Very rarely does a debut album make an impact as startling as being smacked around the face with a wet kipper. Yet Major's 'My Mood' manages it.
This long-player from a west Londoner, who's assorted influences include the sweet-voiced Junior Murvin and the starkly raw Funkadelic, could crash into our lives with the same force as Tricky's first offering 'Maxinquaye', but it probably won't.
For, with the current flavour of the far less challenging (not to mention interesting) UK garage on everybody's lips, this self-produced and comfortably competent collection of songs may well go unnoticed. Sadly, the world of music is not a just one.
'Get High' is a powerful introduction, with a funky reggae groove and a bass line so seductive it's a constant temptation to turn the volume right up to ear-drum shattering levels. The subject matter may not be groundbreaking -the joys of smoking large amounts of weed- but the translation is exciting and hard-hitting.
If a single is likely to be released over the coming months, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be 'Million Miles'. It's a track that boasts huge, rousing, string-laden production, with suitably husky Shabba Ranks-style vocals and a melody sweet and mellow enough to give Peter Huningale a run for his money.
Meanwhile 'Stampede' has the hardest hip hop roots and features impressive contributions by rappers Rodney P, Ruel, Akira and Scary Eire members Rí Rá and DJ Mek, and the infectious chant of 'Bully' has more than just a smattering of Asian worldliness with added guitar.
Strictly speaking this is neither a reggae album nor a hip hop album, but it does manage to roll the two, with healthy pinches of dancehall, funk, ska, bangra and even punk, into a very smokeable concoction.
