Andres - Monsoon kiva

Been jamming "Mystic Vision" and affiliated artists like crazy lately, it's amazing they have managed to stay so unknown with all the material they have out. It's not just quantity either, they got some production values. One of their producers and band members is Andres "Draezey" Estrada who has 3 solo albums out as well as tons of music produced for others. I believe this is his first album and it stretches back to 2007. Anyone who enjoys his efforts in "Mystic Vision" will enjoy this album.

It starts in a no-nonsense way with " Jah live" who has a strong acoustic presence and lyrics about how everything relates back to Jah who gives everything living power, humans as well as animals and plants. While definitely being RASTA all the way i have always felt that the members of "Mystic Vision" has a strong "new age" feel to them and their music and this is a perfect example of that as it features elements of nature worshiping and ties it together with more traditional Rastafarian subjects like Haile Selassie I, the power of Jah etc... It's a very solid and powerful song with amazing production.

As so often with artists I like but who's music is unobtainable for me i keep on checking their Myspace pages and listen to them from there. Song 3, "Send me away" is prob. the first song that made me open my eyes to this collective of artists. There's a video to this song on "Youtube" that impressed me big time and im happy to finally have it on CD. It's not as directly about returning to Africa as one may think but more about escaping all the bad stuff in the world, it's a slow meditative song as well as being really catchy but i feel as if the version on here is very short compared to what i remember from the video which seem to no longer be online.

Three songs further in is "Intention", a deeply personal song about some sort of relationship where Andres did not keep in touch the way he should have and here he let whoever know how sorry he is for it. Nice that he ads an song about relations to break things up and ad some variety to the material, as far as backing/melody goes it's still in the same nature as many of the other songs on here which is not a problem. "Lion and the lamb" with the rapper"Jam-One" (who does not have the usual NM gangsta swagger) is a bit faster and upbeat than the other and is about the struggle Hispanic people go thru in United States, it's more of an political song than spiritual. Other features on here is from the inimitable Vaughn Benjamin on "Build love" and a few others (incl. band-member John Bento). As usual I've excluded a number of songs in this review to not make it too long but all songs on here are winners, this is a "no skipping required" cd.

There is no doubt that this is another hit from the "Mystic Vision" camp an it features their own brand of spirituality and RastafarI along with personal reflections from Andres. I like his voice and it kinda reminds me of John Bento's in that it's kinda fragile and sensitive sounding while still being very original. There is plenty of "real" instruments on here, guitar solos, drums etc... It's refreshing with an artist who actually is a songwriter and don't relies on other producers riddims (although i like plenty of "riddim riding" artists). Quality all the way and very recommended.

Releases you should check out

As y'all know Reggae dont get the attention it should in regular media and that makes it very easy to miss out on interesting artists and releases. To prevent this from happening i decided to compile a lil something about some lesser known, fairly recent albums u should def. take a second look at. Don't consider this a review as im far to brief in my rundown for that. My original plan where to create a playlist for each and every album but due to some error in either divshare or blogspot i could not have multiple playlists in 1 post. That's why i had to include all samples for these releases into one playlist at the end.

Mighty Howard - Jah soldier

This colorado/new york raised artist is nowadays settled in Germany where he has been recording for some time now. To my knowledge this is his first release, downloadable from digital distributor Juno. Y'all who like traditional rootsreggae with a contemporary, modern flair to it will certainly enjoy this album and i look forward to hear more from him.

I-Taweh - Overload

It's easy to forgett about Jamaica (wow, can't believe i actualy wrote that) with so much amazing material coming from all over the world nowadays but the fire is still burning strong in our beloved genres birthplace. Wanna know more bout him? His website is very good and informative, except for missing a webshop this is how all artists sites should be, not half-assed and poorly updated. This album has strong production values, plenty of live instruments and I-Taweh sure is not one to compete in the "riddim race", i could only hear exclusive, original productions on here. A must for all of y'all oldschool Roots fans.

Zion - Stricktly roots

The oldschool sounding Rootsreggae is alive and well, this Dominican islands imigrant currently settled in USA goes for the Bob Marley type of sound without being an copycat artist (Bob Marley wannabes bore me) and manages to impress me quite a bit. The release is of high quality with a very imformative cd-booklet.

