This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean — featuring new music by Joy Lapps; Braveboy; Wesli (ft AfrotroniX); and Keba
Joy Lapps
The Girl in the Yard (Joy Lapps Music)
Steelpan Music Records is back. Toronto, Antiguan-born Joy Lapps is offering a new engagement with the steel bowl that is welcome after the dearth of new material for the instrument in recent years. This new album, her fifth since her recording career began in 2006, sees the development of a wider palette and range of musical environments in which the steel pan has been placed. One hears rhythms and sounds in these originals that are part of the multicultural milieu of her Toronto setting: metropolitan motifs that mimic the presence of the Caribbean, latent Latin American atmospheres, blazing electric guitars and brilliant musicians. One hears Andy Narell’s melodic template on “Josie’s Smile,” including cuatro, bottle and spoon in a vintage Caribbean look; as a bonus, he solos here. Lapps’ presence as a female lead on a steel pan recording is rare, on-trend and welcome. Her story. Our joy.
Braveboy
Braveboy Meets World (Bravehouse Band)
Self-described vocal chameleon Trinidadian Braveboy (he does it all: singing in the Caribbean over hip-hop and trap music, rapso aesthetics and soca lyrics) has rounded up his global collaborations with artists near and far from his Caribbean moorings. An avatar for a connected contemporary music universe, (Marcus) Braveboy has hit on a formula that seems to position him and his music somewhere and everywhere where vernacular and island accents can create pleasurable listening and, more importantly, connection trade that last. DJs and electronic musicians from Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa (more than a dozen in all) work with Braveboy to create dance tunes that throb with perfect rhythmic intensity and indulge in devilish urges to dance and sing along – to all flavored with that island cadence. Afrobeats, soca, reggaeton and dancehall are mixed with shake ‘n bass, trap and many other EDM beats. Caribbean fusion on steroids.
Wesli (ft AfrotroniX)
Bontan Iyalele (Cumbancha) • Single
Haitian superstar Wesli, a long-time resident of Canada, is preparing a new two-album series – tradition – which will be an exploration of authentic and modern approaches to music with Haitian roots. This second preview track follows the new direction of the music, mixing electronica with traditional. Dubstep meets a modern African pulse – provided by pioneering African DJ and producer AfrotroniX – and Haitian yanvalou rhythms, Voudou chants and rara drums to create a sound that has a global label and an Afro-Caribbean heart. The song, sung in English and Kreyòl, is described as a message of resilience and a song of courage for his countrymen who cross the border into the Dominican Republic due to the insecure nature of Haiti. You gotta know where you’re from / Know where you stand / You gotta do what you say / Keep your promise everyday. This song is the last step of the new sound of Caribbean music.
Be careful
Loco for Coco (Plays by itself) • Single
Trinidadian singer Keba, now based in Florida, has released an anthem for black women in this new single. With a title that hints in a double-calypso way about carnal desire and fear, the song’s narrative shifts. Musically described as “a cross-cultural fusion of island music with elements of R&B/hip-hop”, the song is slow enough to get across the message of women’s sexual agency and marginalization in America. Its accompanying video uses the folkloric character of La Diablesse, an anti-heroine temptress, as a visual metaphor to remind all men of the “look, don’t touch or else” directive. She raps: So I miss you with the off-color compliments / Pretend you know a thing or two about immigrants / All this talk about my little accent / I don’t need a man, I need a new President / Or was I in your dreams wet, in 2016 / When you voted to make America great again, huh? BOOM! Microphone drop.
