MUSIC THEORY

I may have exercised my right to artistic license with that last post.  But remember the "THE MAN" went looking for BUJU too set him up in an undercover sting. Ever ask yourself why him? What is it about BUJU that made himself their target and not...say the MARLEY BROTHERS. When I think of a huge thorn stuck in BABYLON'S side, I think of this man; SIZZLA KALONJI. 

Oh by the way, the dictionary definition of GELDING is...castrated animal, esp. a male horse. 

The door to Jamaica's top political office reads Prime Minister GOLDING. The coincidence in similarities is purely accidental.

The grand entrance to this collection of hard and heavy vibes comes from the mind and record label of GARGAMEL. It is a hummable little ditty called COWBOYS. Perhaps you've heard of it? It always amazes me how only down in Jamaica can the studio wizards turn an insipid nursery rhyme like THREE BLIND MICE into a subversive weapon....or at least a smash hit. 

The rest of the disc...

1.) COWBOY by BUJU BANTON. Only down in Jamaica can they take an insipid little ditty like “Three Blind Mice” and ruff it up into something serious. This tuff tune is no children’s nursery rhyme. It is however one of BUJU’S strongest singles in a long time. Well maybe not that long but at least since DRIVER A broke. Remember TOO BAD from way back in 2007?

2.) “POLICE AND THEIVES” by GEORGE NOOKS reaches deep into LUCIANO’S take on this classic from the soundtrack. Usually GEORGE reaches deep into the verses of the bible for lyrical inspiration. I'm gonna bore ya with some history. First off, this tune had mass appeal with those individuals on the wrong side of the law. Alright a few genuine outlaws and mostly hipsters posing as dangerous types. Everybody from spiky punker thugs to the down to earth Ganja farmers. Junior Murvin cut the original tune with a falsetto high enough to bounce off the stratosphere. If you think there is something unnerving and subtly disturbing about the mix that's because the production was the result of LEE PERRY'S mind disintegrating into illness. Those noisy four chord wonders, the CLASH unleashed their own hit version, something like a week after JUNIOR’S bust out on London's pirate radio. Worlds collide! So this classic tune carries massive influence in two separate genres. GEORGE NOOK’S huge tone completely reinvents this tune but is never far from the original design. JUNIOR’S falsetto was only a few decibels lower than the frequency that only dogs can hear.

3.) PINCHERS-When the musical fashion shifted to all that bad man gun bussin’ talk, PINCHER'S faded. PINCHER’S liked to woo the girls in the audience but not like those velvety Vegas lounge crooners. Girls couldn’t get enough of his sly smile while he ached heartbreakers like the massive tune AGONY. PINCHER'S would never reach those heights again that he had with KING JAMMY’S productions. PINCHERS never completely pulled a disappearing act though. He’s been putting out good stuff all along. PINCHER’S never clicked with the younger fans on an international level. Shame, hopefully his tune here, “PUNK ME OUT”, corrects that mistake. He works his smooth stuff over the STALAG RIDDIM. 

4.) MICHAEL ROSE, no I mean JUNIOR REID. Wait that ain’t right, I mean YAMI BOLO. Hey he ain’t 12 years old anymore! YAMI summed it up as being a Waterhouse thing. JUNIOR REID summed it up as the youthful YAMI copying every move he, (JUNIOR), made behind the mic. Hey if ya gonna steal a style, pick the best. Some of JUNIOR’S hits were being spun in the chic discothèques of the rich and famous. Funny thing is I remember every body saying the same thing about JUNIOR stealing MICHAEL ROSE’S tongue tricky “Arabic” vocal technique. Actually the more mature YAMI has found a delicate balance between his own voice and the Waterhouse sound with his rootsy tune, “END OF THE DAY.”

5.) GHOST appears with “LONELY NIGHT.”– He is not really an apparition because he shows up to haunt many a REGGAE compilation. Hey does GHOST have his very own CD released? The Ghost has one of those smooth and sweetly fey voices. My wife thought he was a girl. I know better. Depending on the tune, I either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Here on JAMROCK CLASSICS I find no ill will against the singer.

6.) JAH CURE- Now JAH CURE knows a thing or two about being a criminal statistic. Whether or not he was truly guilty, only him and the girl would know, and of course JAH. Plus getting caught with a handgun didn’t help his defense. Now that Mr. Cure has diligently paid his debt to society, he is back on the path fate had chosen for him. That path is performing passionate roots. 

