Global Reggae Charts - Issue #4 / August 2017

global reggae charts
featured artist
SLOW MUSIC
We are living in times marked by speed. We are
always-on, the 24-hour news cycle is shaping our
perception of the world around us and ever-louder
content from all domains is trying to get our attention
at all times. This development hasn’t stopped
from music. Streaming services in combination with
smartphones have made huge parts of mankind’s
collective music library accessible at all times and
places. Slowly but surely, the now dominant form of
music distribution and consumption is influencing
artists’ production and release processes.
Famously, Drake chose to call its latest release
“More Life” a playlist, not an album. Instant audience
feedback, in the form of data provided by the
streaming services, influences marketing decisions.
When Atlanta rapper Future released his album by
the same name, the artist’s team quickly realized that
Mask Off was the most popular song among fans -
not the originally intended-as-single Draco. So, they
changed course and started promoting Mask Off on
the fly, including the production of a video. And the
creative process also changes due to the possibilities
that come with the fully digitized music world: Kanye
West, for instance, continued to make changes to his
2016 album Life Of Pablo even after its release on
Tidal.
All this illustrates: The music world, too, operates at
a faster speed these days. For the most part, that is.
Because every once in a while, you’ll find a project
that runs counter to the broad trend line (as it turns
out, those projects apparently tend to do well around
here at the Global Reggae Charts). Samory I’s debut
album Black Gold falls in this category of rarities.
Let’s dub them Slow Music. Similar to the principles
of the Slow Food movement (and other subsequent
Slow Living derivatives), Black Gold was given plenty
of time to grow and ripen.
The Wikipedia page on Slow Living states:
“People every day are constantly living at a fast pace
which is making them feel like their lives are chaotic
but with slow living they end up taking a step back
and start enjoying life being conscious of sensory
profusion.”
Even though I wouldn’t describe Black Gold as “profuse”,
at least not when it comes to its production, it
does indeed provide a lot of sensory enjoyment to
the listener. It is an organic album that’s full of analogue
musical goodness with a deep, rootsy vibe that
is reminiscent of a bygone era. On the LP’s 13 tracks,
the 27-year old Samory I creates a dense reggae
experience that isn’t beholden to today’s common
genre aesthetics - but is very current nonetheless.
This quality has a lot to do with the team that
Samory I assembled for the project. The production
was lead by Rory “Stone Love” Gilligan aka RoryStoneLove
(on whose BlackDub Music label the album is
released as well). Together, they made sure to work
with renowned musicians, for example Kirk Bennett
who provides his distinct drum play, legendary Saxophonist
Dean Fraser and one of the last performances
of the late Nambo Robinson on the trombone.
On the engineering side, too, the project gathered
notable talent. AnchorStudios’ Delroy “Fatta”
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global reggae charts | issue 4 / august 2017