Some good stuff over at skykicking on bashment. (It’s the august 1st entry, the archive linking seems to be mashed up).

Pretty bizarre to talk about bashment in terms of “albums” though?! Seems peculiarly rockist. Riddims and sevens, mate! Riddims and sevens!

Sean Paul works best when mixed up with Elephant Man, TOK and a host of others on a killer riddim. If you do that, then his good looks and tones only act as one colour in a pallette of others which include Elephant Man’s gruffness and TOK’s harmonies… or whatever.

It’s true that SP has been elevated by the music business as being a star in his own right, above everyone else, and this includes strategies like not including his cut of Diwali on the one riddim LP (which did include Wayne Wonder). But that doesn’t mean that people will see it like that. Indeed, perhaps seeing it like that is a trap we should actively avoid.

“Higher Level meanwhile is one of the most addictive, consistently engaging albums I’ve had the pleasure of hearing this year, its near-kaleidoscopic array of sounds and grooves lending the album a near-definitive feel, as if this album could stand in as a representative for where exciting pop sonics in general are at right about now. Certainly I’m tempted to cheat by making it in my top five album list for the year, despite it coming out in late ’02.”

Without being a total pain the arse spotter, “Run For Your Life” (with Jarvis Church, which he quite rightly gives a righteous poptastic thumbs up) came out on seven in 2001! (Same label as the Nelly Furtado tune which is the penultimate track on my mix).

“Crucially though, there’s a real sense that this music could go (is going) in a hundred directions.”

Amen.