Spiritual - My world
Wow, more brand new & fresh oldschool roots vibes from Jamaica, this guy knows what he's doin and sounds kinda like an slightly more mellancholic verision of Culture or perhaps Burning Spear. I don't think this will dissapoint anyone who it's intended to please. Just a shame it's a download only release, still..... WAY TO GO.

A detail from the new logo

Some of the details of the logo just ain't coming out when shrinking it down to fit the page, I just wanted to share this with y'all.

Mystic Vision - Living in troubled times

Hopefully y'all ain't getting tired of seeing the results of my superlative addiction and nerdy fanboy behavior spiced with regional favoritism (im always one to support the acts near me as long as they show even a small grain of promise). If you are i suggest you pass on this new "Mystic Vision" review (and blog in general). You may not have heard of these guys before but they have been active for some time now, producing others as well as several of their own album on their label "Fullgrown Records".

They hail from the middle of nowhere, more precisely Tijeras in New Mexico, a US state not known for all that many things, esp. not reggae. Unless u feel comfortable buying digital tracks their music aint easy to obtain and for years i had no idea they even existed. But they do and their new release "Living in troubled times" proves that what NM reggae may not have in quantity they make up for in quality, i really like this album. First song is "Cut throat", an virulently catchy song that have managed to get stuck in my head with the intention to stay there. Those who suffer from the afflictions of blind patriotism may be so put of that they scrap "Mystic Vision" completely (if you think "Michael Moore" has betrayed his country you may be one of those). The song is very critical to the politics of United States ("them a cut throat and kill I if they could, cause them a cut throat cause that's the way of the US of A") Regardless of whether you agree with the lyrical content, this is an AMAZING song, John Bento has an fragile, sensitive quality to his voice that I absolutely love and it works well for the spiritual/philosophical nature of this track.

Two songs further into the album comes "Jah is real", they have added a subtle "autotune" effect to parts of the singing and usualy i don't like it but here it works and complements the singing. It's also a smooth and spiritual track about how and why Jah is real. They do liven things up and raises the tempo a bit towards the end of the album though whit songs like "It's strange" who features some rapping over a melodic track with electric guitars and live instrumentation. This is a carefully produced album whit great musicianship and a mix of (what sounds like) digital and more organic instrumentation. The song before the last track, "War on the people" is another of my favorites on here and is also featured on the latest "Draezy" album. It's clear that "Mystic Vision" has done some serious reasoning on the state of mankind and would like to share their conclusions to their listeners, it's a very interesting and great sounding track.

It will come as no big surprise that im enjoying this album a lot and i like Mystic Vision's compromiseless and serious attitude to music. They are clearly on a mission and will do music the way they think it should be done. This does not mean they are immune to being influenced by what goes on. It's a modern and contemporary sounding album but "Mystic Vision" chooses their influences and how to apply it to their sound without selling out. We need more artists/acts making music from this perspective. A great album well worth buying.

music samples on the blog

I will start including a few tunes with each review. Im still confident to not be a pirate blog so these samples will be in low quality and only streamable. I wanna stay friendly with artists and labels. Starting from today i will look at all previous posts and try to ad a few samples to em, if any artist or label has issues with it, let me know and i will remove the tunes.

New Alpheus coming soon

A new album from Brittish Alpheus is coming soon and there's a promo available before it's officialy released. His first album was okay, showed a lot of promise but wasn't amazing, his second album was a lot better and this seems to be absolutely amazing. In a recent interview (whit "United Reggae") he says he's kind afed up with modern reggae so he went back to the good ole days of ska and rocksteady. Well, nuff said, here's a few samples from his soon to be released album, i will certainly get it once it comes out.

Mystic Vision

Got a package with releases from Mystic Vision and associated artists today. For those who don't know them they are a deeply spiritual rootsreggae band with ties to Midnite and Benjamin Vaughn. Im very excited and the little iv'e heard sounds great. There will be a heavy Mystic Vision coverage on here in the days and weeks to come. Finaly som New Mexican reggae blastin from my speakers.

Go check their website, it's vastly improved from their old one and you can sign up to download a bunch of free mp3s (sign up and they mail u a link).

http://themysticvisionband.com/home.cfm

Buju Baton practice cover

Sometimes it gets a bit frustrating that i never get's the oportunity to do an real album cover for an decent artist that's not full of bullcrap talking and promises that he never follow thru with (talkin bout graphic designs only) but i keep on practising cause im realy enjoying graphic design although i doubt it will ever make me any money.

