Record shops trading in Jamaican music can be an intimidating experience for a layperson. One of my favourites used to be in the bottom of a two-storey terrace house in Sydney. The front room was lined with funk, hip-hop and classic dance records. You had to ask the shop assistant to go out back; that’s where the dancehall records were.
Boxes and boxes of seven inch singles stamped with juke box holes and wrapped in white paper bags, grouped in a seemingly random array of ways: labels, riddims, versions and vocalists. Thousands. If that’s all new to you – and it shouldn’ be, these places are goldmines – at their most basic, riddims are a backing track for the vocalist. As many as 10 different vocalists use the same riddim when it’s buzzing. Each one’ a different version, but versions can be like remixes too. It’s inscrutable at first, which is what makes compilations like this one so great.
Compiled by Knox Robinson, former editor of The Fader, it’s a mostly top shelf introduction to one of the most listenable sounds of reggae at the moment, the resurgent sounds of roots. Roots came out of economic hardship in Jamaica, and it’s experiencing a major revival because, as the Gyptian-inspired title states, these are some serious times.
For all of that, this does not rant, and it’s definitely not weak-kneed. It’s a loose collection that offers killer rhythms if you want to dance, as well as high quality lyrics if you need to listen. Mixtape kings Federation Sound turn in an extended dubplate mix of the entire compilation, with airhorns, cheers, and a few instrumental remixes for good measure.
Fortunately, the whole set found its way onto a second disc as individual tracks. Turbulence’ “Notorious’ opens proceedings, deploying the Scallawah riddim to devastating effect (itself a rework of Dead Prez’ “(Bigger than) Hip Hop’). “Notorious’ exploded out of the dancehall scene when Radiohead used it to open recent shows. The other big one is Gyptian’ “Serious Times,’ for obvious reasons. Truth & Soul give the track a couple of revitalising reworkings, while 12-year-old GQ shares the Spiritual War riddim for his politically charged mantra “Poverty’ – possibly the biggest surprise of the set.
They are not all anthems. But even more obscure songs like Tony Curtis’ “Rolling’ or the anthemic “Love You The Same Way’ from Bascom X should not be hidden away in tiny record shops. With a collection of riddims and songs this good it’s too bad we’re on the way out of summer.
Matthew Levinson
