U-Man - Folk Riddims flac mp3 download

Reggae music and its influence are now international, being made in every country in the world. But where many producers get stuck in repeating the old and familiar, Laurent “U-Man” Ugolini and his Down The Bush label do not.In fact, Down The Bush music could scarcely be described as any genre – melding smooth jazz, skittish beats and free range floaty sounds. This loose yet tight, anything goes approach has reached its culmination in latest release Folk Riddims – where U-Man’s irreducible ingredients meet the Rastafarian lyrics of Jamaican artists Sizzla Kalonji, Wild Life and long-time collaborator Squidly Cole.Cole - drummer extraordinaire and son of rocksteady pioneer Stranger – kicks off with Digital War, on a tough roots reggae rhythm inspired by Dennis Brown’s classic Down In The Tenement Yard. But the album soon changes direction: as Squidly reminds us that Jah Love Is Great over some cool Rhodes driven lounge room soul - mixing cultural upliftment with nursery rhymes and nonsense scat. This refusal to be pigeon-holed is perfectly suited to U-Man’s second guest - none other than Sizzla Kalonji. The man of a million rhythms teams up with Squidly for Can’t Sit Down to an army of mechanical claps, metallic synth groans and John Barry-esque strings. Next – and most heavily featured - is Sizzla’s fellow Caveman sound graduate Wildlife, leaving behind the traditional roots reggae of his own solo work. Here his deep gruff voice sings out amidst heartbeat drums, wolf howls, and snake charming sax for the swirling Vampires. In a glorious paradox, he asks the ladies to link him in the real, rather than the online, during the decidedly digital hybrid My Place. The final guest, Austrian polymath Nomadee, tells everyone to “Do Your Thing” – as simple an explanation of the U-Man philosophy as you’re going to get.Call it ancient stories in the modern world. Call it what you want. U-Man and his friends do it their way, and are sure it’s like nothing you’ve heard before…Angus Taylor.