Pama International - Trojan Sessions
August 18th 2006 09:53
This record starts out very strongly. The first number is an energy filled skanked up number featuring Rico Rodriguez called Disobedient Child. An album should start out with a song as good as this, and with the great horn line and fantastic drumming, you’ve got me in.
I mentioned the first song featured Rico and the next, Neither High nor Dry, features another great in Dennis Al Capone. I say feature, but his deejaying is matched by the soulful vocals that is a standard of Pama International. We slow down for the next track, Betterment Blues, with Dawn Penn lending her voice for it. The album overall features plenty of effects and their use comes through especially strongly on this track perfect for a lazy Sunday. The next three tracks come back to the normal band line-up. They are good laidback songs with Life Is What Happens (the third of the next three) bringing the pace up a bit. This is a wonderfully smooth track with the prominence of the keys, bass and melodica aiding this feel. We then go into the song It Ain’t Funny featuring Dave and Ansel Collins, which is a top funky reggae tune - a take on reggae that makes for good dancing. Dave Barker’s intro is a bit cheesy, despite the importance of the words, but perhaps that is just my taste. Going off on a tangent a little, but I thought I would express a preference for a few more local issues, rather than a save the world and work back approach to music, which is by no means restricted to this (fantastic band). I know Pama International is aiming more global, but I’d like to hear about some of the things affecting their own backyard. That goes for a few more bands out there.
Moving on and the second last track, Penny Wise Pound Fool with Derrick Morgan, is my favourite track on the album. It is a track suited to the man, with some skank and very Jamaica hint to the lyric structure. The last song is Fisherman, which features the much underrated Winston Francis and AJ Franklin. Pama International leave things as they left off with a great track, which has that soulful vocal group sound, in the vein of a song like Pressure Drop.
The Trojan Sessions album is jam packed with talent and it is not strictly about the Jamaican legends. It shows off Pama’s great sound, with a focus on getting people dancing complimented with oh so soulful vocals. More of the same please.
Trojan Sessions is available from September 4th and can be pre-ordered from the Trojan Site.
http://www.trojanrecords.com/
http://www.pamainternational.co.uk/
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