Lady Bee and Noise Cans (ft Mr Vegas) – Bucka
Noise Cans is a unique sound system created by enigmatic Bermudian frontman Collas. A celebration of both sounds and visuals, it sports colourful masks and elaborate costumes, drawing on the African, indigenous, Caribbean and British influences that come together to form the uniquely Bermudian folk carnival tradition of Gombey. Taking a little bit from Vegas’s earworm duet with Sean Paul, Hot Gal Today, this track also adds a touch of trap to make a dancefloor tune that has that big bass drop but doesn’t forget the reggae riddim. The video was shot in Jamaica, offering the “badman rave” aspirations of Noise Cans.
X-Man (ft Carimi) – Validé
Haitian konpa is a pretty soft and smooth genre, known for its romantic rhythms and sugary sweet singing. Carimi, specifically, is one of the country’s most popular proponents of the genre. Here, however, the relaxed bounce of konpa meets the dancehall vocals of X-Man – a guy who is usually more straight with his ragga stylings, as with the recent tracks No More and Pété Tèt. Carimi adds a nice touch of warmth and soulful singing to X-Man’s more direct deejaying.
Bunji Garlin – Way Up
Trinidadian Bunji Garlin draws from other genres and styles, adding new ingredients to make his own personal blend. Adding the EDM of Major Lazer and Skrillex met with great results and international acclaim. Way Up has the housy feel of another one of his 2016 offerings, Take Over Town, and that’s a good thing. This is still soca, but it’s got crossover appeal that might endure far beyond soca season.
Vybz Kartel – Everyday Is Christmas
What would December be without some holiday-themed dancehall tunes? Santa always seems to bring as many Jamaican Christmas songs as he does gifts for good girls and boys (see this mix for details). Vybz Kartel is here to talk about how he’s got “rum inna mi hand”. But this is, of course, probably wishful thinking for the imprisoned musician than anything else. Love him or hate him, there’s no stopping the prolific Adidja Palmer.
Benjai – Beautiful Faces
While Jamaica offers an annual bonanza of Christmas-themed dancehall and reggae, Trinidad and Tobago have a whole genre of holiday music. Parang is a folk music that features the sound of a four-stringed cuatro and maracas. It’s traditionally performed by groups of carollers who expect beverages from sorrel (a sweet hibiscus drink) to egg nog – as long as you can add rum to it. The advent of soca parang is a more recent phenomena, and Benjai (of this year’s excellent Phenomenal fame) offers up the seasonally suitable Beautiful Faces. And if you want to preview the other tunes on the Christmas Vibes riddim, check out the mix here.
