Trinidad’s carinval is approaching, and the most important thing about this is the proliferation of roadmixes from the past few weeks. With a few percussion additions to a song, a good roadmix will drive people to move off the rhythm of clanging metal and whistles alone when blasted from soundsystems.
The roadmix for Krosfyah’s “Sugar Cane” from 2004 is an example of this and is one of of my favorite tunes across any of Caribbean genre. Below are two roadmixes should be mashing up the fetes, streets, and bedrooms of sad bloggers everywhere.
Tian Winter - “Crash” (2011)
I was initially just going to post the song by it self, but I’m very glad I figured out there is a video for this song. You’re welcome.
There probably shouldn’t be too much thought over this song. Mr. Winter really does just want a woman to crash into. But this song’s use of synths is appealing. It seems like a lot of current music from the Caribbean features excessive use of soft synths. Percussion driven riddims still exist, but it almost sounds like the Euro-trance model that has dominated the pop scene in the states has spilled over into the dance halls as well.
This song’s lead synth is beautifully accompanied by Winter’s “Ooohs” and “Aaahs” and just gives the music a great feeling. In addition, it’s still percussion driven and would still sound great for a road march.
Kerwin Du Bois - “Bacchanalist” (2011)
I meant to post this yesterday. Precision Productions did a great job with this riddim, implementing a little bit of an old school feel with the synthesized rhythm guitar. Kerwin’s exposition on his love for partying could easily become an anthem.
Soca Elvis - “Rum Doh Bother Me” (2010)
This is old but it continues the alcoholic theme from yesterday.
You can’t claim that rum doesn’t affect you if you:
- think you can walk on rum when drunk
- dance like that when you drink it
- look like you could be a spin-off series of Jersey Shore.
Gyptian - “Nah Let Go” (Feat. Allison Hinds) (Soca Remix)
Continuing my personal Soca Saturday tradition. Any sentence that goes beyond calling this “Hold Yuh pt. 2” might seem excessive, but current soca hasn’t made me want to dance (which isn’t difficult) since Scrunter’s comeback. But then again, this is only a soca track on the surface.
Finding 101.1FM’s online stream took me back to my youth (4-5 years ago). Shout outs to the pirates.
