A Ruff Guide To Ariwa Sounds

Dub/reggae. Ariwa Sounds is a label out of south London, headed up by Guyana-born Mad Professor (who has the first and last track on this CD). The album has a mix of more dub-style open tracks (#18) and straight-ahead reggae tunes (#4). There are some nice laid-back instrumental pieces (#11 is my favorite), which could be used for background music behind a mic break, and there are some less conventional vibes on the collection too (#6, Lee Scratch Perry’s “Kill them all track”). Most of the songs have an explicit message/moral, which you can identify from the track names: Track 7 (“Don’t drink and drive”) and Track 14 (“Body function”) are really good and really bad at the same time.

Borderline FCCs:
-- Track 6: “KILL THEM ALL” many times at the start
-- Track 6: “Whore” and “Pimps” at random times in the track

1. (4:40) ** Slow deep bass groove under vocals and horn solos
2. (3:59) Echoey dub-style guitars and over straight-forward bass groove
3. (3:56) Repetitive vocal line “I am what I am” through the song feels like a bit of slog. Otherwise, the groove is good.
4. (4:28) Female vocals front and center
5. (3:14) * A clean spacious bass holds town the track and stereo percussion and back-up singers add layers on top
6. (4:11) Potential FCC!!! Starts out with Lee Scratch Perry (I think) saying “KILL THEM AND COME BACK ALONE” over and over in a Golem voice. Under-water singing through the track gives an unusual vibe.
7. (4:03) A feel-good track with the message “If you drink, don’t drive.” Cheezy, but cheezy in a charming way. Quasi-rap/poem about drinking+driving in each verse.
8. (4:26) Sparse track with just simple guitars, bass, drums in the background with female vocals up front.
9. (5:47) Echo-ey with drum-machine and synth keyboard backing which drops out at points in the track
10. (3:43) * Nice horn intro with harmonized vocals all the way through
11. (3:20) ** Starts epic, then gets down. Instrumental with dub guitars—would be a great sound bed for a mic break. Sick bridge around 1:40
12. (3:34) * Up-tempo drum + vocal freestyle-ish track featuring a biting mini history colonialism
13. (2:58) Laid back groove. Bass and drums drop out at 2:08.
14. (3:15) YES! I am not sure if this is awesome or terrible, but it’s so worth a listen. It’s a song about body function (though it's all clean—no FCC detected): “C for the carbon, F for the fiber, O for the oxy-gyon.”
15. (5:43) Spacey intro, with Patu Banton singing about himself,
16. (4:29) Spacious instrumental track. Synth bass and dub guitars, some echo-ey dub one-word vocals, but other than that just groove and space
17. (4:09) * Good vibrations all the way. Light track with rhythmic vocal lines, tapping high-hat, and simple bass
18. (3:48) * Slow and steady wins the race. Instrumental with slow synth keyboards playing in the background. Would be a good bed for voice-over

Review by Henry C-G