Zincfence Redemption & Dre Island, Glasgow O2 ABC, 19 July 2015
Well, there’s been a lot of late nights down at the African Arts Centre, and a lot of good food eaten thanks to Fire in Babylon and the Rum Shack, but it’s been a while since the last big reggae gig in town. And right now, they don’t get much bigger than Chronixx, for the final leg of his UK Reparation tour, which has seen him take the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in front of tens of thousands, selling out the illustrious surroundings of London’s Somerset House, burning a trail through Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Oxford, Leeds and Bristol to the more intimate venue of the Glasgow ABC. The impact of his debut ‘Dread and Terrible’ album has clearly kicked up a storm, with this being picked out as gig of the week by more mainstream music media, and the place was corked and rammed from early on Glasgow Fair Sunday night, as is only right and proper. But first, Bass Warrior laid down the foundations before the Zincfence Redemption band took up their positions, and a keyboard was placed centre stage for the arrival of Dre Island. First coming to wider attention on the Rodigan show with an acoustic set for 1Xtra in Jamaica which revealed this classically trained musician has been hiding his light under a bushel for several years. He has earned his time in the spotlight with his own compositions such as ‘Uptown Downtown’, ‘Rastafari way’, starting in a meditative fashion seated at the keyboard with minimal accompaniment before rising up for a rousing ‘Way Up’. Dre Island is clearly the best pianist on the reggae scene since General Degree.
The pressure was building up, the faint heat of a Glasgow July night compressed into a sweaty and slightly beer-soaked crucible, with only a brief respite before the turn of Chronixx. Now, I man am not one of these reviewers who just goes around saying everything is great and I don’t believe the hype. I’ve played ‘Dread and Terrible’ a lot, but there’s only seven tracks on there and I had my doubts about whether this level of quality could be sustained for a whole gig. When he strolled casually onto the stage, and began to sing with closed eyes, I was also a bit concerned about whether this young whippersnapper had been having too many late nights and was suffering from the lack of availability of Spirulina in the UK. But how wrong I was, as it soon became clear this man has his own style and is very focused on his music, concentrating on communicating the powerful messages contained in his lyrics which demonstrate a very wise head on young shoulders (he’s only 22!). And clearly he has tunes in abundance, with earlier sleepers like ‘They Don’t Know’ and more recent hits like ‘Smile Jamaica’ more than enough to fill another album. He warmed into his set, gradually increasing the pace and letting slip a few bashful smiles then reaching out to the adoring crowd. It became clear why he is the stand out artist in the current crop of new roots reggae musicians out of Jamaica, reminiscent of Garnett Silk or Horace Andy from previous generations. He has a knack of making the message of Haile Selassie fresh and relevant to a new generation, inspired to merge the teachings of Rastafari with observations of the current global crisis, injustice and poverty, over powerful original riddims. He set out his credentials with a slow motion version of Ini Kamoze’s World a Reggae Music, blended into the Damian Marley blaster, throwing in a few surprises with a taste of ‘Sweat’ from Inner Circle mixed up with his
version of Tenement Yard, and a burst of Toots. Chronixx’s voice is sweet and smooth, but he also has quite a penchant for the deejay stylee, and popped off quite a lot of verses in an old time toasting fashion. But it was the modern classics of ‘Alpha and Omega’, ‘Here Comes Trouble’ and ‘Capture Land’ that really struck a chord and lifted the crowd to higher heights, along with a souped up version of Spirulina (apparently you can get it in Holland & Barrett). He kept going for the best part of two hours, with the crowd still wanting more, even though all the last buses and trains had gone. Hopefully as he heads home for Jamaica today, after a well deserved rest, Chronixx will be busy making more great music and soon come back
to Scotland. One Love.
The pressure was building up, the faint heat of a Glasgow July night compressed into a sweaty and slightly beer-soaked crucible, with only a brief respite before the turn of Chronixx. Now, I man am not one of these reviewers who just goes around saying everything is great and I don’t believe the hype. I’ve played ‘Dread and Terrible’ a lot, but there’s only seven tracks on there and I had my doubts about whether this level of quality could be sustained for a whole gig. When he strolled casually onto the stage, and began to sing with closed eyes, I was also a bit concerned about whether this young whippersnapper had been having too many late nights and was suffering from the lack of availability of Spirulina in the UK. But how wrong I was, as it soon became clear this man has his own style and is very focused on his music, concentrating on communicating the powerful messages contained in his lyrics which demonstrate a very wise head on young shoulders (he’s only 22!). And clearly he has tunes in abundance, with earlier sleepers like ‘They Don’t Know’ and more recent hits like ‘Smile Jamaica’ more than enough to fill another album. He warmed into his set, gradually increasing the pace and letting slip a few bashful smiles then reaching out to the adoring crowd. It became clear why he is the stand out artist in the current crop of new roots reggae musicians out of Jamaica, reminiscent of Garnett Silk or Horace Andy from previous generations. He has a knack of making the message of Haile Selassie fresh and relevant to a new generation, inspired to merge the teachings of Rastafari with observations of the current global crisis, injustice and poverty, over powerful original riddims. He set out his credentials with a slow motion version of Ini Kamoze’s World a Reggae Music, blended into the Damian Marley blaster, throwing in a few surprises with a taste of ‘Sweat’ from Inner Circle mixed up with his
version of Tenement Yard, and a burst of Toots. Chronixx’s voice is sweet and smooth, but he also has quite a penchant for the deejay stylee, and popped off quite a lot of verses in an old time toasting fashion. But it was the modern classics of ‘Alpha and Omega’, ‘Here Comes Trouble’ and ‘Capture Land’ that really struck a chord and lifted the crowd to higher heights, along with a souped up version of Spirulina (apparently you can get it in Holland & Barrett). He kept going for the best part of two hours, with the crowd still wanting more, even though all the last buses and trains had gone. Hopefully as he heads home for Jamaica today, after a well deserved rest, Chronixx will be busy making more great music and soon come back
to Scotland. One Love.
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