CD Review: Midnite, Kings Bell

IGrade Records, 2011

Unforgiving no-nonsense one-drop momentum densely textured brittle tattered breathless mannered chant seemingly featureless landscape of complex literate sound occasional snatches of melodic instrumental surprise challenging us at every turn themes from contemporary Kafka by way of Rastafarian James Joyce formidable ethereal earthiness leavened by horns organ synth keyboards yep this is definitely Midnite in fact 64 minutes of Midnite after which you may want to lighten up your evening by listening to Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle while reading War and Peace.

CD Review: Earl Zero, Marketplace

Foreign Key Records, 2011

Earl Zero has been around the roots reggae scene a long time. That’s perhaps because he has the perfect voice for it: essentially soft and supple, therefore capable of the subtleties required of the genre, yet also expressive, carrying hints of both defiance and “sufferation.” Add to that Zero’s rhythmic sense and consistently clear enunciation and you’ve got a vocal performance you can take great pleasure in listening to. Of course, then you need to add the instrumentation, production and all that, and fortunately there’s lots of pleasure to be had there too.  Read more... (447 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Three Legged Fox, Always Anyway

Is this reggae or is it rock? I dunno. It’s certainly not “Rasta music” – the lyrical focus sees to that and the rock sensibility is far too strong anyway. But it’s also not merely rock done with a reggae beat in the manner of say, The Clash or Blondie of old – the role of the roots rhythms in the overall sound is too profound, too complete, too subtly integrated. Hey, these rhythms are contained within the music’s very DNA! So let’s just admit that Always Anyway can lay claim to being either rock or reggae, and that in any case the excellence of the music transcends whatever label you assign.  Read more... (354 words)

CD Review: Hossam Ramzy and Special Guests, Rock the Tabla

There’s good reason this album has been given the red carpet treatment by its label. What else do you do with such an amazing conglomeration of musical ideas other than spread the word far and wide? On the one hand there are moments of serene beauty, and on the other, complex, writhing, swirling rhythms from what seem like every angle and whole new dimensions. Can rhythms have textures? A thousand different ones? I swear these do, although I suppose the textures technically arise from the percussion instruments, which may not be quite infinitely varied, but they’re close to it.  Read more... (299 words)

CD Review: The Green, Ways & Means

[Easy Star, 2011]

For some reason musicians of the islands of Hawai’i often do an amazing job with the music of the island of Jamaica. There’s something in the water besides salt, apparently. Anyway, here’s another example. Through their Ways & Means, the four members of The Green have bestowed on us 14 tracks of progressive yet rootsy reggae. It has distinct echoes of Third World and Steel Pulse scattered around, in both the instrumentation and vocals, but the album features lots of originality too, and quite a bunch of delightful musical surprises.  Read more... (200 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Tommy McCook, Dubbing With Horns

[Jamaican Recordings, 2011]

Sure, you probably know the name Tommy McCook from his days in ska, but you may not have heard much about him post-Skatalites. Fortunately, though, he did move onward, and I daresay upward, settling comfortably into the rich reggae of the 1970s – which is the period represented on Dubbing With Horns. Naturally McCook’s tenor sax remained as sophisticated, as jazz-influenced as ever, which these 18 dub tracks do nothing to disguise. In fact I’d say his playing doesn’t merely shine through the dub, loud and clear, but illuminates it – something to do with the dub genre’s improvisational approach that happens to be shared with ska and jazz.  Read more... (261 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Zion, Crying for Freedom

[Skank Records, 2011-11-12]

The artist called Zion is hugely reminiscent stylistically, and in his vocal timbre, to Bob Marley (as opposed to, for example, the unique Ossie Dellimore as featured on another recent Skank Records release). Granted, Bob is a worthy template to adopt, and in any case, if what you’re looking for is enjoyable reggae, then the strength of Zion’s song writing and of his performances eventually make the comparison pretty much irrelevant.  Read more... (317 words)

CD Review: Ossie Dellimore, Reggae Music

[Skank Records, 2010]  Read more... (330 words)