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Reviews of: Dancehall - the Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture: Soul Jazz Presentsby Various Artists
Reviews A curate's egg and a missed opportunity....... This is the CD compilation accompanying the release of Beth Lesser's book of photography which has the same title. The compilation comprises two fairly well packed CDs of music but lacks overall cohesion due to not being chronological and not keeping to its remit covering both the pre-dancehall (before 1980) era and the post '85 era of dancehall dominance. This is unfortunate especially for the post '85 era since this is where digital reggae took over dominated by stiff drum machine rhythms and cheap tinny keyboards and whichever way you look at it is nowhere near as evocative (or good!) as the classic reggae ('70-'79) or early emerging dancehall era ('80-'85). This is evinced by the rapid failure of the Maximum Pressure offshoot of the seminal Pressure Sounds reggae reissue label which tried to promote post '85 digital reggae but quickly folded due to lack of interest, simply because this era's music is largely subpar (just like early 80's new romantic music is pretty embarassing these days). Consequently this compilation is "tainted" with a third to a half of fairly poor music set into particularly sharp relief by being surrounded with excellent tracks from the pre-'85 dancehall and reggae eras. That is not to say this compilation is entirely without merit, there are numerous classic tracks including 'World A Music' by Ini Kamoze, 'Soon Forward' by Gregory Isaacs, 'Arleen' by the late General Echo, 'Wa Do Dem' by Eek-A-Mouse and so on but they are all from the early 80's when dancehall was supplanting reggae as the dominant force (and thus fall with the remit of the title of this compilation). It is a shame that some proto-dancehall tracks from Freedom Sounds and other labels couldn't be included as they would have fitted the bill far better than the post '85 pablum which clutters up too much space on the two discs. It would have been far better to divide the compilation into two volumes, covering the pre-digital and post-digital eras, retailed separately though I can guess which one would sell more than the other! Therefore investigate with caution and if you proceed get ready to make extensive use of the program buttons on your CD player. Overall, a missed opportunity to produce something really special, a shame. 2008-12-07 |
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