I'm leaving the year off because Carnival season doesn't follow the regular calendar anyway and the last couple threads didn't quite justify dedicated annual threads--hopefully this one will get massively unwieldy and I'll regret it. Also making the thread remit open to basically any Caribbean pop music that isn't already covered in the dancehall and reggaeton&c. threads, though the emphasis will still likely be on Trinidadian music.
Kes's ode to Queen's Park Savannah, "Savannah Grass," seems like a great place to start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXXq4RBKhtc
Also enjoying the Tingin' riddim this afternoon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eazfwcqabpo
I desperately need a pre-season mix though, if anyone has any recs.
― rob, Saturday, 26 January 2019 19:50 (one year ago) link
(repost) Just for the pleasure of having Bunji Garlin with spanish-style guitar againhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzPJNUe5mkA
― Nabozo, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 14:47 (one year ago) link
That's really nice, it has a Carnival Tabanca vibe to it.
― rob, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 15:18 (one year ago) link
Yeah, nice one. For the uninitiated (=me): who is the original “Carnival Tabanca” by? I see lots of songs (cover versions?) with that title.
― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 17:14 (one year ago) link
Bunji, i think?
"Tabanca" as a concept is used a lot though - it's basically longing for something that has passed so in this context generally means post-carnival comedown.
― ShariVari, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 17:29 (one year ago) link
yeah I meant the Bunji tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiYTfkvdtNg
one of my favorites
― rob, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 17:36 (one year ago) link
Soca Monarch semi-finalists are out btw:
http://www.looptt.com/content/soca-monarch-semi-finalists-named
I haven't gone through them properly yet (though in true Trini style, i haven't gotten around to listening to my Carnival 2018 compilation CDs yet, so it may be a while).
― ShariVari, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 17:40 (one year ago) link
wow I don't think I know *any* of the Power finalists
― rob, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 17:43 (one year ago) link
I do know most of these finalists but it’s great to have the songs listed like this. Thanks!
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 21:17 (one year ago) link
Dumpa Truck goes HARD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqe3PYxmq8s
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 29 January 2019 22:22 (one year ago) link
I think longneck might have posted this on the previous thread, but man I love Bunji's See Meh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLFnIPxjH-A
On Badang he's meta:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lciBiSpQvQ4
― rob, Wednesday, 30 January 2019 20:06 (one year ago) link
^Olatunji and Machel are also great on that if you missed it earlier like I did
― rob, Wednesday, 30 January 2019 20:09 (one year ago) link
Speaking of Bunji Garlin, I really enjoyed this - as well, of course, as everything I've found lurking here for the last decade or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeGRongJI8k
― vcrash, Thursday, 31 January 2019 01:31 (one year ago) link
that bangs! underpopulated rolling genre threads are a great way to de-lurk imo, just saying
― rob, Thursday, 31 January 2019 22:28 (one year ago) link
haha, true dat
― breastcrawl, Friday, 1 February 2019 07:10 (one year ago) link
can't remember if I posted this on last year's thread, but I like this very much.
Juby - Look She Dey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXKo0qEBU0M
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 1 February 2019 12:55 (one year ago) link
What can you lot tell me about Zouk and French-Antillian / French-Caribbean music? Is it still a thing? I remember Kassav' and Zouk Machine being on TV in France a lot as a kid
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 1 February 2019 13:04 (one year ago) link
Ha I ate pancakes at Riley's in December! Great tune too.
