ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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PAMA International
PAMA OUTERNATIONAL ROCKERS REVOLT 19.10.09 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk
You know you’re in retro-land when an album is nominally divided into two ‘sides’. And when those sides are twenty minutes long each, you know the folks are rooted in the days of vinyl. Who can blame them when they clearly love the era so much. This is an album steeped in seventies reggae, opening with dub sounds – clanks, skanks and burbling bass. It is a sweet sound that is mixed up, as the album progresses, with classic soul into an intoxicatingly happy mix. These songs have at their heart the love and peace that protest soul and conscious reggae aimed at in the sixties and seventies. Songs like opener Equality & Justice For All do what they say on the tin, while songs like the single I Still Love You More are bouncy soul love songs flavoured with a reggae beat. It’s the overwhelming sweetness I remember from when people like John Holt covered soul and pop songs reggae-style. However, the sound is cooler than that, being definitely coloured by the influences of dub as invented by King Tubby and Lee Perry. Others, like Still I Wait are like a fusion of the A and B sides of 7” singles, when the B would be a dub of the A – so all the effects, all the tunes and everyone’s a winner! We know we’re in the Noughties though, since they manage to sing about the Credit Crunch in Trade It All For More! It’s hard to overstate how loving this album is and how simultaneously cool and tuneful – a tribute and yet a brand-new creation, using old styles to make new work. www.rockersrevolt.com |
