For the benefit of the uninitiated, Capleton's unique blessing is a voice that consists of equal parts the honey monster dancehall vocals of Buju Banton and the righteous sing-jay style of Sizzla.
'Still Blazin' is an album of epic proportions, a Land Of The Pharaohs of the contemporary reggae scene travelling through nearly as many styles as the often fiercely traditional music has thrown up in its long history. It's also one of the most astonishingly accomplished long-players to have travelled from those shores since Sizzla's monumentally brilliant 'Praise Ye Jah'. Unlike that album, 'Still Blazin' reaches some of its greatest heights in the few vocal collaborations that augment Capleton's ferociously gruff style and dancehall inclinations.
Joined by Morgan Heritage on 'Behold', Capleton crafts the best of the many soulful roots songs that pepper the album. With a righteously organic production from Kickin and a gentle chorus from Heritage, the song finds the perfect balance between the soulful (too frequently saccharine) roots vocal of Luciano and the ruff sing-jay style of Sizzla. The raw expression of Capleton's volcanic vocal style somehow acts as the stone that cracks the nut and reveals the full intensity of love in Heritage's soulful chorus.
Luciano himself is typically heart-warming on 'Hail King Selassie', a sincere cry for social change as a 'bottom-up' process, educating the 'youth'. But this is not just a fine roots album, in fact, at its centre is a core of radically produced dancehall tracks, only occasionally marred that the genre's attendant politics. The most thrillingly inventive of these is Blacka Dread's 'Punchline 2 Hit'. A severely chopped-up production, it sounds, throughout, as if a volume fader is being jammed up and down whilst vocal fills and effects are echoed in. Its pared down syncopations allow Capleton to poor out vocal flows that ought to send Jay-Z into retirement.
Similarly, 'Pure Woman' demonstrates the way in which Jamaican knob-twiddlers have come full circle - having been one of the key sources when Timbaland was radically redefining the sound of US R&B they, somewhat predictably, have ended up sounding like the Virginian studio guru circa 'Da Real World'. There are other signs here of the immense influence that dancehall is currently exerting over open-minded musicians everywhere: 'How It Ago' could be one of the tracks that the Beta Band and C-Swing were listening to during sessions for 'Hot Shots II'.
This album is bigger in almost every way than most: the depth and detail of the music will keep the most inquisitive ear busy for months and the sheer deluge of tracks contained within its deceptively average packaging may be daunting at first but soon becomes a blessing. Don't wait for Ian Brown to say the word, 'Still Blazin' is amongst the best albums so far released this year in any genre.
by James Poletti