Except for Jamaica i would say that the UK boasts the strongest Reggae scene of all countries. This may be much due to all the Jamaican immigrants and their offspring, but still..... England has been holding it down almost since day one and the Brits are still going strong. You may know bout (& love) their "Lovers Rock" sound but please do not miss out on the Rootsier acts. These young locksmen in "RasItes" show that the RastafarI spirit is well and alive in the Great Britain. If you like the sound of the 70'ies but wants it a lil bit updated you might do good in checking out this Cd.We start out whit "Chop the corruption", i have not seen this group live but this song would be just the perfect song to start out a concert whit. It has this anthem/theme music feel to it and the Cd could not get a better start, it's catchy and energetic and sums up the "RasItes" sound perfectly. Next comes "High grade", wonder how many Reggae songs who has that name? If y'all did not know it's a weed song, or more exactly dedicated to all who sell/grow/smuggle weed and at the same time a song that is against all other illegal substances (such as crack). It's a nice song, kinda uptempo and danceable, dunno if it's just me but weed songs tend to get a little boring to me (cant stop to think about retarded stoners who says "dude" too often when i hear these kinda songs).
One of my favourites on this album is "Crazy lazy" who is about people who is to lazy to bother whit work or anything else they are supposed to do in life, it's very catchy and sticks to your head. You will hum it for days and it just won't leave your mind, from this point all u need to do is to think about the song for a few seconds for it to play nonstop in your head again for a few days. There is also a few covers like he superb "Picture on the wall" (love the song but RasItes don't do much whit it) and the lovesong "Danger in our eyes" (which i heard first done by Mighty Diamonds).
To sum things up id say that this is a superb album and the perfect album to start whit if you want to familiarise yourself whit British Roots-reggae, you can often find it used on Amazon for like 0.99$ so there's no need to spend your money on risky imports or digging deep for rare records not available here in USA. As far as sound goes i would compare "RasItes" to a mix of "The Mighty Diamonds" and "Morgan Heritage" (something that should most def. be taken as a compliment) whit plenty of originality to spice things up further. If there is one thing that's negative whit this album it is that it gets you hooked to their sound so much that you will go out searching for more albums, only to find that they haven't made any. I've got the feeling that they still perform together so let's bombard them whit attention and e-mail requests for more albums.
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