This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean — featuring reviews by Nigel Campbell of new music by Nataki Lendor; Chromatics; Godwin Louis; and Jus Now
Nataki Lendor
Til All Hear (self-released)
Gospel music, praise and worship, revelations and testimonies are best experienced live. This new live album by powerhouse vocalist Nataki Lendor captures the thrill of being blessed with an excellent voice and messages that preface the sung tracks. They share with the listener Lendor’s faith and deliverance. In the past, she performed as Mahalia Jackson in a musical on the gospel legend’s life — so, in a way, life imitates art. The album’s audio production sparkles in its clarity, and advances the argument that contemporary gospel music in the Caribbean is undersubscribed by a wider audience who appreciates music, whatever the message is. With tracks that include Caribbean rhythms (“Good Good”), this album is also a celebration of fine music arrangement and performance, especially the background harmonies. As a fillip for an unfulfilled soul, this works.
Chromatics
Hammer & Chisel (self-released)
The beauty of Caribbean hip-hop/rap is the colour of the language. Chromatics, a major hip-hop pioneer in Trinidad, has released a new album eight years in the making, covering a life in 10 songs and an audio interlude. In that circumscribed autobiography, he recalls rivalries; extols the joy of fatherhood and sustained marriage; details maternal loss. Simple beats make space for words — vainglorious vernacular — that securely centre a Caribbean life and move from emotion to emotion: from “vexation in my spirit” to joy to pathos. Some phrases stand out as nuggets of sublime wordplay with an island attitude: we don’t study beef [grievance], we does curry it; and karma is a jammette and she sure to wine back on you. The bombast and confidence move from generic to specific (You trying to win a Grammy / I should be a Nobel laureate), reinforcing an optimistic Caribbean reality. Novel rhymes and narratives makes this album a winner.
Godwin Louis
Psalms and Proverbs (Blue Room Music)
For centuries, music has been an adjunct to prayer and liturgical texts. When European colonists came to the “New World”, hymns and psalms were ritualised, with a mission to convert the populations they encountered (and subjugated) to Christianity. In the contemporary Caribbean, the music inspired by these ancient words of faith and control have taken on new dimensions. Haitian-American saxophonist Godwin Louis is a global traveller who has used his Caribbean perspective to reinterpret and remake this body of sacred texts, music, and traditional hymns. Haitian, Cuban, and Trinidadian musicians are all in the mix, transforming the music for your soul into relevant idioms. Hard bop madness blends with Afro-Caribbean rhythms to fine effect. Jazz “with a West Indian accent” imbues this album with a new aura of responsibility for positioning Caribbean creativity and ideas beyond old totems. A Kreyòl djaz celebration for any soul.
Jus Now
Danger Zone (Road Music)
Modern Caribbean Carnival music has always followed global trends, mimicking and improvising with what is hot, yet never abandoning indigenous genres for the next big thing. Drum and bass, riddim and bass, and dubstep music form part of the EDM aesthetic that penetrated road march material a decade ago, and which has propelled Caribbean music to festivals like Glastonbury. Caribbean-British duo Jus Now continues its work of fusing modern electronic beats with the rhythm and energy of soca music — both for the clubs and for the road. The title track of this short, five-song EP — perfectly sung by music innovator Mad Hed City — delves into the complicated, darker side of island life with rapid-fire honesty that does not flinch when exposing nasty truths, officially sanctioned or otherwise. We go hard ‘cause we grow hard and know hard / Real talent push out of this yard … It’s not where you live, it’s where you’re given when you livin’ in a Danger Zone. Do a dangerous dance.