very specifically ["A peculiar people we are yet we never started no war"] at times. He puts things under a spiritual umbrella, thanking The Almighty for what WE, as children of Africa, have been through to arrive where we are today (still here despite.....). There isn't even a hint of aggression in this, until the end of matters (and even then it's in a joyous way) but there's something to 'Africans Alive', despite its 'easiness'. This song has a BACKBONE. It's strong! It's precisely what you would expect the vibes to have at least a sprinkling of on such an offering. The first of two title tracks (I think that may be a first for me), 'Sign Of the Times', taps a classic riddim whose official name I don't feel like looking up (so we're going to call it the Hello Mama Africa Riddim because that's the most well known tune on it) (biggup Garnet Silk) (...of course I looked it up anyway, because I'm a nerd, it's the Smile Riddim) and Salmon well makes the most of it with a beautiful social commentary. This song is SPOTLESS. You know how you have some old piece of clothing that may have a hole in it or a blotch of paint or something that you can never quite wash off but you just love it for some reason? That is not this song. You could wash this one every day and the colour will look exactly like it did when you bought it. It will not fade at all! The riddim here is perfect for Salmon and what results is one of the nicest listens on the entire album. 'Andromeda', the other title track, is something special. This thing is ALIVE!
"The Andromeda is the great constellation
From the beginning of a civilization
To I & I is just a sweet inspiration
Mama Ethiopia: The origination of I & I"
Salmon and the IMB head to the stars and return with a MASSIVE tune which, by the slimmest of margins, is the album's single greatest offering in my opinion. I'm going to save most of this point for closing (even though I've already started building it) but the presence of this tune is really something special. It's almost a live performance in a medium that is COMPLETELY audio. You can't see a damn thing listening to it but it almost feels like you can as they put on a performance befitting The Almighty, Whom it honours. And I might as well mention it here: The song in the unenviable position of having to directly follow 'Andromeda', the curiously familiar 'I'm On A Roll' (I think I know this song from somewhere), gets on like it doesn't even care. 'I'm On A Roll' is... top four-ish on this release. It is SO NICE! What I took from it is that it is a celebration of self but not in an arrogant way. You go through life, you have your proverbial (and actual 'ups and downs') and we lament and cry about it when things aren't going our way, so maybe we should a song when we're feeling good for a stretch of time. It won't last so all the more reason to lift it up and, should you have the talent to make something like this (and you don't) (neither do I), you're able to not only celebrate YOU but maybe pick the rest of us up there as well. 'I'm On A Roll', is delightfully infectious and, again, you won't find much on this album better than it.
Sydney Salmon & The IMB pay a LOVELY tribute to the current (I THINK) president of Burkina Faso on 'Ibrahim Traore'. I really liked this one, in its idea, because Traore is still a relatively young man and it goes to both honour someone who is still with us but also to make others aware of him and the esteem in which Salmon and co. hold him. The song is so SIMPLE in its approach, initially, but as you continue to listen, this thing DEVELOPS into a freight train of a song... whether you realize it or not. There is a stretch of pure instrumentals right in the middle of 'Ibrahim Traore'; when the vocals return, it's leveled up! There are more sounds (you hear a piano) and things have intensified just a touch. What you end up with is a spectacular display of music and with a significant purpose. HOPEFULLY Ibrahim Traore, himself, gets to hear it one day. Maybe he could listen to the entire album. Doing so would also allow him to hear 'Blessed' which is another strong selection. This song almost sounds like a 'vibe' to my ears. I would think it didn't entail much planning and, instead, came about more organically (and I saw that ONLY in comparison to the other work on "Andromeda", which often comes off as being an incredibly meticulous project). 'Blessed' is more scattered and I would think a very good tune to SEE performed as well as, especially in its latter portions, it sounds like everyone is having a very good time. Chasing 'Blessed' is.... an absolute MONSTER of a song in 'Come Away'.
