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Kinyama Sounds Present Reggae Dishes
Kinyama Sounds Present Reggae Dishes
Assorted Roots Fashioned Flavours.
Sampler
New from Geneva, Switzerland is reggae collective Kinyama Sounds and they have brought us this delightful debut album "Reggae Dishes". Kinyama Sounds hope to establish themselves as a multi faceted entity in the reggae world with a label, in house band, publishing and clothing; certainly on the first two counts they appear to be delivering for now.
The album showcases riddims by Niko, a Swiss-Dutch, of Indonesian ethnic origin, who started out as a sound engineer in Nashville, Tennessee, but now works at the International School of Geneva. He has teamed up multi instrumentalist Stan, apparently the Gnash (Hindu elephant headed god of wisdom and problem-solving, that may explain the elephant logo) of Kinyama Sounds. Between them they have taken a roots reggae style premise and blended it with jazz, pop, soul, and hip hop inspirations to create a host of original riddims. These riddims have then been voiced by some established names in reggae like Chezidek, Prince Alla, Rod Taylor and Brother Culture plus up and coming acts like hip hop artists of Zambian origin, Rootwords and vocalist RaldoAsher.
The musical aperitif to start us off is Prince Alla, ‘Downtown’, a straight forward and simple song about the joys of reggae music. Shan Malaika then rocks in with ‘Backstabbers’ riding their ‘No War Riddim’, a pacey, air guitar riffing jaunt. 'Freedom Is The Song' sees Chezidek brought to the fold for his only appearance, with a riddim that is so perfect for him and his inimitable style that I feel it must have been penned especially for him. Charly B up next and adding to the multiculturalness of the album, he is an Italian with Armenian, French and German origins, who performs regularly across mainland Europe and here he uses a quick fire singjay delivery to great effect on the bouncy ‘Jah Is My Guide’. Rod Taylor joins sultry voiced Severine Vaena to duet on a glorious uplifting spry riddim, with an iridescent keyboard fizzing beneath on ‘I've Been Watching You’. UK MC Brother Culture makes the first of his two appearances on this album with a candid tale of truths and rights in society today called ‘Things To See’ on the cheery ‘Give A Smile’ riddim. The second track ‘Spiritually Equipped’ sees Culture still on an upbeat riddim, the ska tinged ‘Uptown’, promoting faith and righteousness in Jah and God to fight Armageddon spirits.
Rootswords bring about a change in proceedings to give us the reggae, hip hop mix ‘All I Want’ as they rap over a drum and bass, choppy keyboard skank. If you’ve ever heard the UK’s Jimmy Screech it’s a similar sound, but without the humour.
Either side of Severine Vaena’s second outing, a particularly good performance on the bass booming yet soulful ‘Little Sister’, are the Bob Marleyish Errol Organs ‘Children A Play’ and the powerfully voiced ode to Jah ‘Give Thanks And Praises’ by RaldoAsher, a big future could be on the cards there me thinks.
Time for an instrumental interlude as Kinyama showcase ‘Jamaican Sunrise’ which is a brass fuelled, rocksteady styled, instrumental, that reminded me in its style of American acts The Slackers and Boss501.
Rod Taylor’s back now in lovers territory and hitting all the right spots on a classic soft dancehall vibe for ‘Wanna Be With You’, then Shan Malaika reappears with ‘Addicted’ a tune that is the complete opposite of ‘Backstabbers’ as she croons on a laid back lovers tune a lyrically typical can’t get enough of your love vein.
This brings us now to the end of the album or a least where I think it should have stopped on Prince Alla’s ‘Some Of Dem’. Its not that closing track ‘The Cure’ by Rootwords isn’t any good, but the ‘Different Roads’ riddim that they have used here is pure Hip Hop and doesn’t sit very well with the rest of the album. ‘Some Of Dem’ with its deep and rootsy sway with sentiments of one love while sending damnation upon the vampires would have been far more fitting.
So having now come full circle all that’s left is to sum up this 16 track offering and for that I’ll paraphrase Prince Alla, if I can, from the albums opening track ‘its feel good music, with a positive vibe, that leaves you with a warm feeling inside’. I for one look forward to hearing more from this new, interesting and bold thinking outfit.
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| Posted by Kinyama Sounds on 03.25.2010 | |
| Check out the teaser of Free up the music feat. Chezidek on our Youtube Channel. New Kinyama Sounds production coming up soon ! Share, comment, etc. ! http://www.youtube.com/kinyamasounds |
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