Sadly I know rien about French-Caribbean music. fwiw, I think the stray tracks that have crossed my radar were all basically dancehall. LargeUp was never perfect but it definitely sucks there's no good source for general Caribbean music now
― rob, Friday, 1 February 2019 17:48 (one year ago) link
This power soca tag team development is worth noting:
Skinny, Machel, and Bunji / "Famalay"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD4lqYEwmiI
Erphaan, Nailah, and Sekon / "Brave"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwXoxYOqb9Y
― rob, Friday, 1 February 2019 17:50 (one year ago) link
The Juby is great. Loving the brass and the breakdown at the end. In heavy rotation now.Some fresh jab from Slatta (or “Slätta”, as Spotify likes to call him, as a result of interference with a Danish band of that name). I had a wild musical fling with him last year, and he’s back! Slatta • Unbothered:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmn5pPqY1ik(this one makes me so so giddy)Merzy ft. Slatta • Doh Fraid:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-_Nu6ntsRc(the instrumental track of this one is absolutely bonkers!)The Cigar Puff Riddim has Slatta, but also this: Big Red • Typa Way:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOHFSg-ApQUAs it happens, these are all produced by Xpert Productions, who also did Bunji’s “Wet” upthread.In case it wasn’t abundantly clear yet: Jab is by far my favorite kind of soca.
― breastcrawl, Friday, 1 February 2019 19:12 (one year ago) link
Question: I say “jab”, because that’s how people call it here (I think), or is “jab jab” the (only) correct name for this genre?
― breastcrawl, Friday, 1 February 2019 19:16 (one year ago) link
I say Jab but I'm by no means an authority. think 'Jab jab' means devil which is the root term
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 1 February 2019 19:22 (one year ago) link
Either is fine.
― ShariVari, Friday, 1 February 2019 19:52 (one year ago) link
That’s settled then, cheers!
― breastcrawl, Friday, 1 February 2019 20:03 (one year ago) link
The Toco Loco Riddim (posted at the tail end of the previous thread) is a great way to start the day. Make the shower your carnival!
― breastcrawl, Thursday, 7 February 2019 07:50 (one year ago) link
Jab MADNESS
'Pick up something - Run wid it!'
https://www.facebook.com/MrKilla/videos/2171317776455741/
This is Mr Killa - Run Wid It. I think it's mandatory to pick up something when this comes on
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 8 February 2019 15:31 (one year ago) link
http://www.looptt.com/content/more-criticism-mr-killa-over-soca-monarch-win
Sour grapes re Grenada’s Mr Killa?
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 March 2019 21:54 (one year ago) link
I like Mr. Killa from Grenada’s “ Run Wild it.” His speedy ennuncation and the percussive rhythms. He’s gonna be in DC Sunday.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 13:32 (one year ago) link
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/238717/killa-slays-iwer-ism-crown-goes-grenada
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 March 2019 13:34 (one year ago) link
Listening to David Rudder’s Catharsis album from a few years back. I like his lilting melodies, socio-political lyrics, and rhythms that aren’t quite as fast-tempoed as most soca hits
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 28 March 2019 14:16 (one year ago) link
https://newsday.co.tt/2019/02/08/wheres-the-lyrical-artistry-in-soca/
Rudder, a singer/songwriter who won the Calypso Monarch and Road March titles in 1986, answered first.
Each generation reflects where we are in society, he said. Recalling that he had come up as a calypsonian in the tradition of Zandolie and Kitchener, the “Lyrics Man” said working with 2016-18 Soca Monarch Voice showed him that young writers see rhyme and lyrics differently from the older generation of calypsonians. He and Voice have a 2019 release called Madness....
...Calypso emerged from the songs of enslaved Africans in Trinidad and came of age in the poor, black, urban jamette culture of the early 20th century. Its anodyne lyrics often disguised subversive or vulgar double meanings.
There is no need to disguise such meanings any more, Rudder said. “It’s not by chance. It’s a very raw time.”
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 31 March 2019 18:47 (one year ago) link
70-something Calypso Rose from T & T is performing in NYC tonight. Wish she’d come farther south to my locale
― curmudgeon, Friday, 5 April 2019 18:33 (one year ago) link
xp my Chutney-loving mate made the case for parallels between that style and country music. so many songs about break ups and alcohol abuse
― frame casual (dog latin), Friday, 5 April 2019 18:53 (one year ago) link
Maybe so
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 10 April 2019 12:54 (one year ago) link
From Martinique (and from 2016, but new to me, so yeah):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuFnsdjtCeU
M.O.B • KoKoLeCheL
This is from this year, slightly different title, completely different track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAgu-Bj-dtk
M.O.B • KoKéLécheL
(Spotify has them as by “Mob” and “M O B” respectively, but it’s the same guy)
― breastcrawl, Friday, 3 May 2019 12:59 (one year ago) link
https://www.okayafrica.com/how-afrobeats-global-rise-is-changing-carnival-rigid-genre-conventions-soca/
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 14:05 (one year ago) link
Interesting stuff. How come nobody ever told me about that Jamaican ”Mad Over You” rip?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUCTrcSGvsUDing Dong • Lebeh Lebeh(sure, it belongs on the dancehall thread, but since everybody’s mashing things up anyway...)