7.) TONY CURTIS belts out “GOODBYE TO LOVE.” I really don’t know much about him other than he has been around for a few decades. Some fans might call this a throw away tune but it’s a notch above being mere filler. I guess you could accuse the GHOST track of the same offense, but “LONEL NIGHT” is definitely the stronger of the two.

8.) LUTAN FYAH drops “MEANS TO SURVIVE.” I have said before that LUTAN reminds me every ROOTS CHANTER that I love but at the same time he is nothing like any of them. Somehow I’m comfortably familiar with his work even if I’m a stranger to the tune.  Spinning a new CD of LUTAN’S work is like listening to an old favorite. I put him in the same category as NATURAL BLACK. Both constantly surpass high standards but for some reason they slip unnoticed by the casual REGGAE public. Thankfully there are enough diehard ears listning.

9.) BUJU BANTON featuring THE NEW KIDZ causes trouble all over again with “CURFEW.”  Another act of defiance cut on the THREE BLIND MICE. I'm not sure what they be call the riddim. Probably my favorite tune from this disc. It is one of those tunes that could make you either fall deep into thought or make ya wanna dance.

10.)  TERROR FABULOUS steps outta the time machine and delivers “READY ROCK.” A rowdy old school workout over the STALAG RIDDIM. This tune brings back memories of fades and parachute pants! It is a cool way to wrap up a good mix of new and old. BUJU as the star power producer and aspiring record mogul.

Basic packaging, but that's okay, because all the time and money went into the tunes. The full title is BUJU BANTON presents JAMROCK CLASSICS vol.1
I hope we don't haffi wait the length of a maximum sentence for vol. 2

NEWS FLASH

Nico’s Big Mouth received this tape from an anonymous source within JAMAICAN Prime Minister BRUCE GELDING’S office.  I feel it is my duty as a JOURNALIST to revel its contents.

What I heard shocked my sensibilities and shook my trust in BIG GOVERNMENT.

What I heard on the tape was a conversation between PM Bruce Gelding and another top aid…

“Have you heard BUJU BANTON’S latest single COWBOYS, sir?” asked the top aid.

“No I haven’t, you know I do not listen to that kind of NEGRO music, why would you ask such foolishness?” the PM lashed out.

 “BUJU’S been complaining about us again,” mentioned the aid.

“That ghetto savage understands nothing about the running of a POLITICAL MACHINE” the PM muttered sounding almost offended.

“But Sir” cut in the aid…”if he stirs up the youth, and gets the attention of the populace…”

“Are you saying that this insignificant savage is a threat to my superiority? “ the PM muttered definitely sounding offended.

 “But this office can’t neglect the possibility of…” the aid sheepishly cautioned.

“The possibility of what?” angrily asked the PM.

 “This BUJU BANTON must be removed from public eye, and disgraced before his fans. We have to be careful though…under no circumstances can we turn this ghetto savage into a Martyr. Sir” 

A long silence and then the sound of a phone dialing. Finally the voice of the PM’s aid broke the pause…

”This is the Office of Jamaican Prime Minister…yes…connect me through to the director of the Department of Drug Enforcement Agency please…this is …Hello?

Some shuffling sounds.

“Sir” the aid diligently responded, “I have the Director of the D.E.A. on the phone…”

Some more shuffling sounds. 

“This is Prime Minister Bruce Gelding.” “Yes, our Government has a nuisance that needs to be swatted away. We can not do it on our own soil, of course for the fear of a public backlash.”

A short pause and muffled nervous breathing.

“Our problem is in Miami County and under your jurisdiction. “

“Yes” “What?” “Yes that’s right.”

“Make it big offense…you know a charge that carries big jail time… You Americans don’t understand about RASTA.”

“Your American jury will just see the face of a crazed DREADLOCKED drug addict.”

“Make the deposit using the usual routing numbers?”

The tape ends. The tape is dated November 2009. A month later REGGAE LEGEND BUJU BANTON is dragged through AMERICAN JUSTICE.

You decide…

ROOTS and CULTURE

           Jeez...I stepped out to pick up a pack of Rizla's and two weeks slip by!

                                        VP Records 4 disc document of CULTURE with producer
                                                                       JOE GIBBS!

