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Natty King - Trodding
Natty King - Trodding
A Triumphant return.
Sampler
Digitally released in July last year by Zojak World Wide and Digital Link International Inc. this album has somehow been shamefully overlooked and been allowed to slip under the radar. It sees Natty King joining forces with the masterful Kemar "Flava" McGregor (No Doubt Records) at the controls and this pairing of Kings vocal delivery and sound against Flava’s riddims bodes well together. The album is also, despite its download only format, the follow up to King's 2005 debut 'No Guns to Town' released on Insight. It has to be said as well that I think this is a collection of songs from the last couple of years brought together to make an album rather than a defined studio release, but I think that in no way diminishes the albums vibe.
Let's start with the riddims. What I like about Flava is how he seems to build his riddims, I find you can hear a lot of his influences from reggaes classic late 70’s era in them and I keep finding myself going that bit sounds like ….but then never seeming to able to tie it down. He appears to take very little bits or at least ideas from these old riddims, a piano from here, a flute from there a bit of brass from that then blends it together with his own style. This method means you end up with something that retains that classic feel yet still sounds new and exciting. This is especially prevalent in both the brass infused, dancehall styled ‘Police’ and the bass bubbling ‘No More War’.
A few of the songs on here also appear on the recently released Head 2 Head with Chezidek, such as Triumphant riddim opener ‘Trodding’. A tale of travelling back to Ethiopia, the Promised Land, while carrying the full weight of the injustices of the wicked, more a spiritual point rather than actual repatriation. The shimmering ‘Jah Name’ has a strongly uplifting vibe while ‘Mi Black Bredda’ is a song of genuine unity and love, with a catchy as hell chorus.
In fact a few of the songs here have catchy choruses. ‘Fit Yuh Afi Fit’, a song of remaining not just physically fit but mentally as well to survive in today’s world plus 'Rat-Ta-Tat', possibly the best track on the album, after just a couple of listens will have you singing along and embedding themselves in to your psyche.
In short this is an album that has contains a conscious heart set to some of the best rootsy feel good riddims around.
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