Customer Reviews

Only King Selassie

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My review is not as comprehensive as the other two reviews but the message is the same; this is a great album. Ras Shiloh's voice has matured wonderfully over the years and this album is strong. It is not over produced and the rhythms are tight. He comes like a young Michael Rose or Junior Reid on this album. I mostly listen to roots (1972-1978), but I was looking for something more up tempo. Only King Selassie was exactly what I needed. I loved the track over the Sleng Teng rhythm.

ONLY KING SELASSIE: Some people I know have always written off Ras Shiloh as a Garnet Silk imitator, and it's impossible to escape the comparisons because his voice and his intonation are almost identical - but I think they're missing the point, which is that over the best part of a decade now, the New York City native has been bringing some of the biggest vibes in roots reggae, and while he's not been the most prolific recording artist, he's always favoured quality over quantity and definitely marked out a path as a leader of the roots revival - the beginning of which, ironically, can be traced back to Garnet Silk himself in the early nineties, a time when badmen bossed the dancehalls and the vibes were all guns, gals and gangsters.

This is actually Ras Shiloh's second long player this year (didn't I just say he's not the most prolific?), following the very well-recieved COMING HOME, which was released by VP back in May. At the same time, it's also Greensleeves' third recent release with legendary King Jammy's, reviving some of the producer's biggest and best rhythms from the late seventies through the eighties. The previous entries in this series - Sizzla's WATERHOUSE REDEMPTION and Natural Black's JAH GUIDE - were both acclaimed among the respective aritsts' finest work, and ONLY KING SELASSIE clearly deserves a similar reception.

From start to finish, ONLY KING SELASSIE is a classic roots reggae record. It's not flashy, it's not fussy, it's just straight-ahead, high-grade reggae goodness. As I described Natural Black's recent LOVE GONNA CONQUER EVIL, this is the kind of record where you can just push play, sit back and nod away. There are certainly some highlights - the powerful opener SEA OF LOVE, the downright divine MAN FROM THE MOUNTAIN and the stirring title track all come immediately to mind - but the overall quality is very consistent. The album's only combination is the mighty MAMA AFRICA with the always on-target Lutan Fyah, another highlight for sure, as is the surprising sound-system style TO THE KING. It's not all about the rootswise vibes either, as Shiloh also voices two or three first rate lovers lyrics, including the excellent GIRL NEXT DOOR on Jammy's classic WATER PUMPING rhythm, and the closing SO PROUD. For me, only the slightly awkward sounding SLENG TENG update, JAH JAH LIVES fails to score, but it defnitely rattles the crossbar on its way over.

To sum up, there's not much more I can say about ONLY KING SELASSIE. Plain and simple, if you like roots reggae music, then I can pretty much guarantee you'll like Ras Shiloh's latest long player.

Reggae music has always been (unless your name is Marley) a very free-wheeling genre of music. The absolute tangible goal of the music has been to produce top notch singles which may or may not ultimately attract the attention of labels and other forms of management which may or may not lead to an album. The annals of reggae artists are filled with names of top notch and high quality artists who have never (and seemingly will never) released an album; check names like Roundhead, Steve Machete, Military Man & Jah Thunder and Delly Ranks. Yet, there is a small, yet powerful core group of reggae artists who actually seem to harness and build the absolute best of their vibes towards an album. You won't find names like Sizzla, Turbulence, Jah Mason or Anthony B amongst this group, quite the opposite are those artists who do CONSTANTLY seek to maintain a very high level of activity and their (overwhelming number of) albums tend to come by virtue of having done enough material for a single producer who then shops said material as an album. The group of artists I'm referencing here is a group which doesn't necessarily have a song burning up the charts at all times during a given year, and when they do, most likely the tune happens to be a single from a recent, or forthcoming album. Easily the most well known of this breed of reggae artist is without a doubt Sean Paul. Having signed to his major deal, Sean Paul can go virtually ignored on the dancehall scene between albums, save for a few releases here and there, yet he manages (of course) keep his audience, which is largely international based and used to such practices from their artists. To a lesser degree over the past few years has been Capleton. The Fire King, as expected, is nowhere near as overall as active as he had been as recently as a half decade ago. However, the collective reggae listening community, both in Jamaica (and if you have an album which can actually do well in Jamaica, you are doing something VERY seriously well) and abroad STOPS when it comes time for the Prophet to release a next piece (which should be happening in 2008). The other top notch artists who have NORMALLY followed that route have been Baby Cham, Morgan Heritage and of course Lady Saw (although Cham seems to have strayed from the plan this year, releasing two boomshots the year AFTER his album). Finishing out 2007, yet another artist has seemingly added himself to this list, the sickly talented Ras Shiloh.

