Highlanda.net Introduces First Event of 2009 – INTIMATE

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by Hip Hop, History, reggae • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Event: Intimate – Birthday, New Year’s, Holiday Celebration

Location: The Bentley’s at 3665A Clairmont Road, Chamblee, GA 30341 US
When: Friday, January 2, 10:00PM

3665A Clairmont Road Chamblee, GA 30341 US

3665A Clairmont Road Chamblee, GA 30341 US

Highlanda.net is ringing in the New Year on the 2nd of January, 2009!  Celebrate the arrival of 2009 and party with the birthday boy himself, Highlanda co-founder Super PEC and all his sexiest friends.  Special birthday shouts go out to all Capricorns and holiday season babies.

The Bentley’s, with its quality sound and lighting, along with ample dancefloor space, provides the perfect intimate setting for mingling, drinking, and dancing the night away.  The location is one block down from Dreamz ATL Night Club on Clairmont Road so its near to downtown Atlanta, and also close to the northeast and northwest greater Atlanta suburbs.

“This will not be your typical Atlanta Friday night party.”

The dress code is stylish and sexy with no athletic wear allowed and this will be enforced.  To ensure that each guest has a pleasurable experience, Highlanda.net respectfully reserves the right to refuse entry to those whose appearance and demeanor does not meet our standards.

Musically, they’re bringing back the winning musical formula of 70% Reggae/Dancehall, 20% Soca, and 10% Hip-Hop/R&B so you already know what to expect.  Due to the sheer hype and exclusive nature of this event, early arrival is strongly recommened!

Cherine Anderson In Washington For Celebration of Barack Obama

by reggae • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The twenty-something talent is excited about performing in Washington, come January 19 and 20, as part of the celebrations to welcome North America’s 44th president, Barack Obama into office.

“The song is called Barack Obama, which features reggae-rocker Michael Frenti and hip-hop group Soliloquists of Sound,” Anderson tells Splash in an interview on Wednesday.

“We never recorded it, we just did it live in a couple of spots,” she says, “a couple of people from Obama’s camp saw us performing and became really excited about it and made a couple calls.”

That aside, Anderson is also excited about her first official project – an eight-track EP – which is set to be released during this holiday season.

“We decided to put it out in order to give fans a taste of what to expect on Kingston State Of Mind,” Anderson says of the EP aptly titled The Introduction Dub Style.

With well-rotated singles like Good Love, Coming Over Tonight (featuring Chuck Fenda) and an ambitious mixtape Street Anthems behind her, Anderson is hopeful that the “new stuff” on the EP will go over well with her listeners. And if her tours are anything to go by, it already is.

“We’ve been getting really good feedback from the tours, Australia, Europe and North America. I believe there is even greater anticipation for the album now.”

The Introduction – the first project on her still-new Dancehall Soul label – she says is currently available at her shows only, but should be available at online stores like iTunes and Amazon before year-end.

And speaking of the year, Anderson admits she’s had a great one, since ace producers David Norland (who has worked with Madonna) and local heavy-hitters Sly & Robbie have been behind all her productions.

“Right now I’m just busy, busy promoting my new singles Shine On Jamaica and Talk If Yuh Talking,” Anderson adds, “they’re both songs to encourage and uplift and Jamaica needs that right now!”

What’s next for the bluesy ‘divette’? Lots she tells us. “It’s back to Philadelphia this weekend, doing some work with Wyclef Jean. got a couple shows to do in Vancouver, Canada ahead of Washington in January,” Anderson notes. But her busy schedule and spending Christmas away from her loved ones on The Rock seem a small price to pay for the sake of her art.

“I’m having so much fun, 2008 has totally surpassed everything that I expected. I’m having the time of my life.”


SOURCE: dubtunes.com

Rare Gems Found In Reggae Vault

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by reggae • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The lastest installment of Highlanda’s Reggae Vault Classics podcast starts off with singer/deejay Shinehead singing a cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean over an instumental that has become known most commonly as the Billie Jean riddim.  Sanchez’s solid lover’s rock hit from the 1990s, My Sweet Lady, follows on the riddim with as a nice of a mix as  will hear.  At this point in the mix, if you don’t feel the warm embrace of the rub a dub bassline, you may want to upgrade the speaker system you are listening on.  Billie Jean rolls on with tunes by Yami Bolo, Garnett Silk, Sizzla, and Wayne Wonder before the Nitty Kutchie, Bounty Killer and Terror Fabulous provide a rudeboy finale.

