Busy Signal – D.O.B.
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/6/10
New school Jamaican dancehall from the Bounty Killer school – much of it seems closer to soca than reggae. Distinctive hyperactive vocal style and sparse electronic riddims. Some of the tracks are the worst commercial crap on the planet, but a lot of them are somehow oddly brilliant.
I think there’s one very fleeting FCC on track 3. Mind the stars.
1. 2:48 ***claps, African-style chants intro, then fast high-pitched electronic dancehall/soca, inscrutable lyrics probably about a good dancer.
2. 1:59 **sweet little female vocal sample (repeated forever), bouncy dancehall.
3. 3:11 (may be an FCC – “why the fuck” – but hard to make out) ***violins and hard times lament intro, then sparse but funky midtempo dancehall. The lyrics are pretty cool, what you can make out of them.
4. 3:44 vocoder and commercial production. Eh.
5. 2:35 *****sample of Elvis Crespo, midtempo high-energy salsa, nutted vocals – this is the shizznizzle!
6. 2:23 ****spoken word and claps, adding percussive vocal and drum elements. Quite a cool sound, actually.
7. 3:38 love song with vocoder – wow, this is utter shite…. Funny thing, it’s about the only “reggae” riddim on the disk…
8. 3:25 *****syncopated midtempo riddim, the obligatory love song to pot. Makes me want to take up burning trees… Extra star for insisting that pot gives you wisdom through your third eye! OK!
9. 2:59 ****lots of vocoder, but the whole thing is sufficiently odd… hyperspeed with tense violin lines and I don’t know what he’s going on about.
10. 3:23 another crap love song with vocoder.
11. 3:41 ***aggressive midtempo gangsta dancehall featuring Bounty Killer.
12. 3:21 complete shite.
13. 2:04 **terribly fraught intro, midtempo aggressive gangsta dancehall.
14. 4:17 *very slow acoustic guitar and choir – nice sentiment, but much too sweet and predictable.
15. 1:57 **odd hyperactive vocals – no instruments but vocoder.