To say 2007 has been a good year for Shiloh would be an understatement of nearly mammoth proportions, despite the fact that his name hasn't been exactly glued to the reggae singles charts. Instead, the New York born Ras Shiloh has made the strength of his entire 2007 on an album which arrived in May, the MASSIVE Coming Home for VP. Coming Home was an album which came as somewhat of a surprise, coming a rather long four years after its most immediate predecessor (From Rasta to You, also for VP), and not with much actual fanfare an anticipation. The album, which was recorded for the legendary Bobby Digital, was easily one of the most well executed projects of the entire year and it will rank exceptionally high come time for the best of 2007 talks. Coming Home on its own merits would have been enough given Shiloh's track record of not necessarily being the most active singer on the scene. BUT! Once again (much like both Lutan Fyah and Jah Mason from 2006) Ras Shiloh comes back for the second half of the year with the second largest reggae label for the year, Greensleeves, with Only King Selassie. Speaking in terms of comparisons, with the free-flowing nature of reggae music, we have had similar years for artists previously; besides Lutan Fyah and Jah Mason from last year. Most notably, the `double year' is most usually associated with the 1997 of Sizzla Kalonji where during a period of a day more than two months, Sizzla released the two albums with which he is STILL, over a decade later most closely associated, the classics Black Woman & Child and Praise Ye Jah. We've also had similar years from some of the more prolific artists over the years such as Luciano, Junior Kelly, Midnite and other artists releasing albums from every corner of the earth, keeping fans (such as myself) very busy in tracking down each and every one. And NO I'm not marking Shiloh's 2007 as high as Sizzla's 1997 by any means (and Sizzla is by far my favorite artist, should you think I am going there (and watch who does get the absolute top prize of album of the year on my list)), you simply cannot deny the absolutely wonderful material he has pushed forth this year, even extending into the `album-phobic' Jamaican airwaves. On the wonderfully packaged Only King Selassie, Ras Shiloh reaches with his fifth solo release to date (he actually made his debut in 1996 on the very very hard to find Ras Shiloh & Idrens Chant album. If you are at all unfamiliar with Shiloh's style and his vibes, the artist with which he is most associated (and the one he lists as his greatest influence) is the late, great Garnet Silk. If you aren't REALLY paying attention in fact, you could easily mistake some of Shiloh's tunes as actual tunes from the legendary Manchester native. So much in fact are two similar (and I'm not talking in the case of Luciano/Bushman similar where the pitch and range are similar, Silk and Shiloh, sound alike and the vibes are somewhat alike as well) that I have in the past confused friends with a Ras Shiloh tune into thinking that it was actually Garnet Silk doing the singing. Certain to say, wherever Silk is today, he is absolutely proud of what Ras Shiloh has done in keeping the vibes very strong which he made his life's work in establishing. And Shiloh definitely isn't just a Garnet Silk wannabe, over the years he has definitely established his own vibes and himself as one of the singers to keep an eye on (especially should you be so fortunate as to see a Ras Shiloh stage show, wonderful!).

Ras Shiloh has always been so fortunate to work with some of the very best in the business. Spending a great deal of the early portion of his career voicing for a myriad of producers before ultimately finding a home with legendary dancehall producer Donovan Germain of Penthouse Productions. His last three albums, including this release have all been helmed by legendary studio men, with this latest release for Greensleeves, Only King Selassie, being produced by none other than the king himself (not THAT king), dancehall pioneering producer King Jammy as he opens his incomparable vault of riddims and a few new pieces for Shiloh (King Jammy has been much more active as of late on the album side having produced albums for Sizzla, Natural Black and now Shiloh in the past eighteen months). By comparison, where Coming Home was a much more dynamic and bigger vibe and while it hardly ever swayed from being straight forward roots (as he rarely does, if you're looking for something a bit different from this singer, check the Listen Well album however) it was more of a big sounding album. Only King Selassie is MUCH more meditative and an album which requires more detailed listening (as the title might suggest). The album opens with the very fine Sea of Love which is pretty much a short autobiography and it somewhat shows his rather complex writing style. Shiloh's lyrics are about as much `constructed' as they are plainly written. And a song like Sea of Love goes to show it finely. While the song doesn't even rank amongst the album's strongest tunes (and it is still very strong, which says a lot about this album) it is the type of song which slowly but surely begins to grow on you after awhile due to the fact that if you actually listen to what he is saying, you really can't help but me interested in some way or another and in the end, the song is superbly executed. Immediately following the opener is a song which is similar in terms of observing Shiloh's rather atypical brand of writing reggae. So Much Heathen does actually ascend to the heights of Only King Selassie as one of its best offerings altogether from the album. The song, musically flows over a smoking Jammy's classic vibes, and lyrically is up to Shiloh's standard very high fare as well. Although, as I said, OKS is much more of a deep and meditative style, it isn't exactly ALL devoid of flare, and the first sight of genuine flare it offers comes on the third track, the very very lovely Man From the Mountain. At first, the song simply reminded me that Shiloh's MAMMOTH Rastaman in the Hills had yet to be added to any of his albums to date, but then as you really dig into the piece, you realize it as one it is, a simply powerful track pushing the vibes of OKS (albeit in an almost overwhelmingly CALM style).

