The first ten minutes of this are not like any typical reggae recordingI've ever heard. Entitled "Rastaman Chant," the first track is a seriesof religous messages and what might be mistaken for exotic African ormiddle-eastern instruments. This style, based on traditional Jamaicandrumming, is quite entrancing and provides for a mesmerizing firsttrack. Unfortunatly, after "Rastaman Chant," nothing quite compares.Many of the songs have what sound like cheap Casio keyboards backing uprather lackluster lyrics and making for a generally cheap feeling allaround. When Ras Michael decides to move into more familiar reggaeterritory, he brings along bits and pieces of the nyabinghi style aswell as some jazzy horn parts and more passionate lyrics. He alsobrings, unfortunatly, numerous remixes that are completely pointlessand that either vary in no way from the original or sound less inspiredthan the original mix. With these remixes taken off of the album, agood twenty minutes is removed that makes the album shorter and thusmore enjoyable and easy to swallow. There are some good songs here, butafter a while it all begins to sound the same and, to be sure, thereare plenty of songs that are based off the same old reggae rhythm withlittle additions here and there. The solo horn parts on some of thesongs are a great addition and add a whole new element to reggae musicmaking it both mysterious and daring. It's just a same that so muchhere seems as if it were recorded with little belief in the power ofthe music being written. Also, the tracklisting seems to be totallyoff: it lists sixtreen tracks when I only count thirteen. The onlyexplanation is that the first three tracks are actually all one songunder the title of "Rastaman Chant." Ras Michael obviously has a ton oftalent and knows how to write decent music, so why he decided tosurround some strong material with a lot of wishy-washy, throw-awaytunes baffles me.Read More
