Aggrolites New Album
May 18th 2006 09:22
I know I talk about the Aggrolites a lot, but there isn’t another contemporary band that excites me as they do. The new album is fantastic – all 19 tracks of it and I suggest if you only buy one reggae CD this year you buy this one.
The album starts with the very funky (funnily enough) song titled Funky Fire. It is obvious that this album would be more of the same heavy sound reggae with stripped back sing along time lyrics. You don’t get ballads here; you get more repetitive (in a good way) one liners, perfect for Jesse Wagner’s soulful voice or call and return type songs. Backing vocals are executed very well for this effect.
The CD mixes in quite a few keyboard driven dirty funky instrumentals – more than most bands would do, but they are welcomed and just as equally as memorable as the vocal tracks. My favourite instrumental would probably be Death At Ten Paces. All the instrumentals have the driving sound I would associate with the skinhead reggae era.
Favourite vocal tracks would have to be Countryman Fiddle and I have noticed it is a favourite of a few others around the traps also. Another would be Heavier Than Lead, which is a slower pace to the rest of the album. Love Isn’t Love is another slower track that I like. I must admit a few of the songs do sound highly influenced by old reggae songs, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even when this is the case at the beginning of a track, the direction moves away from the old reggae song which I appreciate.
Of course the album ends as their debut Dirty Reggae did with a chanting song. This time they aren’t chanting Dirty Reggae, but rather the letters to make up AGGRO. I like this tie over effect and it conjures up many an image of an Aggrolites gig with a big smiling crowd dancing and singing along. I can’t wait til it comes out as vinyl.
Over at the Epitaph website you can download the song Funky Fire or Mr Misery (from the list on the left).
The album is widely available in the USA and Europe. In Australia you can order it from the distributor Shock Records
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