Pushing the vibes even further on Only King Selassie is the middle of the album which offers a stretch of seven tracks which literally had me losing track of time the vibes are so strong. Beginning with the repatriation/uplifting anthem (the ENTIRE album could probably be described as one huge `repatriation/uplifting anthem`) Rastaman to Africa. Built over Jammy's classic I Love King Selassie riddim, the song has a huge constantly building vibes and is actually my choice as the album's second best tune overall, very very solid! The title track follows and it goes to highlight some of the better melody work Shiloh exhibits on the album. It definitely is one of the few songs here which you will literally might not be stuck on the wording so much (lyrically, its much more of typical modern roots fare) and actually just enjoy the vibes alone with the very lovely and strong one drop, definitely one of the head boppers on OKS. Hardcore Steppers is more classic King Jammys, classic instrumentation and a powerful powerful tune! It is actually an unusual tune a bit as the first verse isn't exceptionally strong for Shiloh's standards, however, I found myself arriving at a point midway through the second verse where it seemed to receive a serious boost in the vibes, very nicely. Also on the track, Shiloh adopts a slightly varied style of vocals and at times he sounds like (good friend) Bascom X (check the Coming Home album for a real combination between the two with The New Rising Day). Also check the nice introduction of backing singers on the track. The fourth song in the strong stream of vibes in the middle of OKS is the album's only combination and my choice for the album's finest tune overall as well. Mama Afrika features a combination with hottest of the moment cultural chanter Lutan Fyah. The two make a dynamite pair over the pounding track which leaves nothing to be desired! Its very interesting that Fyah is actually an artist who can arguably match Shiloh in terms of lyrical ability, having been breathing absolute knowledge over tracks since he first came on the scene. Mama Afrika is a track which definitely needs to be heard, absolutely worth the price of admission alone for this one and would surely love to see the pair work together (also would love to see Lutan Fyah as the next artist with whom Jammys works with on an album). The last two tracks in that stream include the very powerful Jah Jah Lives (aka Heights of Heaven) which is an older song here which I was happy they chose to include over the timeless Sleng Teng riddim. And lastly in that streak is Praises to the King over the Real Rock, it really isn't as strong as the other tracks musically, but the way the song is composed (again, with Shiloh's unusual style), where he isn't just using the phrase for the sake of praising, instead, the song is actually a ingenious lover's track which you definitely need to spin a few times and should have couples on the dance floor.

The song which immediately follows the middle of the album and begins the conclusion of Only King Selassie is easily the most fun track on the album. In yet ANOTHER example of Shiloh's cleverness, To the King is a track which has a double meaning. The song is actually not a praising track to THE KING, but to King Jammys and is a classically vibed dancehall track and probably the best example of a changeup on OKS. Also check later on the wonderful and classic Don't Deserve My Love, one of the bigger tunes here overall, as well as the very strong Girl Next Door over the classic Water Pumping (So Proud isn't bad either!)

Overall, ultimately I cannot recommend this one for anyone besides the roots heads out there. Should you find yourself not falling in that category (which means a fan who is well entrenched and in love with modern roots reggae (probably classical in this case as well)), then Only King Selassie isn't for you in the slightest bit. And, despite it being similar to the From Rasta to You album, even that one is a bit more accessible than OKS. However, if you are in fact a deep fan of modern roots, and even more importantly, perhaps, a fan of Ras Shiloh, then you can do ABSOLUTELY no wrong this one. Its taken the vibes you loved on Coming Home and deepened it a bit, and took it back awhile. Only King Selassie becomes the best recent album of Jammy as well, as the legendary producer works wonderfully well with the singer. All Praises be to the Kings.