Reviews

Little Harry, nicknamed 'The Youngest Veteron', may have started deejaying in 1979, apart from 'DJ Clash Volume 2', a 1983 combination-album with the late Billy Boyo, his output was limited to hit singles like 'Anarexol Body', 'Long Time Ago' and 'Jessat Promotion'. Until now that is, because since Little Harry joined forces with Swiss High Smile Hifi, things suddenly gained momentum.

The sound of Canadian Indian singer-songwriter Kiran Ahluwalia, who mixes the traditional music from her native India with influences from rock, jazz and for '7 Billion' even a hint of Tuareg blues, immediately reminded yours truly of the work of British-Indian artist Susheela Raman.

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.