Nico D & Amiral P - To the world

I just can't stop being amazed at how international our bellowed genre has become, nowadays you can find great acts from virtually every country on earth. Ad Norway to this list, it's the neighbor country to Sweden (where im from) and if my country has a small scene i would say Norway has an even smaller one. I have relatives there and iv'e visited a few times in the late 80ies so it shouldn't feel to exotic but a Reggae album from there still is. I guess this album would fall under the category "modern roots/dancehall".

I would definetly say this duo pulls some punches on this release, it's a quality production, very current but firmly rooted in the long tradition of of rootsreggae. They seem to be a bit heavy into "autotune" but distort the voices very lightly so it does not distract. First up is "Eyes wide open" an open call to all in the struggle to keep things positive no matter how hard things seem. It's done over a very smooth backing track, a very high qualty production and a great start to the album. Im impressed so far and the second song, "Woman of creation" does not let me down either. It's an ode to all positive women and a sorta mix between a roots and a lovers song with some great chanting and singing over another great production. Track 5, "Say it ain't so" is an realy amazing love song with a very rootsy feel to it and with a great trumpet (or trombone) melody loop in it.
If my sources are correct song 6, "Spinnvill" done in Norwegian was quite a hit and has quite an retro vibe to it, kinda like a "Peckings" production or something like that. Im a huge fan of these retro tracks with a modern twist and this is a great song, i wanna hear more songs like this from "Nico D & Admiral P". As far as lyrical content it's an love-song and im much pleased that i actually understand most of it. Right up after it is the "English" version of the same song, "Woman of my dreams", also great. The local vibes continue on "idiot" who is also in Norwegian, im surprised at how good it sounds as i think Rap in Norwegian often sounds kinda funny.

While not being retro i would say that "Handle the pressure" is another great song, rootsy and uplifting with a minor melancholic vibe to it. The heat continues on next song "Neva grow" who delivers more outstanding modern roots with an uplifting message of standing strong and resist the pressures of Babylon. It ends with "Mama", an typical ode to their Moms whit the usual thanks and praises. There's nothing wrong with the song but it feels a bit too formulaic. Still, let's not end this review being too negative cause i really liked this album and was amazed at how great Norwegian Reggae sounds. It may not be the most original group ever, there are other artists who sounds similar but who cares? This sounds very good and polished, kinda in the same style as artists like Norrisman, Jah Mason or Gappy Ranks. Well worth looking up, i look forward to more releases.
 

Bushman-Sings the Bush Doctor

This has been an album that has been advertised as "coming soon" for quite a while now and many have been waiting patiently. It took time to record it and even longer to secure the rights from all copyright holders. Who knows if it would ever have been released if it wasn't for the fact that "Bushman" himself was very passionate about it. But now it's here and im about to review it for y'all. Is it worth getting or just one of many cover albums out there?

Well, personally i have split opinions on covers, they can be great and very welcome if they bring something new to the table but i don't care much for an album where the artist singing tries to sound exactly as the original. No matter how much i love Bob Marley other artists who does his songs and tries to sound just like him bores me to death. So with this in mind i guess an album full of Peter Tosh covers will have a hard time winning me over.

First on my agenda where to see if my own Tosh favorite "I am that i am" was on here and im sad to say that it wasn't. There's some big and great songs on here though so im not going to hold that against the album, we all have different favorites i guess. Some of the songs on here is "Stepping razor", "legalize it" and another of my favorites "Mama Africa" ft. Buju Banton along with a few more tracks. Usually i comment on a bunch of individual songs in my reviews but im going to skip that here. Everyone knows how these songs sound and Bushman didn't go for the "modernizing-old-classics" route on this album. They sound very much like the Tosh originals did and i feel everything already has been said about them.

If you will enjoy this album depends on what u demand out of a cover, do you want the artist singing them to interpret the songs his way and bring something new to the table? Well, don't bother with this album then. If all you need is an well made album and you like "Bushman" and "Peter Tosh"? Go and get the album as soon as you can, the production is flawless and anyone who says anything else is out their mind. The quality is crystal clear, live instruments and great vocals from "Bushman". So whether you will like it depends on your own preferences, this is a high quality release (but in my opinion slightly pointless).