New! Review from reggae-vibes.com of DubLife / Kulchashok present Dirty Harry Riddim
A great review from the crew over at reggae-vibes.com of our latest effort : DubLife / Kulchashok present Dirty Harry Riddim. Check it out.
http://www.reggae-vibes.com/rev_var/dirtyhar.htm
After having reworked the riddim from Cornell Campbell & The Eternals’ “Queen Of The Minstrel” to full effect, Dublife Muzik & Kulcha Muzik return with their next rendition of a great classic riddim, the masterful horns workout from Tommy McCook & Richard Hall called “Dirty Harry”. The latter, one of the best riddims ever made, was produced by Glen Brown, the self-styled God Son, who is mainly associated with highly original and supremely tough riddim tracks. Needless to say that it’s truly hard to match the original riddim from 1972, let alone outmatch it, but we’ve to admit that New York City based Predator Dub Assassins have managed to revitalize the riddim in a fully satisfying way.
This juggling project learns us that it ain’t a must to feature contributions from today’s biggest artists in order to create an appealing album. Sometimes it’s even more interesting to hear new voices and discover talented newcomers or, as in the case here, rediscover artists from the past who have been hardly heard for quite some time. The first tune on the riddim sees veteran singer Keeling Beckford – nephew of the late great singer/songwriter/musician and producer Theophilus ‘Easy Snapping’ Beckford – doing a collaboration with Toronto-born deejay Nkrumah for hailing up the people from Jamaica, who are “True Champion”. Wwith his deep baritone voice, ‘The Rootical Rootsman’ as Nkrumah is also known, adds his own vibrations to this wicked effort, which also sees Keeling Beckford in fine form. Later on Keeling Beckford returns with another worthwhile collaboration, this time featuring the distinct voice of Diallo from Queens NY. Both artists deliver an outstanding lovers lament called “Day & Night”.
The very talented Fyaworks (real name Johnny Jarrett-Graham) makes a real good impression with the conscious “Say Love”, a song that captivates the mind and soothes the soul. Definitely an artist to watch for in the near future! Next comes “Trouble Like Rain”, a solid song delivered by veteran Derrick Lara, who apart from his solo work is also part of The Tamlins, and singjay Natty Remo. And the collaborations keep on coming as the following track, the superb “Tell Me Why”, is done by Jamaican born, Brooklyn bred veteran deejay Mikey Jarrett and Rupert Reid, who has written and recorded songs for iconic reggae labels such as Arawak, Ja-Man, and Lee Perry’s Upsetter imprint. P-Dub turns romantic on the fully entertaining “King For A Day”, and the same goes for the matching “I Don’t Want To Know” by Roy Radics & Lucette Elegance. In between there’s a great cultural piece entitled “Rain”, which features the voices of Rocksteady Levi and Jah Bami, the upcoming Trinidadian roots artist who relocated to Brooklyn NY in 2000.
The final part of this set includes three versions of the riddim laid by Predator Dub Assassins. It starts off with the straight instrumental with The Skootch’s sax play bringing an extra dimension to the riddim track. “Dirty Dub” is a decent dub workout featuring vocal snippets from Mikey Jarrett & Rupert Reid’s “Tell Me Why”. It all comes to an end with an enjoyable melodica version called “Kings Highway (Instrumental)”, which – even if not intended as such – might be regarded as a nice tribute to Glen Brown.
This third joint venture from the collaborative team of Kulcha Shok & Dublife Muzik – the “Irreplaceable Riddim’ and “Minstrel Riddim” being the previous ones- is another winner, so do check it!
