Tarrus Riley And J Boog: Major Riddims
A great reggae producer is a master of disguise: able to make listeners unaware that the 10 tunes they’ve just heard share a single beat. That’s because the building block of dancehall and contemporary reggae is the rhythm — in Jamaican parlance, riddim: a digitized beat over which dozens of artists record original songs. It’s music-making as a dare: How far can you stretch a single beat, using just voices and melody?
One reggae producer feted for mastering that dare is Don “Corleon” Bennett, best known for his “one-drops”: slow, mellow riddims in which the snare and bass drums are hit only on the third beat, in 4/4 time. Two very different tracks from Bennett’s latest production — Major and Minor Riddim’s “major” half, which features a traditional one-drop groove, punctuated by dancehall-style drum and bass — flaunt this mastery. In “Wildfire,” roots-reggae singer Tarrus Riley delivers a passionate plea for Jamaica, written around the time of some deadly shootings in West Kingston.