- The Yaad N Abraad Riddim is a continuation in a series of releases under a reggae and hip hop music project called Vital Sound from Melbourne DJ/Producer Monkey Marc scheduled for 2018 which began with 2017’s excellent ragga dancehall No Surrender Riddim.
All the original artist recording sessions took place in Kingston, Jamaica in November 2016 and voice multiple vocal cuts over the same instrumental track, known in Jamaican reggae music culture as a riddim. All cuts on the riddim feature the vocals of the next generation of reggae artists coming out of Jamaica including Dre Island, Aza Linage, 5 Star, Iba Mahr and Earth And The Fullness and are part of a roots reggae and social revival movement in Jamaica that began around 2012 with artists such as Chronixx, Jah9 and Protoje.
Lead cut from the riddim Yaad N Abraad with Dre Island, laments the effect of poverty in Jamaica brought about by political corruption and the underpinning social injustice that is prevalent within his own community, and now worldwide.
Cold City from 5 Star, is a powerful description of dire state of affairs in Jamaica and calling on those responsible to be brought to justice. Come Out with the heartening and haunting uplifting vocals of Iba Mahr, the most established of the artists on the release, is a call to the youth to be nonconformist and arm themselves with a determination to make a change, Prosper, by another young emerging artist called Aza Linage features smooth tasteful vocals and -like Iba Mahr- carries a message for the youth to participate in bringing about social change within the ghettos in Jamaica. Final cut Living In The Joy from reggae band Earth And The Fullness featuring Olivia Wilmot on vocals comes in with a message about love and spiritual consciousness and the fulfilment that comes from keeping on a righteous path.
With Monkey Marc utilizing an array of vintage analogue production equipment such as an MPC3000 and Dynamic Space Expander he creates a reggae riddim track that has a rough and heavy edge to it The lyrical content of the Yaad N Abraad Riddim depicts the harshness and hope of life in Jamaica or in Monkey Marc’s words “both the darkness and the joy” and all vocal performances are strong. In short, it's another world class production from Monkey Marc coming out of Australia and getting real attention both in Jamaica and abraad!!
-Basmati Kasar.