― breastcrawl, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 19:23 (one year ago) link
Lebeh Lebeh is cute, but it's always bugged me that it cuts some of the best bits of "Mad over You" (which I adore)
― rob, Friday, 21 June 2019 13:15 (one year ago) link
breastcrawl, have you checked out the Walshy Fire album? I haven't gotten around to it yet myself but it's all stuff like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCmVgPVT_Y
― rob, Friday, 21 June 2019 13:19 (one year ago) link
Mad Over You always reminds me of just how much I love music.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Friday, 21 June 2019 13:41 (one year ago) link
rob, I listened to the Walshy Fire album, several times in fact. I’m not too crazy about the Alkaline/Runtown track you posted, I like second single “Call Me” with Eazi and Kranium much better:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsUlpNgvgvsThe dancehall-leaning tracks don’t do too much for me (a bit stodgy and waaaay too much Ice Prince - they must be very good friends). The fun is in the lighter tracks, notably “Outside” (Adekunle Gold/Nailah Blackman) (is this afrosocapop?) and “Amazing” (Timeka Marshall/Stonebwoy) with its wonderful steel drum coda, my favourite:http://www.youtube.com/watch?dWy7lxVK30Y
― breastcrawl, Friday, 28 June 2019 05:13 (one year ago) link
“Amazing”, again:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWy7lxVK30Y
― breastcrawl, Friday, 28 June 2019 05:14 (one year ago) link
Afro-Caribbean collaborations that are at least as interesting:How about some “palm whine à la bamba”? https://youtu.be/QNb0WlPe73YJuls ft. Agent Sasco • Slow DownAnd this reggaeton bombshell, produced by Legendury Beatz: https://youtu.be/HcwEyLhwL54J Balvin & Bad Bunny ft. Mr Eazi • Como Un Bebé
― breastcrawl, Friday, 28 June 2019 05:16 (one year ago) link
Reposting this from the Rolling Dancehall & Reggae thread, where vcrash posted it yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6-tSYzqnXIBush Tea • Wiyah Waist
(She’s from the Virgin Islands)
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 10 August 2019 17:11 (one year ago) link
has anybody had a chance to hear this soundway comp ?
Body Beat: Soca-Dub and Electronic Calypso (1979-98)
curious to hear a perspective from ilxors who have been keeping tabs on contemporary soca
― budo jeru, Sunday, 17 November 2019 04:44 (one year ago) link
sounds good on a quick spin. what would you call the high points on that collection?
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 19 November 2019 16:02 (one year ago) link
yeah it's quite good. i mean, it's got very little to do with current soca sounds, but it's entertaining as a time-capsule in the way a lot of outernational music compilations can be. there's some nice crossover with funk and house music. well worth a spin
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Tuesday, 19 November 2019 16:39 (one year ago) link
Not really listened enough times to pick faves.
Quite like D'Jab Jab Dance (Bad Lad Mix) which is the aforementioned housey tune
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Tuesday, 19 November 2019 16:43 (one year ago) link
yeah, i haven't spent enough time with the comp to pick a favorite, nor do i feel qualified to point out the high points. that's why i posted here. you tell me !!