The next tune is Train to Zion, performed by Linval Thompson on the Death in the Arena riddim and this is where I would say Highlanda begins to expose rare gems.  Following that gem is Tenor Saw/Nitty Gritty sound a like, King Kong with Trouble Again, one of his biggest tunes.  The more commercially known mid-90s version of this riddim, known as Champion of the Arena is next featuring just the Bounty Killer, Long or Tall, and then Garnett Silk’s Splashing Dashing.

Garnett’s silky smooth voice on Retreat Wicked Man is next and takes us further into the Vault as the following transition welcomes the voices of reggae’s Crown prince, Dennis Emmanual Brown alongside Junior Reid singing lyrics that are prominent even in today’s dancehall, “No Dance Nah Keep Again, a just modelling…”

The next mix which brings in a remix of Night Nurse featuring U-Roy, Dennis Brown, and Gregory Issacs in combination, is the only part of this episode that sounds a bit rushed –  I was really enjoying the D. Brown/Junior Reid.  This however more uptempo version of Gregory’s Night Nurse may not be familiar to many listeners so the tune  has some exclusivity value to it.  Not Because I Smile which is sung over an extremely vibesy version of the Rockfort Rock riddim makes it two Gregory Issacs’s in a row.  The transitions that follow include a Wayne Wonder and a Bounty Killer on the same riddim – Well Done!

One thing to note here is that not only are you hearing selections you may not have heard in years, but these classics are being played in the traditional Brooklyn inspired style of Highlanda’s selector Kahlil Wonda.  Big ups go to King Addies and Earthruler among others for the inspiration.  Reggae Vault Classics episode 4 ends off with three songs on the Shank I Sheck riddim, also from the 1990s, and as Sanchez fades out my only complaint is that the mix was too short.

Reggae Vault Classics (Tuesday, December 16, 2008)

1   Billie Jean – Shinehead
2   My Sweet Thing – Sanchez
3   Hot Stepping – Yami Bolo
4   Bless Me – Garnett Silk
5   Big and Bold – Sizzla
6   Only You – Wayne Wonder
7   Down In The Ghetto – Bounty Killer/Nitty Kutchie
8   Ole Dog – Terror Fabulous
9   Train To Zion – Linval Thompson
10  Trouble Again – King Kong
11  Long or Tall – Bounty Killer
12  Splashing Dashing – Garnett Silk
13  Retreat Wicked Man – Garnett Silk
14  Dance Nah Keep Again – Dennis Brown/Junior Reid
15  Night Nurse – U-Roy/Gregory Issacs/Dennis Brown
16  Not Because I Smile – Gregory Issacs
17  Childs Play – Wayne Wonder
18  Disrespect – Bounty Killer
19  Jah Power – Tristan Palmer/Beenie Man
20  World Too Haunted – Bounty Killer/Junior Reid
21  Down In The Ghetto – Bounty Killer
22  Brown Eye Girl – Sanchez

Reggae_Vault_Classics_4.mp3 (MP3 Format Sound, 59.5 MB)

Estelle Is Here To Stay

by Hip Hop, reggae • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Estelle

Congratulations to Estelle on earning 2 Grammy nominations this year including “Song Of The Year” and “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” both on her work with Kanye West on ‘American Boy’.  Good luck Estelle!  I am feeling this new artist.  Unique and original – visit the links below for more about global pop sensation out of the UK, Estelle.  The soulful single ‘Come Over,’ featuring Sean Paul, is a bonafide reggae lover’s anthem for 2008.  Check out the music video for ‘Come Over‘ if you haven’t already and look for the debut album entitled Shine.

via YouTube – EstelleOnline’s Channel

Greensleeves Reggae Label Finally Posts A Profit

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by reggae • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Greensleeves Records and Publishing, the Middlesex, UK-based reggae recording label, reported it’s first profit in years. Greensleeves’ new president Olivier Chastain, explained that the profits were due to increased sales and business improvements such as office consolidations, outsourced distribution, and reissuing sections of the label’s back catalog. The news is seen as a possible revival in a previously-shrinking reggae industry.