I never review the new stuff because "fresh off the press" releases retail at full price. And if it's gonna be a hot mover stores may puff up the cost even more. My frugal self notices these subtle increases.  Only after the initial consumer rush to buy a CD dies out does a store resuscitate life back into the limp sales by dropping it into the bargain bins. That's when I wander along. As a matter of principle, I still haven't pick up Capleton's latest disc, I-Ternal Fire, because I'm patiently waiting for the price to drop a few bucks. And Capleton is one of my all time favorites! Even old faithful EB's hasn't budged. Amazon has the Mp3 download selling for $8.99 which is where I wish the hard copy was at. Besides the sound of the Mighty King Shango needs to be heard through floor model cabinet speakers. The best computer speakers won't shake your soul and rattle your bones! Good speakers should stand taller than your children. Woofers alone should be about the size of a large frying pan. I hooked up a state of the art Bose system to my computer but the bottom end is about the size of a thimble. Decades ago I used to channel the sound through my bass guitar PA System. Which explains why I'm always saying, "what?" and "huh?" 

Until I can figure out how to play all the downloaded tunes on my traditional stereo, I'm slow in adapting to an all Mp3 format. Are there methods that my Senior Citizen self is too out of touch to know about? I am asking for help here! 

This box set is new to everybody. I easily slid this into my budget. Okay, this review is a little delayed, because it took about two weeks ship. Media mail is not the speediest, it is the cheapest, plus I spent the last few weeks soaking in it's vibes. 43 tunes worth of heavy vibes! I am gonna make the wild accusation that the term "Roots and Culture" derived from this JAH guided band of ROOTS singers because I had never heard that Reggae description until long after JOSEPH HILL, CULTURE'S main mouth piece, proved his dominance. My main motivation in getting my greedy little hands on this collection was to get an CD update of BALDHEAD BRIDGE. A well loved vinyl copy means being worn out from too much pleasure. I already own the deluxe CD 30th anniversary Shanachie edition of TWO SEVENS CLASH so the first CD in the box-set is a double. (the weird thing is...the Shanachie set seemed to be marketed at Punk Rockers with a pointless essay written by some heroin chic guitarist!) I had never seen the second CD, MORE CULTURE, for sale. Ever, in any format, so I consider it's inclusion as warm and inviting as a home cooked meal. Not often do I get a chance to hear late seventies era gems with virgin ears. The remaining fourth disc, AS HARD AS THE REST, is a collection of alternates, dubs and singles. No left overs here! Feed your soul.

                                           My personal fave from the JOE GIBBS era. 

Some math. The Shanachie's BALDHEAD BRIDGE on disc would have set me back about $11.00. For a few dollars more, I got three extra discs. Two of which are indispensable to me. That adds up positive. I expect great sound quality from VP and they do not disappoint with the remastering. An extremely minor gripe with the REGGAE LEGEND box sets series were that no info booklet was included. I understand the original releases were shy on linear notes to begin with and to kept the price grounded low, no scribes were hired. But this set comes with an eight page booklet of explanation and of course the facsimiles of the "back album covers" of the individual CD sleeves. Another big plus. Consider this collection necessary. 

                                           A perfect record and one of many to come!

Crusty old Rastas will preach that CULTURE'S debut album TWO SEVENS CLASH was the bands best. There is no denying that 2/7's Clash is a maelstrom of Righteous words and vibes but CULTURE had a steady habit of putting out one massive classic after another! Need proof? Check their Island Records catalog. CULTURE' CD'S are like incendiary devices! Blazing stuff. Joseph Hill never tired of pushing the message of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie into deaf ears and wicked minds. 

If you delight in the revelations of Joseph Hill's spiritual twin, BURNING SPEAR, you will find yourself at home with these records. 

POST TRAUMATIC BLOGGING

Nico's Big Mouth is gonna be hush for a few days. I now have at mi fingertips the latest that technology offers. My previous web browser was antiqued. My old stubborn mule of a computer couldn't update anymore. Gettin' worse than worn out hand-me-down shoes. What does that mean? I now can finally click on and watch the video tube streams. In glorious mind expanding eye widening HD.


Lord Have Mercy! I've missed out on so much. In fact I've spent the last two hours starting from post one at the very beginning at ACHIS' blog "researching" the visual stimuli. Hey...all those SHELLY G videos...the links dried up!

When I come back, I might share my biased opinion on CE'CILE'S BAD GYAL disc. I'll big up BEENIE MAN'S ART and LIFE. Part two of BETH LESSER'S KING JAMMY is still resinating in the think-tank. Until then I am exploring my new toy's capabilities. It's like I am walking on the moon...

