The Umoja 15-Year Anniversary is booked!
Umoja Hi-Fi DJ crew will come together to celebrate 15 years as a DJ crew and collective on Saturday October 25, 2008 in San Francisco. The night takes place at Surya Dub, at Club Six on Sixth Street near Market.
DJs Daz, Jun, and Culture D will fly up from LA and DJ/MC Cokni O'Dire will zip over from Dallas, TX to join DJ Tomas for a night of reggae, roots, soul, dance classics, dubstep and electronic bass vibrations.
Bear sound pressure till a morning! You mus fi deh deh!
Right now I'm feeling whole heap a new riddims, from dub and reggae through dubstep and electronic styles, not forgetting the huge amount of amazing broken beat, beat-generation and killer club bass sounds out there. But I wanted to focus on a couple of artists have been blazing new paths lately.
Ras Mc Bean (pictured above), originally from Guyana and now living in France, is a striking vocalist in the style of Garnett Silk or Dennis Brown. His voice has strength and smoothness as he covers mainly roots and culture subject matter. Definitely give this rootsman singer a try.
Bugle's name might conjure military horns, but this singjay from the Daseca crew of Red Hills Road, Kingston, Jamaica is not a one-note player. Bugle's forthcoming album will surprise listeners with its variety and fresh ideas. There's a fair amount of the typical gully/gangsta tunes in his new batch, but there's also some good pop ballad numbers and event the Gunman Riddim-riding one-drop of "Nah Sell Out". He's already got hits like "Doh" and "What I'm Gonna Do" under his world-weary oversized blingy belt buckle, but this youth has a lot more in store.
Likewise, Wayne Marshall is trying new ideas and definitely busting out of his weed-man lyric category. His latest batch of tracks includes the lament "Shooter" urging youth to reconsider the gangsta lifestyle, rough tunes like "From Dem Par" on the Warning riddim and the bubbly dance track "Who And Dem." But for my money it's his conscious "Have To Do My Part" that shows his tru-tru potential. His new album, Tru Story is out now and his Usain Bolt tribute "The Moment" is bubbling on YouTube. Gwaaan missa Marshall.
Grab the ForwardEver Reggae Download Pack.
