SHOK WAVE is your weekly new REGGAE music blog. SHOK WAVE finds music that is out there in the form of Reggae, Dancehall, Soca, Ska, Dub, Reggae Rock & anything else musical with a Caribbean origin and in any language.
Here is what we found this week.......Enjoy!
A great week of music, potentially some of the best for the year already!
REGGAE
The wisdom & knowledge of King Kong has matured on his latest and best album to date called 'Repatriation.' This album will be a nomination for Best Rub-a-dub/Dancehall Album of the Year and that's because King Kong kills it on every track on the album....him a 'Gwaan.' From the opening track 'Money Could A Buy' to 'After Midnight,' The King is in form. His wisdom has taught him not to 'Pree The Money' so 'Repatriation' has become the forefront of his album. 'Change' the bad things, Babylon needs to 'Change.' It's an 'Old School' styled reggae album and the vibe has been captured with help from Pinchers & Burro Banton. King continues to 'Grow' , which is a major key to success in Life. No growth, no Life. If you don't know by this point in the album, King is here to 'Wake Up The Town' & the people and will now be known as the 'Dancehall Teacher. 'Him no 'Licky Licky' straight 'Rootsman Skanking' my favorite track. Remember the day starts 'After Midnight' so let it play all day as this album will teach, inform & provide the platform pure vibes for eternity. Here's the latest single, album releases March 9.
What has to be one of the best riddims for the year is the 'Chancery Lane' riddim. Great stuff. All songs are at least good and there's a great selection of artists from Romain Virgo with 'Trouble' to new artist Stephanie Joseph with 'Give Me A Chance' & to good upcomers like Randy Valentine, Exco Levi, Shawn Antoine to heavies like Agent Sasco & Freddie McGregor on the same song to Rupee's 'I've Got You Girl.' There's several more that are good & you might find better.
Paiaka out of France has a new album 'The Line' and gives you love especially in 'Take It (As It Is).' Production is great and really clean. Language is English yet as a native English speaker, I still have trouble understanding everything being said/sung. Helpfully a lot of the trouble comes in the name of the song. The title track 'Right Down The Line', 'Crazy', 'What A World' and the previously mentioned 'Take It' have that intrigue of wanting to know exactly what's being sung and add to the interest in these songs. It's actually nice in that and all aspects.
Irie Souljah returns with a nice new tune on the 'destiny' riddim called 'Jah Jah Don't Leave Me.'
The Soul Rebel Project featuring Kenyatta Hill produced by the Green Lion crew with a song called 'Unity' has a different yet really nice vibe, feel the love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWH7CpbbODQ
We came across a second batch of the riddim Reggae Sax. There are 3 tunes we really like: Jah Cure's 'Lion In The Jungle,' Sizzla's 'Come Link Me Girl' ; Samini's 'Say No To Rape.'
Kazayah re-releases 'Troddin' with much more musical strength and a dubby sound that reaches into your consciousness. Powerful & positive.
German is not the nicest sounding language. Definitely not a romantic one, a bit harsh might be describing it on the light side so to sing and make it sound good is hard. Mellow Mark hs accomplished this on his latest single called 'Nomade.'
KULCHA LATINO (Reggae en Espanol & Latin Styled reggae)
One of my favorite latin reggae bands is Ganjahr Family out of Spain and they have released a new album called 'Seguimos.' The interesting thing is it's done in a very Jamaican/Raggamuffin style. Think of Chaka Demus & Pliers, Buju Banton & Wayne Wonder or a Tanto Metro & Devonte type of style, one rough & one sweet. There's more English languaged songs than ever before, still plenty of Spanish. Those would be their version of 'The Tide IS High' & 'Ganja Smoka.' Spanish wise their better ones are 'Busca' & 'Nunca Se Apagará' which features Morodo.
REGGAE ROCK
The yet to be released Super Hi Fi album 'Blue and White' will release March 9. A very interesting record based around dirty dub with a rock feel and dual trombones. The album starts off in this vein just a bit on the dark side. Track three 'Dub To The Bone' opens with an Iron Butterfly-ish rock riff that ends up in the traditional reggae guitar skank and then dubbed out and heavily laced with their trombones. The song ends with the same guitar riff with a heavy thumping bass to create one of the better tracks on the album. One of the few vocal tracks is the fast paced ska track called 'Fergie.' 'Space Needle' is very similar to 'Dub To The Bone.' This time the song starts with a punk rock guitar riff and does pretty much the same musical pattern. Love it. Several tracks are similar just get a little weird for me. I can see some dub heads loving it. An interesting record that will open ears.
K-Bong, who plays & performs with Stick Figure is a talented solo artist in his own right. He has released a new single 'Open My Eyes.' A mellow, pop, light reggae tune that showcases his talents and his influence/sound he adds to Stick Figure.
SOCA
Soca is biggest in Trinidad so naturally there should be more songs named & about 'Trinidad.' So 'Trinidad' by Casley has a different vibe, an interesting musical track and sexy lyrics. Sounds nice.
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