Planet Reggae

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Product Overview

• Format: Audio CD, Import, March 16 1999

Amazon.ca This compilation achieves a rare and judicious balance between party
revelers and social commentators that presents a more accurate reflection of
today's reggae dancehall than most similar efforts. Add to that competitive
edge this cast of mic rockers drawn from dancehall's top rankings captured at
their hit-making best. Beenie Man, Mr. Vegas, Roundhead, Degree, Goofy, Red
Rat, Lady Saw, and Sean Paul--ladies' favorites all--flirt with dancehall's
escapist possibilities alongside those warriors for whom music is strictly a
means of exorcising human corruption: the fiery Anthony B, the spiritually
militant Sizzla, and the self-styled "Prophet" Capleton, solo and performing
"Zion Medley" with Jah Cure, Ras Shiloh, Morgan Heritage, Bushman, and a
singer who sounds exactly like Luciano but is not credited in the liner notes.
Newcomer Zebra has obviously staked out '80s dancehall star Tiger's style,
reasoning no doubt that the latter won't be needing it since he was injured in
a horrific motorcycle accident years ago. But Zebra doesn't get it quite right
in his phlegmy rendition of "Right Type of Love." Degree and Buju Banton--the
only man to follow Bob Marley's example and accommodate himself to a full
panorama of human experience--are the generals here by virtue of their
blissfully aggressive mic styles. Other sets attempting to reconcile
dancehall's schizophrenia usually wind up in discord. While the philosophies
and outlooks here do shift from track to track, the producers find enough
unity in the booming instrumentals, all dancehall-ready, brawny and computer-
engineered. --Elena Oumano