"The Father is calling us
For us to come home
Leave babylon alone
Rastafari calling us
For us to be free
To live in love and inity"
Now, doesn't Sydney Salmon have a very unique perspective on a song about repatriation?! The man speaks from personal experience! This isn't someone talking about the ideal or something that someone else is preaching. It is something he, HIMSELF, has done and he can provide an perspective like so few of his peers are able to. Furthermore, LISTEN TO THIS THING! 'Come Away' sounds like a march right down the middle of the biggest road in your town ["a no stick shift, a strictly automatic"] and it soars! By its end, I'm hearing a flute and beautiful drums making for, arguably, the finest composition in this galaxy of an album. Given that unique perspective that Salmon has, I think it's nice that he has something that is just as distinctly Ethiopian and he offers a couple of such selections in 'Ethiopia Zelalem' and 'Giramawi'. The former is a sterling tribute to Ethiopia (Google tells me that "zelalem" translates into "forever"). featuring Helen Legesse who, I believe, is a member of the IMB; and has a significant part in 'Ethiopia Zelalem'. She has vocals which're downright hypnotic and times and, along with paying homage to the country, Salmon also weaves a more generally socially aware amount of messaging in this one. He is seemingly lifting up Ethiopia while accepting that there remains work to be done ["Take me back to Ethiopia! THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE PEOPLE WERE PURE NOT POOR"]. 'Giramawi' (which might mean 'Majesty') (you can guess what this is about), may be entirely in Amharic, is delightful! The Ska-fused track well provides the album with a great deal of colour and, again, I can imagine having all sorts of fun seeing a performance of 'Giramawi' as Salmon and the band seem to have had such a great time in recording it. I will make a direct criticism here: 'Giramawi' is the shortest song on this album BY FAR (literally, by more than a minute) and I think it would have been a great touch to just let the riddim play on. I'm not saying you had to give me seven minutes of it (though I wouldn't have complained about it if you did) but just a bit more time to enjoy would have been lovely. Lastly, "Andromeda" continues to churn out surprises with its concluding piece, 'Make A Change [Jah Jah People]'. The vocals here come from a Misganaye Salmon (given her name, you would confidently presume she is of some type of relation to Sydney) and I think that she is going to make a lot of fans with her efforts. With a title like 'Make A Change', you probably know what this song is about ["Jah Jah people stand up and tell babylon 'we're going to take no more"] but only a listen will tell just how nice it is. Misganaye's voice is more on the relaxed end for the most part but she does push it slightly at song's end but for the kind of rumbling riddim behind it, what she does is nearly perfect. It works for what she is saying and the full vibes of the album's closer and the next time Sydney Salmon makes an album, I hope to hear from her again.
There're a couple of things I want to stress here before closing, very briefly. The first is to give a similar credit to Sydney Salmon that I just gave to Misganaye: His voice is EXCELLENT. It works flawlessly for the type of music that he makes and, just in general, he's PLEASANT TO LISTEN TO. I enjoy what he says and I enjoy the way he says it. You will also. The next thing I want to mention is something that I've alluded to a few times in this review: This album sounds spectacular. Just from a purely sonic-appealing point of view - It's gold and it is that house that people stop on the road to take pictures of when they're driving (and not only that but, RIGHT NOW as I write this, I was listening to 'I'm On A Roll' and when it ended 'Africa Arising' from "The Ultimate Challenge" started... LISTEN TO THAT SONG) and it is the type of Roots music, in my opinion, that has a definite chance of drawing in fans who're not typically into the genre. Its PRESENTATION is fantastic and when you see just how much credit the band gets here, it sounds like you'd hope that it would. It sounds like an audio presentation of a live sound, not just artist in studio... on random riddim. Andddd, the artwork here kind of makes you long for the days when physical media for music was actually a thing. Clearly someone has put a lot of time and money into making this set what it is and it was worth it.
Overall, I have a hard time NOT recommending "Andromeda" to... pretty much anyone. Along with being more open for the newer listeners, it is fairly THICK as well. So if you enjoy your Roots heavy on the revolution with a side of spite, you'll be happy too. I do see Sydney Salmon's name pop up occasionally but I am under the belief that, when he's releasing music, an album (somewhere out there) is the goal. Maybe it's still a year or two away but that is where they will end up. I say that because "Andromeda" is seamless. Everything flows so nicely together, including the end where the changeups come in. They sound like they belong here and you're happy they are as well. 2025 has been a very interesting year for Reggae music and a very healthy one on the album side, in my opinion. I had a big, late-year project disappoint me recently (might tell you about that one next week) but "Andromeda: Sign Of The Times" has stepped in its place. At a time of the year where we're all sitting around, thinking about things like 'best of the year' lists, Sydney Salmon & The Imperial Majestic Band have just locked down a spot for themselves. GORGEOUS!
Rated: 4.7/5
Imperial Majestic Productions + Irie Sounds International
2025
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