Afro Riddim Sessions, Vol. 1

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:50:46 -0600

Featuring Anthony B, Prezedent Brown, Jah Mason, Kulcha Knox, and the new generation of Jamaican artists Modern Roots and conscious Dancehall judiciously melded with a Fine touch of ExCentric beats, percussion and trancemospherics.

An exploration in part of the connections between Africa and Jamaica,Ex-Centric Sound System’s Israeli-West Indian founder, bassist and producer Yossi Fine ended up recording this envelope-pushing album in Israel, Africa,Jamaica and the US, taking modern JA sounds to new and different zones.

Afro Riddims merges the Ex-Centric musical concept with the new generation of conscious Jamaican dancehall and current JA roots music.
The sound is at once old and new - young Jamaicans and elder statesmen.
It was a personal journey for Yossi and a new experience for these brethren riding atypical rhythm tracks.

Yossi traveled to Jamaica in the late nineties to experience the place (“a life-long dream”), never having any idea he would wind up with enough material of sounds from Yard for more than one album.

He immediately connected, bonded and “vibed” with Jamaica’s music and culture, and Jamaica connected with him.
Ever the trans-cultural producer, he was wise enough to bring on his trip (in more than one sense) both recent unfinished Ex-Centric tracks as well as a copy of Ex-Centric’s debut disc, the hip-hop/chill out/New York-and-Africa-meet-in-Jamaica Electric Vodooland (“A triumph of the collective imagination” – Amazon).

One night, Ibo Cooper of Third World was the host of “The Cutting Edge,”Mutabaruka’s late night talk show in Jamaica on IRIE-FM.
Ibo invited Yossi on the show for an interview. That and the two tracks from the different-to-Jamaican ears Electric Vodooland that got airplay on IRIE-FM sparked interest among many of the island’s producers, musicians and DJs.
Fine was invited to play on some sessions on the island – producer and bassist Clive ‘Azul’ Hunt, among others. He also quickly found that studiosin Jamaica were set up just like Yossi’s own back in Israel! (was it in his DNA?).
The next thing to impress Yossi was learning that DJs and singers had been writing songs based on the Ex-Centric tracks they heard.

Yossi never approached anyone to do anything in Jamaica, let alone voice tracks for an album. Roots singers and conscious DJs (with the exception of Anthony B and Prezedent Brown largely unknown in Jamaica at the time),came from nowhere and approached him. “The vibe was fantastic,” says Yossi.
“We were on the same vibe. We never discussed lyrics, but lyrically there was alot of common ground. Making the album was a very spiritual journey.Very magical.I never planned it.”

After being psyched by the interest that youths and elders were demonstrating in singing and toasting over the Ex-Centric tracks and with some assistance from people like Clive Hunt, Fine decided to “book” some studio time. Soaking up more Jamaican vibes almost literally from the soil, Fine began recording at North Coast Jah Mikes’ Kariang studios in Ocho Rios.
This was a former plantation house half converted into recording studio (sound familiar?). Yossi had difficulty sleeping at night because the room above the recording studio would buzz at night with bass so severe that it literally moved the bed across the floor.
There was no running water so every morning at 7AM the artists, farmers and whoever else was around would wake up and walk two miles to a cold river to bathe.
And just because you’ve booked studio time doesn’t necessarily mean anything, As regards recording, well, you wait until the vibe hits. And that could mean two, three days of waiting… for the vibe.
You record when the artists get the vibe and are ready– whenever that is.But then, out of nowhere,magic happens. Anthony B came in, wrote “Need Love Here” in a hour, and Recorded it in one take. No words were exchanged except “Could you double your chorus?”

“The way the album is edited, it’s the way I did my [DJ] sets,” says Yossi.
“It’s the journey of a DJ.” But a DJ who is also a keen producer that has been aware of reggae for years. Yossi’s mother took him to see Bob Marley in Paris in 1978, and that’s partly why percussionist Bongo Herman, drummer Barnabas and trombonist Chico Chin were called in to add vintage authenticity to this fresh collection of current Jamaican stylings,shaped and tinged by Yossi.

What does Yossi want for and with this album?
“It should elevate people’s spirits. A lot of the albums that you hear nowadays are not uplifting.They are very impressive, they make you want to shake your booty, but this will make your spirit dance. What you hear on the album is the spirit that happened while we were doing it.”

West Nile Funk

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:50:46 -0600

To create the ultimate african/funk, Ex-Centric Sound System put together the deepest grooves from Ghana and the NYC club scene. The songs and african element are sung over deep bass and drums, creating a new and modern sound, representing the culture of our times. Based on roots, yet moving forward. These downloads are available exclusively through our catalog.

Electric Voodoo Land

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:50:46 -0600

Ex-Centric Sound system's debut recording is a multi-cultural set that masterfully ranges from weighty, muscular dub to a sweet harmonized anthem, to a lullaby tribute to women raising children in embattled Rwanda.

New Music From Ex Centric Sound System on Calabash Music

Afro Riddim Sessions, Vol. 1

West Nile Funk

Electric Voodoo Land