The idea of a milestone album is pretty laughable if you’re Midnite. After all, with so many albums so many miles have been covered that marking any temporary resting place as one of special significance makes little sense.
But Beauty for Ashes is a milestone of sorts for those involved. It’s the first of a trio of long-players helmed by Tippyof St Croix’s I Grade Records using rhythms by US/VI production troika Zion I Kings – the follow-ups being byPressure and Lutan Fyah (both featured here). Despite a decade old association with I Grade, it’s also a landmark in that it’s Midnite’s most accessible effort since the up-tempo JA style roots of 2011’s Andrew Bassie Campbell production Kings Bell.
As with Kings Bell Midnite keyboardist and musical director Ron Benjamin is not producing the music and singer/lyricist Vaughn Benjamin’s dense reasonings are laid over less languid, more conventionally classic roots backings. Zion I Kings rhythms possess a meditative depth that can be likened to the Roots Radics with a temperate, distinctly non Jamaican feel. The horns and guitars evoke cool misty mornings in ancient tropical lands – while the drum and the bass pitch and roll like ships on choppy seas.
Midnite’s reputation for prolific issuing of their recorded output is matched by the amount that stays unreleased. Several tracks originally considered for the project have been culled in the process of its making and the final ordering is as sure and flowing as can be.
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