HEART OF A PUNK - SOUL OF A RASTA

Unconquered Roots Israel Vibration - Reggae Knights

Nowadays if you love ROOTS REGGAE and want to hear NEW ROOTS REGGAE MUSIC more often than not you have to be willing to accept CRUMBS; hollow echoes of the past; or at best the last dieing embers of the once mighty FIRE. But here my friends on "Reggae Knights" crumbs and dieing embers are most definitely not what you get.

On "Reggae Knights" the imperious and venerable duo ISRAEL VIBRATION serve up a veritable BONFIRE of ROOTS REGGAE - UNCONQUERED ROOTS! As Marcia Griffiths recently said "music is not just entertainment fun & dance it's a message that you're sending to teach, educate and uplift". On "Reggae Knights" Bulgin and Spence fulfil all these prerequisites and tick all the boxes.

Spence opens things with the spiritual "My Masters Will" then Bulgin follows with paradoxical "Dig Up the Ground" and this is how the LP cleverly unfolds the torch passing from one songwriter and vocalist to the other. Like two old card sharps Skelly & Wiss spa and vie carefully, each trying to out trump the other as the record ebbs and flows.

To back up Israel Vibration there is a massive cast of musical talent; Errol "Flabba" Holt (Roots Radics) and Robbie Shakespeare (yeah) on bass; Dean Fraser (last seen in majestic form blowing his sax with Tarrus Riley) is on majestic form here especially on "Take it Slow". Dwight Pinkney (Roots Radics) and Steve Golding (Chalice) working off each other guitars neatly on the biblical "Walla Walla" and the relative youngster, drummer Kirk Bennett (Beres Hammond's Harmony House band) drops in seamlessly with the older crew.

But the strength of Reggae Knights stems from the songs of Skelly & Wiss; songs of truth, wisdom, spirituality and humility all backed with exquisitely conceived harmonies. The album even has a reworking of what was intended to be their first single back in 1976 "Bad Intention" long overdue but certainly worth waiting for. The only two tiny flaws are track 7 "NYC", which is slightly incongruous in comparison to the rest of the piece and hampers the flow somewhat; and the final track "Original Gangster" which really is in conflict with everything else on the album; but perhaps I'm being hyper critical here.

REGGAE KNIGHTS has an assured poise that is something rare in any musical genre today, it doesn't need contrived hyperbole or hype; it's just not that sort of record. It's simply a GREAT ROOTS album; it will find its place, because its truthfulness is undeniable. Like all REAL music should, but rarely does, Israel Vibration's Reggae Knights contains music that entertains, teaches, educates and UPLIFTS. Listen, cherish, & believe! ROOTS REGGAE is unconquered the FIRE is BURNING STRONG.

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