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Sahra Indio - The Tru I
Sahra Indio - The Tru I
A modest yet beguiling album.
Sampler
Sahra Indio was born in Philadelphia, PA, and now resides on the Big Island of Hawaii. She began her musical career there back in 1993 with The Jahringa Reggae Band and released her first solo material in 1999 with “Osah Sista”. Sporadic releases then followed until recently with “Marijuana Music” in 2010 and “Kindah Collection” Volume 1 last year and now for 2012 she has released “The Tru I” on a joint venture between her own label, Olumeye Records (which is a Yoruba Deity, meaning “One Who Knows Honour”) and Roots Lab Intl Records
Sahra’s style has seen her described as a reggae version of Sade with the messages of Bob Marley and it is easy to hear why as she floats effortlessly a top the 12 tracks here (the 13th being a dub of ‘Im Not the Only’) that have within her sultry and bewitching tones stories and observations on current social affairs, the eccentricities of life and love that spill forth with real emotion.
The backdrops to her lyrics are all original and very contemporary supplied by a variety of composers from Hawaii, Italy, Austria, the UK, France and Jamaica with co-producer Digikal Roots blending additional instruments, as felt needed, then the whole thing has been mixed by Don Fe of Don Fe Studio and mastered at MIA Studio in Spain.
The albums opener ‘Big Fish’ and penultimate track ‘Natural Living’ act almost like bookends with both tracks having a dubby feel thanks mainly to being full of echoy effects while lyrically they focus on the virtues of 'conscious living'.
‘Humanity’ has something of a laid back feel with Latin guitar stylings supplemented by a fluttering flute which becomes more prominent on the declaration of love that is ‘Testify’, although this time augmented with a rocky guitar.
Pounding nyabinghi beats drive ‘Right Fight’ on with swirling synths and return of Latin guitar. The defiant and proud ‘DNA’ is another cut featuring nyabinghi but this time gentler and dressed with chiming bells before a deep throbbing dubstep style bass kicks in.
There are a couple of pro-marijuana songs here as well. ‘Roger Dat’ is a minimalist almost acoustic track with Sahra proclaiming her support for Roger Christie, an ordained minister in the Religion of Jesus Church, which regards, like Rastafarianism, marijuana as a sacramental herb and he is now being held in the Honolulu Federal Detention Centre awaiting trial on possession and trafficking charges. This is then followed by the more up-beat and appropriately titled ‘Pro-Marijuana’ which explains that it is “not just a weed to get you high” but has been used throughout the ages for many other useful purposes.
On listening to Sahra Indio sing I am surprised that I have not heard more about her, I am now however very grateful that I have and with each and every play this modest yet beguiling album is fast becoming one of my favourites of the year.
The album is available on CD direct from Roots Lab Intl and other major outlets.
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