Showdown Inna Bloody Town

Mykal Rose – Showdown Inna Bloody Town
Reviewed by Sadie O., 7/14/13
Reggae, and I guess you’d call some of this “post-dancehall”. Mykal Rose is better known as Michael Rose, former lead singer of Black Uhuru. Still has vocal inflections and lyrical focus on decrying inner city violence. 4 tracks, 4 dubs/remixes, all good.
No FCCs detected.
1. 4:24 **funky midtempo riddim with a smidge of Blaxploitation. Rather laidback feel, given the subject. Nice bass and horns.
2. 4:13 ***dramatic midtempo skank with prominent syndrum, fine vocals.
3. 5:11 ****slow skank with lots of mildly woobly sounds, bemoaning violent times.
4. 4:23 ****remake of the Black Uhuru hit “Youths of Eglington” with focus on Bay Area… Yikes! Downtempo, swingy, dubby.
5. 4:37 *****vocal intro, dub version of the funky riddim from track 1. Really good!
6. 3:56 ***dub of track 3. Moody and nice. Sweet backing vocals singing “bloody, bloody town” particularly incongruous…
7. 4:26 ***Hip Hop remix of track 1, rather downtempo with electronics and scratching.
8. 4:24 *****remix of track 1, focus on the Blaxploitation/crime movie soundtrack element of the riddim. No vocals, but the music is great. Awesome bass sax solo.