GOOD KARMA

What actually started out as a quest to find for my favorite COCOA TEA album ended in being left empty handed. I was planning on replacing my lovingly trashed cassette copy of 1994’s THE GOOD LIFE. Nobody has the CD listed for sale, at least at reasonable prices.

Cassettes…remember them? Half my reggae collection was on them damn things! They were the only portable means of listening to your chosen music if you were on the go back in the day. The only problem with them was if you stored ‘em in your car, like most people did, they froze in the winter and melted in the summer. That stretched the tape and distorted the sound. When cassette decks went the way of verbal throw downs like “word to your mother”, I donated my massive collection to the local Salvation Army.

Okay, while I didn’t find the VP Records release I looking for, I did come across this non-government sanctioned inflation beater and counter measure to illegal downloading. The series is called REGGAE LEGENDS but VP Records should call it the ANTI-PIRACY series because you can afford to add this consumer friendly priced box-set to your collection and have enough money leftover to buy several extra loaves of bread. No need to steal it.

The average price is $20.00. Yep, EBREGGAE has it going for $17.39. Think about it. Divide that number by four and the individually cost averages $4.35 a disc. This is RIGHTEOUS CAPITALISM! VP is pulling profit but still keeping the fans best interest in mind. Top artist choice too… These titles seem to be aimed straight at my age demographic, the young forty some-things!

The idea is to package together four individual album titles of an artist from a certain time period into one box-set. Usually long lost vintage stuff from the late 1980’s too the early 1990’s. For now VP Records seems to be zeroing in on the classic RUB-A-DUB era. Check the names…SUGAR MINOTT, DENNIS BROWN, GREGORY ISAACS, JOSEY WALES, YELLOWMAN, MIGHTY DIAMONDS, JOHNNY OSBOURNE, BEENIE MAN and SHABBA RANKS!

For a little guy COCOA TEA has a huge singing voice. Where the hell does all that power come from? I saw him live (he opened for the mighty KING SHANGO) and his performance stunned me! He is perfect on record but even better live. Is that possible?

The former horse jockey was on an amazing roll releasing one sure fire hit after another but he sort of became obscured stateside by the new millennium BOBO REVOLUTION. That is until he dropped 2008’s YES WE CAN featuring the massive single BARACK OBAMA.

Even though these four discs don’t contain any chart breakout hits like JUNJO LAWES produced ROCKING DOLLY or LOST MY SONIA, these releases are just as important in COCOA TEA’S big picture. Well not completely true because RIKERS ISLAND blew up at international level. For all those early hits and most of the SHABBA and HOME T get together check VP’S Reggae Anthology: THE SWEET SOUND OF COCOA TEA. Absolutely the best “BEST OF COCOA TEA” CD out there.

Both COCOA TEA and these releases restore my faith in humanity.
REGGAE fans win another round...I will fill in the blanks soon.

CONFESSIONS FROM A CONSUMER

I've been outta commission for the last two days with insane tooth ache pain. I've managed to hammer together a piece about my fears and hopes of the mechanicals that spin the music industry. Like a good home cooked ragu, it needs to sit overnight.

Okay...make it three days now. I drove 45 minutes through wet snow, deep slush and flash flooding to make my Periodontics appointment. About a mere minute and a half away from the Periodontist's, his receptionist called mi celli to cancel. Her reason...seems the doctor/dentist got his sports car stuck in a snow bank and was informed that the tow-trucks are backed up about two hours. I turned around frustrated and in throbbing pain. So do not hold me responsible for any gross grammatical errors.

In this sinking (sunk) economy, you don’t need 20/20 vision to see why people pirate. Consumers are faced with basically two main options. Either purchasing an actual product that you can hold in your hands or download a digital copy of the original code in a MP3 format. If your choice is the MP3 format, then the ethical question individuals may face is whether to download from expensive sources like I-Tunes or pinch it by illegal means from hundreds of Internet sites. Free usually wins. Most people think of it as victimless crime. “The recording artists themselves only receive small royalties anyway and the serious profits go to the fat cat bosses and the team of lawyers in charge of keeping all that money in the fat cat’s pocket.” That explanation is the general census.

As I write this piece, I’m listening to the streaming online radio station PANDORA. I’ve created a DANCEHALL player that did not cost me a dime. They have added a lot more REGGAE choice since they started. MR. VEGAS’S HEADS HIGH just played and before that LIMB BY LIMB by CUTTY RANKS. SENSI-MEDIA is more of what's dropping on the streets today and is less repetitive in selection. These streaming online radio stations promote new artists along with old favorites. Regular airwave FM radio never played the ONE DROP where I come from. The future is here.

