Blogcritics Category: Music: Reggae and Caribbean

Music Review: Indie Round-Up - Matt Morris, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Asylum Street Spankers

Jon Sobel — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:34:01 EST

Matt Morris's high, fluty tenor wafts his words into your consciousness like a message carried on the wind.
Matt Morris, Backstage at Bonnaroo and Other Acoustic PerformancesListening to Matt Morris, intimate is the word that comes most readily to mind. His high, fluty tenor, recorded closely into the mic, wafts his words into your consciousness like a message carried on the wind.The first three songs on this sparsely produced EP have little more than...

Music Review: Operation Ivy - Energy

Matt Wright — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:04:09 EST

The ska-punk classic that started it all.
Operation Ivy’s only full-length studio CD, Energy, is aptly named. Ever since it dropped in 1989 on Lookout! Records, it has been a driving influence in the ska and punk scenes. The band that spawned Rancid was short-lived, but completed the fusion of punk and ska that was started in the 80s.The first thing that stuck out to me about...

Interview: Nina Sky - Pop Music Duo

Clayton Perry — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 01:57:37 EST

Nina Sky's genre-defying style is an eclectic mix of R&B, hip-hop, reggae and rock.
In 2004, at the height of the reggaeton movement, Nina Sky stormed up Billboard's Hot 100 Chart, peaking at #4 with the international smash "Move Ya Body." Although fame, fortune and success came quickly, the sisters spent the past four years out of the spotlight so that they could craft an album that would fully express their...

Music Review: Michael Franti & Spearhead All Rebel Rockers

Richard Marcus — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:27:44 EDT

Political music doesn't have to be boring, and dance music doesn't have to be mindless.
I attended my first reggae concert in 1980. Peter Tosh, one of the founders of the Wailers along with Bob Marley, was playing an outdoor concert at what was then The Ontario Place Forum in Toronto, Ontario. In those days it was simply a covered stage surrounded by maybe twenty to thirty rows of seats, and grassy hillside where you could park your...

Music Review: Catch-22 - Keasbey Nights

Matt Wright — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:36:40 EDT

The quintessential ska album of the 90s.
Keasbey Nights was released in 1998 on Victory records by a little-known band from New Jersey. But since then, the CD has grown to represent the entire third-wave ska movement. After giving it a listen, I’d say its reputation is definitely justified. While the band has made several lineup changes and style changes since then, this album...

Music Review: The Skatalites - Stretching Out

Mike Newman — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:30:10 EDT

You can feel the small-room vibe of the club in the recordings and you can almost smell the ganga smoke.
ROIR Records has just re-released some excellent live and historic Skatalites music on CD, LP, and digital download, which was previously only available on cassette. Stretching Out, from 1983, is historically significant because it is from the year when the band had just reconciled the differences that had driven their 2-year career apart in 1965....

Music Review: Walter Becker - Circus Money (UK Release)

Mike Newman — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:53:48 EDT

Circus Money is certainly up to par with the high level of quality that weve always known we could expect in any era of Steely Dan.
I’ve never really stopped to think about what our friends across the pond think about our New York-centric Steely duo, but it comes to mind now that I’m checking out the UK release of the new Walter Becker joint, Circus Money, on Sonic 360. Perhaps they didn’t grow up sneaking their parents’ Steely Dan records like I did,...

Music Review: Pineapple Express Soundtrack

Kevin Gustafson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:01:26 EDT

Pineapple Express is a big hit at the movies. Is the soundtrack just as smokin? Well you won't be low.
I smelled the Pineapple Express soundtrack before my editors even dropped it into my lap. While I don’t normally review music CDs, I wanted to do this one since the movie is the best comedy so far this year. Judd Apatow produced Pineapple Express and he usually picks good songs. However, the music plays better in the film. Hardcore Apatow...

Music Review: Augustus Pablo The Mystic World Of Augustus Pablo: The Rockers Story

Richard Marcus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:06:53 EDT

Music that will change the way you think and feel about reggae.
It was the unlikeliest source imaginable, you'd have thought, to be an introduction to the dub music of Kingston Jamaica, but Black Market Clash by the Clash was where I first heard that bass heavy, mixed down, slowed down groove. In those days of two-sided LP records, side one of album contained some reggae covers and original tunes by the...

Music Review: Indie Round-Up - Grascals, V-Project, Roots of Creation, Amelia White, Smiling Strangers

Jon Sobel — Wed, 9 Jul 2008 17:52:19 EDT

From bluegrass and reggae jams to alt-country and "three-minute" pop, this week's round-up has something for nearly everyone.
The Grascals, Keep On Walkin'The third disc from the award-winning Grascals has a slightly more traditional sound than some of their earlier arrangements, partly because of the addition of Aaron McDarris's banjo to the regular lineup. Precision playing is expected from a top bluegrass band, but having toured together for years now, the...