Seanizzle/ Various

Every week as I plow through deluge of sometimes good, often crap releases from Europe, I find myself wistfully thinking about dancehall. I know a lot of you dont share my taste for this, but the fact remains- how can one tiny island pack so much inventiveness, so much fun, hype, substance and insanity into its pop music week in, week out ? Jamaica may have massively documented problems, and its easy to dismiss bashment as the preserve of homophobes and gangsters, but regardless, producers on the island effortlessly push their sound forward, constantly striving to find a new riddim thats gonna blow. Remember this is the mainstream and tracks walk a constant line between innovation and the constraints of keeping the crowd skanking leading to some truly bizarre mutations in the dance. To be fair, the One Day Riddim isnt one of the most whacked out of riddims, but it is a stupidly euphoric floor filler, all uplifting chord stabs and school yard synthetic whistles. Heavy versions come from Future Fambo & Beenie Man with their ode to getting plastered (Drinking Rum), and Mr. Gs jokes boasting on Swaggerific. Basically, absolutely wicked.

Ian Mcquaid

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