Meeting the consumer halfway doesn’t seem to exist yet. I was hoping sites like EMUSIC would be a bright beginning but in the long run I felt burnt and let my subscription end. A bad economy and the ever-evolving Internet caught the record industry sleeping. The old comforts are going bye-bye and the suits can’t think tank quick enough to save ‘em. The major labels are going the way of the Dinosaurs. EMI, one of the EMPIRE’S oldest and most powerful is crumbling like the FALL of ROME.

Personally, I am still lamenting the loss of vinyl as a whole. But I am absolutely amazed that I can slip my entire record collection into my pocket and listen to it anywhere I please. That is convenience beyond lazy luxury. My I-Pod classic has 160 GB of storage. That equals something like 1500 vinyl albums (or more!) When I was in high school this would have been considered pure science fiction, but now it is a fact of reality. Oh yeah, and as a snot nosed audiophile I will admit the sound is in perfect snap, crackle and pop free clarity. No dust or static to clog grooves. The big argument back in the day was that vinyl albums had a warmer sound. Compressing the information to fit early CD reissues gave the remastering a thin and tinny sound. True enough…The 90’s era Motown stuff suffers from this technological inflection. The industry as a whole listened and doctored a cure. Now when spin a CD all I hear is a warm digital glow.

Fossils of the recent past.

My only gripe is not with the technology. My gripe is with the price sticker. Yep, why does a bunch of code cost the same or in some cases more than a compact disc? An online digital release dismisses the cost of assembly line pressing plants. No pressing plants mean any factory workers, which is a savings on labor, insurance and health benefits. With no actual manufactured product means there is no need for distribution warehouses. So no transportation of goods over great distances by planes, trains or trucking to stock the compact discs on the shelves of retailers. That is a sizeable chunk of savings sliced out of the cost so why do record companies charge the same high sales price? Where is all that money going?

Okay, I do understand that websites like Amazon and I-Tunes act as a middleman for promoting artists but in theory the overall price should still be slashed. Bottom line is that as a consumer you’re buying a copy of code. With the soon to be old fashioned compact disc, if the crazy mood strikes me I could burn myself a hundred copies of my physical CD.
Case in point…I was looking for a LADY SAW tune. I-Tunes had it for .99 cents. Amazon was the same, although I notice on full record releases they tend to be a dollar cheaper. ERNIE B’S REGGAE had the actually CD on sale for .49 cents plus shipping. I bought the whole RIDDIM DRIVEN CD for half price of one song. The trick with EBREGGAE is the more you buy, the shipping shrinks with multi-package deal. The disc was the WILD JOKER riddim produced by SHOCKING VIBES for VP RECORDS. So yeah, the system needs to balance.

I can understand way the little “mom and pop” record labels are pressing delete on the manufacturing of compact discs. The option of releasing new records by digital methods only saves huge on overhead. In some cases this savings is what is keeping the little labels alive. Sadly some great labels like Britain’s BLOOD and FIRE are in serious flux. Another important record company, JETSTAR, is on the verge of drowning with this sinking (sunk) economy. It is not a good omen that these labels and many other REGGAE labels can’t catch their breath.

As a consumer of much music and media who finally has modernized and converted my vinyl and VHS tapes to CD and DVD, you want to tell me I’m last years model? I realize nothing stays the same for very long. Change is inevitable and a simple law of survival is if you do not adapt, you will become obsolete. So I am part of the problem. Yeah blame the old guy. LOL. I enjoy listening to both platforms. There is definitely a practical use for the miniature storage solution that MP3’s offer but I will mourn the death of tangible handheld media. Of course the youth coming of buying age won’t no anything but a digital world.

Downloading tunes digitally satisfies that desire for instant gratification. The stores are open 24/7 and only take a few moments to process. That is CAPITALISM at work in all its glory. I can accept that.

In the end… I cannot condemn or condone piracy. I do think with the gamble from wasting money on a stinker of a CD removed, people are getting braver in listening to music they would of otherwise never heard. Which is a positive vibe. I think deep down if somebody downloads a bunch of tunes illegally and falls in love with the tracks, they will do right by the artist and support the release by eventually purchasing it by proper methods. That may happen sooner than later if the industry meets the music consumer halfway first.