Forplay’s emergency response

Imagine the heartbreak when you show up to the bar and learn that the 911 Reggae Night text was a false alarm. Here’s to mending broken rasta hearts.

Sounds Like: Black Uhuru, The Gladiators, Freedie McGregor

Goodie Bag
Burning Spear - African Teacher (Left-Click)

Forplay’s declaration of dub

Though my work will be slightly less celebrated than Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, I have started to catalog my own variety of evolution - duboluton, the evolution of dub. This is the latest entry.

Goodie Bag
King Tubby - Take Five (Left Click)

Forplay manners: Ladies first

For several months now, my project for compiling a ‘24 hours of dub’ playlist has been on hold for no good reason. Yesterday I was able to square away 42 minutes with the deceptively named playlist, Dubexx. The xx here marking not dubbed out tunes by ‘The xx’ but rather the use of only women vocalists in the playlist.

Here’s a track that’s not on the playlist, but rounds off 24 hours of dub to a nice 46 minutes.

Goodie Bag
Rhythm and Sound - See Mi Yah (Left-Click)

24 Hours of Dub:

Kingston Town//Alborosie

Ever since I was inspired by a narcotic mix of Monday night dub at the local chill-spot months ago, I have been constructing my own 24 hours of dub. You can call this a heavy-hitta simply for its chorus.

note: currently accepting suggestions…

Goodie Bag:

Alborosie - Kingstown Town @sendspace

This is not what I was looking for…

So True//Jewels and The Jacuzzis

Found this tune while searching for some Drum & Bass on iTunes - the electronic section of the store is easy to get lost in. Nevertheless, I abandoned the quest for d&b and stuck with the d-u-b.

Listen For: a Morcheeba feel with Rocksteady Reggae

Listen With: Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armini

And Now For Something Completely Different

*Patrice - Don’t Cry*

Reggae has, and never will be the same after Bob Marley. While the many seeds that Marley sowed in his prime have grown to be phenomenal musicians, there are many listeners who have not taken an ear to Damian, Ziggy, Stephen, or Julian. If you are one of those and think that Damian is too jamrock, Ziggy too jah cured, and Stephen is better set as a producer, well then Patrice might be music to your ears. Note: this post does not contend that Patrice is reggae’s long lost messiah, but he is something to keep you dabbling in the genre.

Patrice’s prominence in the US is nearly non-existent. I don’t even know if Rastas are listening to him. However, he has had promising and growing success in Europe - which makes sense given that he was born in Germany. I too came to hear of him while in London. And while I had 32 songs to choose from to showcase, I chose the one that hooked me, and hopefully it does the same for you lot.

Patrice lists his primary influences as Bob Marley (of course) and Jimi Hendrix. And listening to his music this is immediately evident. The tunes retain all the essentials of reggae: socially conscious lyrics, raw acoustics, and lingering afro beats. However Patrice’s songs also inject a dose of nu-soul through penetrating electric guitar. This new brand of reggae is impeccably topped off with the versatility of Patrice’s vocals. He seems to effortlessly move from soulful love ballads to more traditional reggae tempos (and everything in-between).

If this song does not suit your fancy, I strongly suggest you give his other stuff a listen.