Reviews

The first collaboration between French musician Fixi (real name François-Xavier Bossard) and Jamaican veteran vocalist Winston McAnuff already dates back to 2007, when they joined forces for 'Paris Rockin', an album with Java, the band Fixi was then still a member of. In 2013 this was followed by 'A New Day', a long player we then classified as "very innovative", but could generally still be classified as a reggae album. Where 'Big Brothers' is concerned, that's certainly not the case anymore.

With 'Dubcatcher 3: Flames Up', Russian producer DJ Vadim creates a third episode in the adventures of his reggae superhero creation.

After 2009's 'Movin' On', 2013's 'The Taxi Sessions', and the four-track 'Heart Mind & Soul' EP from 2015, Bitty McLean joined forces with riddim tandem Sly & Robbie and their Taxi Gang for the fourth time in a row.

Yours truly had already heard nothing but good things about French producer and beat maker Manudigital, but 'Digital Pixel', his debut album from 2016 had eluded us and we hadn't had the opportunity to see him play live either. The release of his brand new 'Bass Attack' album therefor seemed the ideal opportunity to get to know this French phenomenon.

As the title suggests, for this album, the Polish based Italian producer Pablo Raster drew inspiration from well-known and lesser known fairy tales and fables.

Veteran MC Brother Culture and Swiss producer team Evidence Music (Etienne Maitre and Nicolas Maitre from Derrick Sound, and Nicolas Meury from Little Lion Sound) got to know each other in 2013 and their collaborations have already resulted in a number of successful singles like 'Dreadlocks Thing', 'Heal Them' and 'New Generation'. Those singles were now bundled together with a series of new tracks for 'Code Name', an album tailored to the current sound system generation.

After three years of absence, during which the individual band members were involved in all kinds of side projects, Groundation is finally returns! But as the album title indicates 'The Next Generation', this is a completely new version of the band. Apart from front man Harrison Stafford there isn't a trace of the rest of the old Groundation anymore.

Almost 20 years after his demise, Dennis Brown remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the reggae genre. In 2016 VP Records already presented 'We Remember Dennis Brown', a double album full of Dennis Brown covers, and for 'Tracks Of Life', King Jammy also had a whole range of artists get creative with some of D-Brown's greatest classics.

The reggae scene is filled with so-called connoisseurs, who when you tell them about the most obscure reggae record ever made, will still claim that they've known it for years and even got the original version in their collection somewhere. Yours truly doesn't fit that category, but gladly so, as discovering "new" tunes and artists is still half the fun for a real music fanatic.

To be honest, the name Estelle didn't ring any bells with yours truly, but in the r&b scene, the British singer of Senegalese-Grenadian descent has been a familiar face since 2008's 'Shine' was released on John Legend's Homeschool label and she then went on to win a Grammy for world hit 'American Boy', a duet with Kanye West.