“The main focus has been to improve sales and marketing. This has brought the company back to profitability since June (even though we have a lot of liabilities dating back to [our previous ownership by UK-based Zest Group] to cover),” said Chastain in an exclusive interview with Splash.

The declaration was made a mere 5 months after rival VP Records acquired Greensleeves from the Zest Group in February 2008. Zest sold Greensleeves at a loss of £738,000 since it’s purchase of the label in 2006, even though the Greensleeves catalog had grown during the 2 years of ownership.

Administrative costs led to much of the label’s losses under Zest; as part of the VP acquisition, Greensleeve’s US and Japan offices were merged with VP. Chastain himself was previously the head of marketing at VP and was promoted to his new role during the labels’ merger.

Greensleeves is the world’s largest reggae publisher, selling reggae hits in the US, Japan, France, Germany, Benelux, Canada and Scandinavia. The label’s back catalogue includes 400 albums and 900 singles, and they intend to reissue as many as possible, according to Chastain: “We invested in a major catalogue reissue programme to ensure that all of the back-catalogue is available for sale; we started putting out new products such as Fantan Mojah‘s new album or Sizzla‘s Best Of.”

The Greensleeves hit list is long and growing: in addition to past successes such as Elephant Man‘s first 3 albums, Ward 21, and Vybz Kartel‘s 2004 debut, the label has signed new deals with current reggae and dancehall artistes such as Busy Signal and Etana.

Chastain is cautiously optimistic about the label’s turnaround, declaring that “it will take a year or so to start seeing concrete results but the early signs are extremely positive. On the music publishing front, we signed a lot of writers to Greensleeves Publishing (Llamar Brown, Busy Signal, Etana, Shane Brown, Fantan Mojah, Demarco, to name a few), changed some of our administration deals internationally, invested heavily in marketing the catalogue and changed our internal computer/royalty management software.”

The infusion of Queens, New York-based VP Records’ strong management style seems to be living up to their slogan of “Miles Ahead in Reggae Music.” VP Records also owns the 17 North Parade label that has made frequent appearances on this site.

Via the Jamaica Observer.

Reggae Vault Classics Podcast Series – Episode 2

by Podcasts, reggae • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Highlanda Sound has put together something for the fans of that “Finest Years” era of dancehall. Reggae Vault Classics is here to represent the foundation of the music.

Listen to an episode and you will hear right away that Reggae Vault Classics features only classics mixed and blended so you can turn up your speakers or headphones and get lost in Kahlil Wonda’s mixes.

RVC Episode 2 starts off with Dennis Brown singing ‘Stop the Fussing and Fighting’ on the Real Rock riddim.  The mix also includes tunes on some of the biggest riddems ever such as Stalag, Far East, Swing Easy, and The General.

English: Reggae Singer Dennis Brown in Paris, ...

English: Reggae Singer Dennis Brown in Paris, France Français : Le chanteur de Reggae Dennis Brown à Paris (Palace) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Expect to hear artists and selections you don’t hear everyday, or maybe even every year for that matter.  The selection order and mixing are masterful, which makes it easy for anyone to enjoy, whether you are a dancehall novice or a foundation reggae enthusiast.

Click here to Listen: Reggae Vault Classics Episode 2.

1   Stop the Fussing and Fighting – Dennis Brown
2   Drop It Cool – Terror Fabulous
3   Putting Up Resistance – Beres Hammond
4   He Is My Friend – Luciano
5   Know Jah – Tony Rebel
6   Ganja Song – Spragga Benz/Baby Cham
7   Sensimelia Persecution – Buju Banton
8   Every Knee Shall Bow – Garnett Silk/Cocoa Tea/Charlie Chaplin
9   True Love – White Mice
10  Send Them Come – Terry Ganzie
11  Murderer – Buju Banton
12  Cold Blooded Murderer – Capleton
13  Nuh Have No Heart – Bounty Killer
14  Blood Stain – Pinchers
15  Reality – Shabba Ranks
16  Tune In – Cocoa Tea
17  Here I Am – Sanchez
18  Are You Still In Love With Me – Sanchez
19  Dances Are Changing – Barrington Levy
20  Ever Changing Times – Alton Black
21  Goodie Goodie – Colin Roach/Galaxy P
22  Kill A Sound – Quench Aid

 

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