Addis is the son of the legendary Augustus Pablo, and here he is following in his father’s footsteps and continuing the ‘Pablo’ legacy on a heavy roots riddim, built by producer Frenchie for his Maximum Sounds imprint.
Frenchie has been keeping the standard of reggae music very high for many years (twenty I think but don’t quote me!) via his productions. He always draws for top notch artists to compliment his clever, polished, well thought-out productions. I’ve admired his productions in the past because of the way he can take an old school riddim and then tweak it to make current, relative and hitting! Research the Skateland Killer and Blackboard Jungle riddims both from a few years back.
This is the ‘Imperial Crown’ riddim that Frenchie has Addis playing melodica over. A ‘four to the floor’ roots stomper that has a lot more ‘swing’ and a lot more going on production-wise than some of the flat-sounding UK roots that is out there. Other cuts feature Chezidek, Exco Levi, Jesse Royal, Luciano and Dre Island…..see what I mean by top notch artists?
As well as ‘Imperial Crown’, the ‘Jah Blessings’ and ‘King Tubby’s Dubplate Style’ riddims are also produced by the man and are out now. They are equally well worth sourcing as they are all on 7” vinyl and have PROPER artists on all of them!
Keith Lawrence
‘Reggae Rock‘ on mi-soul.com, Wed 9pm-11pm GMT
Keith Lawrence MixCloud
