We honestly hadn't heard of Patois Brothers before, but none the less, 'Wise & Wild' is already the second long player by these five Venetians, at it since 2010. As their band name indicates, Patois Brothers did not opt for their native language, Italian, but rather prefer expressing themselves in English patois. For this album they took to the Rolling Lion Studio in London where they collaborated with Daniel Boyle, producer of 'Horror Zone', the acclaimed recent album by Max Romeo. A duet with the reggae veteran ('Life Learning', also one of our favorites on 'Wise & Wild') could of course not be missing from/in the track list, but the other tracks on this album can also convince. The catchy opener 'World' is pure early reggae as you would expect on many a Trojan-compilation, and with 'Play Roots' Patois Brothers wanted to entice selectors to play roots (instead of dancehall?), even though the track itself is pure ska. 'Switch Off Babylon', an indictment of our Western television-driven society, is pure new roots. The intro of 'Don't Stop' immediately reminded yours truly of The Police, and Patois Brothers close with the excellent roots-track 'Since I Know'. Another nice Italian discovery!