Chezidek is an artist who took a few albums to get going but is now a byword for quality in roots music. He hit a high point with fifth effort for NYC’s Bobby Konders Inna De Road (2007) and continued with I Grade For Sly and Robbie (2009) and Judgement Time (2010) for the Netherlands pairing of Jah Solid Rock and Not Easy At All productions. His latest for Jah Solid Rock – this time using a conglomerate of musicians including Austria’s House of Riddim – might just be the equal of Inna De Road.
The heavily produced and quantised angular feel of Judgement Time is replaced with more of a living breathing sound to the instruments with a soulful groove to the basslines. Also where Judgement Time, excellent though it was, never quite re-struck the bar set by openers Ganja Tree and Live and Learn, the songwriting here is consistent across all 12 tracks – two of which are dubs.
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