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 18:36 (one year ago) link
Fucking love that “D’Jab Jab Dance” track, but then it seems I’m genetically predisposed to like anything jab.Case in point: two new (and very different) tracks from/with my to-go-to jab guy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk6CVVyfYzoXpert Productions ft. Slatta • Wukking High https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcnpykSJ0AcSlatta • Bwa Neg Mawon
― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 22:59 (one year ago) link
Miss Naija House Niniola crossing the Atlantic for some soca light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pVa0GSCvzgNiniola • PocketOn the same Bittersweet Riddim:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9sbVvFHU7ANailah Blackman x Konshens • Slow Wine
― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 23:00 (one year ago) link
Nailah's on a ton of collabs now. Love this one with Olatunji:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1upH9vnmR68
― rob, Sunday, 29 December 2019 17:47 (one year ago) link
this is rad; one for the horrorcore soca fans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMf-XgHpv88
(Blaxx, "Douen")
― rob, Sunday, 29 December 2019 18:10 (one year ago) link
if you're into that, check this too: https://youtu.be/z140_ZhGhEQ
― rob, Sunday, 29 December 2019 18:14 (one year ago) link
I was totally out of the soca scene in 2019 and feel like I need to catch up. What did I miss? And was there anything pollable outside of Run With It?
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 2 January 2020 07:26 (one year ago) link
yes: Famalay, At Large, Trouble In The Morning being just three (I think they came out in 2019 or maybe late 2018)
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Thursday, 2 January 2020 08:28 (one year ago) link
Thanks! As long as they're Soca Season 2019 release dates are not a problem.
― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, 2 January 2020 11:10 (one year ago) link
New thread, cos why not:
'We're Jamming Still!' - rolling Soca, Chutney, Dennery, Jab and the rest 2020
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 January 2020 09:41 (one year ago) link
Why not— uh, read Rob’s intro to this one:
I'm leaving the year off because Carnival season doesn't follow the regular calendar anyway and the last couple threads didn't quite justify dedicated annual threads--
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 8 January 2020 15:48 (one year ago) link
i'm interested in what's happening now. i detest history
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 January 2020 16:10 (one year ago) link
but yeah, point taken. too late now
― YOU CALL THIS JOURNALSIM? (dog latin), Wednesday, 8 January 2020 16:11 (one year ago) link
my approach didn't exactly stimulate posting so I have no objection to this!
― rob, Wednesday, 8 January 2020 16:51 (one year ago) link
reviving this thread for this superlative floaty track from Martinique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8UJl665mPM70 SHIINE ft. Nacho • Domino
(courtesy of D-40 on the [cruel, cruel] Summer Jams thread)
― No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Friday, 21 August 2020 15:16 (five months ago) link
you can’t stop the flow:
🀄️🀄️ Martinique to the world: 70 SHiiNE x Nacho • DOMINO 🀄️🀄️
― No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Friday, 21 August 2020 16:02 (five months ago) link
https://www.nts.live/shows/death-is-not-the-end/episodes/death-is-not-the-end-9th-august-2020
Trini Calypso from the 1920s to 1940s .
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 22 August 2020 05:57 (five months ago) link
https://nhcarnival.org/
Notting Hill Carnival August 29-31Digital style
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 22 August 2020 21:11 (five months ago) link
Don't often think of soca in a live band context, but Kes have released an excellent live album called 'We Home'. It's great to hear some absolute classics like 'Hello' and 'Savannah Grass' in this context
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djlSmc9RYXs
― doorstep jetski (dog latin), Thursday, 3 September 2020 09:30 (four months ago) link
haha, I'm only now watching the video and didn't realise it was 'live in the studio' but that would make sense
Another French overseas department in the house - je kiffe trop!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsFckB9WXVwPoplane ft. Momo Wang • Mo Lé
Poplane is from French Guiana, I see him referred to as “le Wizkid guyanais”. Appropriately enough, the video was shot in Africa (in Senegal, to be precise).
― No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Monday, 7 September 2020 17:51 (four months ago) link
starting my Friday with this loveliness
― No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Friday, 11 September 2020 07:49 (four months ago) link
bump for this fun track from Aruba that I just happened across:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvLB6ngRaPQAtaniro ft. Steve Andreas • Dios Para Den
― partyin' maskless with Rudy G. and Vanilla Ice, it's a gas gas gas (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 16:08 (one week ago) link