CD is cool, especially REGGAE CD

 

As you know, I am selling my vinyl collection. Roots, dub, steppers and the like I dealt for a mini-sound with my friend Puli, founder of Taxi Sound, and a good part of hip-hop/ragga vinyls landed at Busa P. The truth is that I could no longer fit them in the room, so I had to choose, and the CDs won. In most of my sets I play only CDs, sorry. Since I could not find many reggae cd groups on Facebook, I created one!

 REGGAE CD on the RUN!

 In this group, I try to make a review on one (probably two) reggae CDs per week, so it will be worth watching. The group is bilingual (English-Hungarian), it will be linked to this page, two posts are made at the same time, one in Hungarian, one in English, click on to which you would like. The title of the records always gonna be the link of the release where you can listen to/buy the record (this will mainly be the bandcamp page of the artist/label, if it doesn't exist then YouTube wins.) Of course there will be a couple of curiosities, and the discogs price/values are also added. So, if you like cd format and reggae, you've come to the right place! And the first CD:

 Knotty Headz - Forgotten Roots (2008, self-released)

 I haven’t thought much about where to start. I think Knotty Headz was the very first truly authentic modern roots band from Hungary to reach international stages as well. During their short activity, they recorded an album, unfortunately for some reason the mastering (in my opinion) was not very good, so the record is a bit quiet, but the quality of the songs makes up for everything.

For those who have been following the history of Hungarian reggae for a long time, I will tell you no secret that back in the days the names of Afro-Soul and Knotty Headz often appeared next to each other on concert posters,flyers. I helped the band as much as I could, and they were inviting me to play my sets before and after concerts. (Afro-Soul Sound).

 Krecsmáry - Kálmán + compositions by the other members: Roots with quality!

 Zsolt Krecsmáry wrote the lyrics one by one in English/patois, he is also the lead singer-ragga voice, and he was sitting behind the drums as well. The songs were composed mainly by Zsolti and the keyboard player Andris Kálmán, but of course the other members of the band, especially Ábel Regős, contributed a lot to the compositions. The brass section was led by saxophonist Anna Garay.

You don't have an easy-to-digest record of hit songs in your hands (if you're lucky enough to have one), but almost an hour of high-quality, live music that respects roots traditions and is influenced by jazzy vibes.

 The instruments breathe, let’s listen the whole album from beginning to end!

 My favorite tune is Blood Around, Zsolt sang a version of it for me on the rockfort rock riddim, but actually the whole album is worth listening to! What I like about this record is that the instruments breathe in the songs, so they can show how talented they are. A good example is the intrumental composition called Skank Dem.

 Afterlife: Music still plays a central role in the members' lives

 As I already mentioned, the band didn't exist for long, but it made quite a few people dance to their roots music, and almost sold out parties everywhere we went. The two best-known members of the band, Zsolti and Kálmi, play in many bands today: PASO. Los Orangutanes (Krecsó), Európa Kiadó, Sun Ma (Kálmi), but their real love child is the reggae formation called Manaky, which can perhaps be called the supergroup of Hungarian reggae.

 The others haven’t moved away from music or creative activities either: Ábel (Pici) is less active, but he still plays guitar as a session musician on the Manaky recordings, but his main activity is mainly making music videos as a film director. Anna Garay (Anuci) uses what she learned at the conservatorium as an electronic music producer, while vocalist Borbála Ránki leads a music therapy workshop for children. Bassist Márton Vasvári is currently active as a jazz bassist.

 Only one cd is available on Discogs, otherwise you can listen to them on YT!

 As I already wrote, those who bought the cd back in the days, can feel lucky, because currently you can find only one copy for sale on Discogs. It costs 14 euros (approx.16 dollars) not including postage. So if you like what you hear in the youtube playlist, don’t hesitate because I might be ahead of you!

Secret hint: In case you own or you purchase this cd, make a digital lossless format, hence it was burned on a regular Verbatim CD, in years it can happen that you can't play the audio. 

 Sebestyen ‚Sebo‘ Szabolcs